In a new biography titled Battle of Brothers, which is all about Prince William and Prince Harry's falling out, royal historian Robert Lacey reports on a formative experience in the young princes' childhood. According to Lacey's research, Princess Diana once fired a nanny who had been with the family since William was a baby. The nanny, a woman named Barbara 'Baba' Barnes, was reportedly forbidden from saying goodbye to her young charges and forbidden from contacting them ever again.
In Battle of Brothers, Lacey writes that Princess Diana believed Barnes had become "too possessive" of her sons while working as their nanny. This led to her decision to let Barnes go. William and Harry, both young children at the time, were not allowed to say goodbye. "So far as the boys were concerned, she just vanished into thin air," Lacey reports.
During her time as the princes' nanny, Barnes reportedly "stepped in firmly to assert control" over their care and schedules. "Barbara guarded the nursery floor like the Vatican… It was her kingdom," a Kensington Palace staff member told Lacey. She "became something of a surrogate mother" to William and Harry, as well. Barnes even taught the boys how to "walk, talk and read."
Barnes spent a significant amount of time with William and Harry in their youth. She often "comforted them when they awoke crying in the night," and took them "away on their own “family” holiday without Princess Diana or Prince Charles. While they were traveling without Diana and Charles, Barnes "set the agenda every day as any mother would."
Despite William and Harry's fondness for 'Baba,' Lacey writes "less admiring observers felt that Barnes was getting too possessive with 'her' boys." Ultimately, this was an opinion that Princess Diana "came to share" over time.
The final straw for Princess Diana was when Barnes attended the birthday party of Lord Glenconner, on his Caribbean island of Mustique. Diana saw Barnes was "photographed alongside celebrities such as Raquel Welch and Princess Margaret," which led Diana to believe Barnes had "got above herself." When she returned to Kensington Palace, Lacey writes that Diana "brusquely informed her that it would be 'better,' as she put it, if Barnes departed." Diana then instructed "that the nanny’s bags should be packed and all trace of her removed," and forbid her from contacting William and Harry evern again—she was even banned from ever "sending them a postcard."
According to Lacey, Barnes' abrupt departure from their household had a profound impact on the boys. "Following the death of Diana in 1997, people remarked on how well the two young princes reacted to the unjust and unexpected removal of a mother figure from their lives—surprised, bewildered and distraught though they were," he wrote. He believes Barnes' firing gave them " a little practice" with loss.
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