can see she might have struggled and didnât fit in. It felt like a rat race compared to the paradise of St. Andrewâs.â
Not so far away, thirteen-year-old Prince William was also struggling to adjust to his new life at Eton College in Windsor. Whereas his parentsâwho had separated three years earlierâposed as a happy family outside Manor House, his boarding school, the public appearance, which was captured by no less than three hundred photographers, masked an unhappytruth. The Walesâs marriage was over, but their private lives were being relentlessly raked through in the tabloid press. Within Williamâs first term, he had to deal with reports that his mother was having an affair with Englandâs rugby player Will Carling and then a London-based art dealer, Oliver Hoare. He was mortified when Princess Diana gave a now-infamous interview to the BBCâs Panorama , during which she lifted the lid on her marriage and revealed her husbandâs affair with his long-term mistress, Camilla Parker Bowles, who was married to Andrew Parker Bowles at the time. âThere were three of us in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded,â she told interviewer Martin Bashir. To Williamâs horror, she also spoke candidly about her affair with former Life Guards officer James Hewitt, a family friend who had taught William and Harry to horse ride. Despite the collegeâs best efforts to protect the prince, many of his peers watched the program, and for weeks, paparazzi lurked in the shadows of Windsor Castle, waiting to get a shot of William, who would head there at weekends to stay with his grandparents. It was a difficult start for the schoolboy prince.
William managed to settle in and find his feet, but Kate did not. She hated the name-calling and practical jokes, which were part of the schoolâs rite of passage. Her father, Michael, who under duress had been âa fagâ (servant to senior pupils) at Clifton College, remembered how testing school life could be. As a young pupil, Michael had to wait on the older prefects, and he was tasked with shining their shoes, cleaning their studies, and making cocoa, or he risked being punished. He urged his daughter to follow the family mantra and âgrin and bear it,â but after a second term, it was apparent Downe House was not going to work.
As Pippa and James were still at St. Andrewâs and Kate had been so happy there, Michael and Carole paid a visit to the headmaster, Jeremy Snow, for some advice. He suggested that Kate might be happier at Marlborough College in Wiltshire, with its national reputation for sports and academic excellence.
So after visiting Marlborough, the Middletons took their daughter out of Downe House. Leaving halfway through the academic year could have had repercussions on her school reports, but there was no other option, according to Mr. Acheson, âThey did the right thing and pulled Catherine out when they realized she was unhappy. It was absolutely the right move. Marlborough was the right choice.â Being that it was an hourâs drive from home, it was agreed that Kate would be a boarder, which meant Carole and Michael would only see her for weekends every fourth week.
Set on the edge of a historic market town where it dominates local life, Marlborough College is an impressive collection of original buildings scattered around the beautiful Wiltshire countryside. The school, considered to be one of the most promising coeducational establishments in the country, was founded in 1843 for the sons of Church of England clergymen. The $44,000-a-year college counts the poet Sir John Betjeman; singer Chris de Burgh to whom Kate is distantly related through her father; the Prime Ministerâs wife, Samantha Cameron; and Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie as notable former alumni. Out of its fourteen boarding houses, it educates a total of 889 pupils from the ages of thirteen to eighteen, about
Not so far away, thirteen-year-old Prince William was also struggling to adjust to his new life at Eton College in Windsor. Whereas his parentsâwho had separated three years earlierâposed as a happy family outside Manor House, his boarding school, the public appearance, which was captured by no less than three hundred photographers, masked an unhappytruth. The Walesâs marriage was over, but their private lives were being relentlessly raked through in the tabloid press. Within Williamâs first term, he had to deal with reports that his mother was having an affair with Englandâs rugby player Will Carling and then a London-based art dealer, Oliver Hoare. He was mortified when Princess Diana gave a now-infamous interview to the BBCâs Panorama , during which she lifted the lid on her marriage and revealed her husbandâs affair with his long-term mistress, Camilla Parker Bowles, who was married to Andrew Parker Bowles at the time. âThere were three of us in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded,â she told interviewer Martin Bashir. To Williamâs horror, she also spoke candidly about her affair with former Life Guards officer James Hewitt, a family friend who had taught William and Harry to horse ride. Despite the collegeâs best efforts to protect the prince, many of his peers watched the program, and for weeks, paparazzi lurked in the shadows of Windsor Castle, waiting to get a shot of William, who would head there at weekends to stay with his grandparents. It was a difficult start for the schoolboy prince.
William managed to settle in and find his feet, but Kate did not. She hated the name-calling and practical jokes, which were part of the schoolâs rite of passage. Her father, Michael, who under duress had been âa fagâ (servant to senior pupils) at Clifton College, remembered how testing school life could be. As a young pupil, Michael had to wait on the older prefects, and he was tasked with shining their shoes, cleaning their studies, and making cocoa, or he risked being punished. He urged his daughter to follow the family mantra and âgrin and bear it,â but after a second term, it was apparent Downe House was not going to work.
As Pippa and James were still at St. Andrewâs and Kate had been so happy there, Michael and Carole paid a visit to the headmaster, Jeremy Snow, for some advice. He suggested that Kate might be happier at Marlborough College in Wiltshire, with its national reputation for sports and academic excellence.
So after visiting Marlborough, the Middletons took their daughter out of Downe House. Leaving halfway through the academic year could have had repercussions on her school reports, but there was no other option, according to Mr. Acheson, âThey did the right thing and pulled Catherine out when they realized she was unhappy. It was absolutely the right move. Marlborough was the right choice.â Being that it was an hourâs drive from home, it was agreed that Kate would be a boarder, which meant Carole and Michael would only see her for weekends every fourth week.
Set on the edge of a historic market town where it dominates local life, Marlborough College is an impressive collection of original buildings scattered around the beautiful Wiltshire countryside. The school, considered to be one of the most promising coeducational establishments in the country, was founded in 1843 for the sons of Church of England clergymen. The $44,000-a-year college counts the poet Sir John Betjeman; singer Chris de Burgh to whom Kate is distantly related through her father; the Prime Ministerâs wife, Samantha Cameron; and Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie as notable former alumni. Out of its fourteen boarding houses, it educates a total of 889 pupils from the ages of thirteen to eighteen, about
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