In just three years, Princess Diana went from being a young woman living on her own for the first time to the mother of an heir to the British throne. It was a difficult transition for Diana, whose marriage to Prince Charles had been rocky from the beginning. But in this week’s episode of DYNASTY: The Windsors, cohosts Katie Nicholl and Erin Vanderhoof explore how motherhood was Diana’s anchor during the turbulent years of her life—and how her influence has shaped the two mothers who have followed in her footsteps, Kate Middleton and Meghan Markle. Though Meghan and Kate have chosen radically different paths, both mothers have tweaked the Windsor traditions to make them more child-centric.
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According to historian Carolyn Harris, royal women have long been asked to see motherhood as a diplomatic role. At the beginning of the 20th century, royal babies were born at Buckingham Palace, and a government official was often present for the birth. This happened when Queen Elizabeth gave birth to Charles in 1948. For the early years of his life, the queen was often abroad with Prince Philip, and when she became queen in 1952, she struggled to balance the job of being Britain’s monarch with her role as a mother. In this episode, Tina Brown—former Vanity Fair editor in chief and author of the new royal blockbuster The Palace Papers—explains that Charles had a lonely childhood when the queen was busy with work. “Work-life balance wasn’t in the script in the ’50s for the queen,” she says.
By the 1980s, labor and delivery had moved to the Lindo Wing at St. Mary’s Hospital, and media attention soon followed, leading to the iconic footage of Diana presenting Prince William to the world in June 1982. As Diana adjusted to motherhood, she devoted herself to treating William and his younger brother, Prince Harry, as normally as possible, and in the nearly 25 years since her death, the brothers have spoken about how her warmth was pivotal to their upbringings.
So when William and Kate had Prince George, they moved into the Middleton family home with Kate’s parents, Michael and Carole, to ensure that he spent his early days in a family environment. Tiffany Norris, author of Secrets of the Mummy Concierge, explains the allure of the famed Norland nannies and a few other ways that royals can change parenting to suit their needs. When Harry and Meghan had Archie Mountbatten-Windsor in 2019, they changed the script for royal birth even more radically—and it prompted a press backlash. How will their continental distance and differing circumstances affect the next generation of royal children?
Listen to the episode in the player above, and don’t forget to tune in next Tuesday, May 24, when DYNASTY: The Windsors returns with an episode about the Commonwealth and how losing Harry and Meghan has affected the royals‘ global reputation. Subscribe at listen.vanityfair.com/dynasty or wherever you get your podcasts.