If you were William, how would you handle the Diana Legacy Awards from now on?

[Prydddan]

Would you distance yourself from it, on the grounds that it provides an opportunity for your estranged brother to take a poke at you?

Carry on, grey rocking the antics from Montecito?

Something else I can't think of?

(And before anyone rocks up to tell me to get a life, find something to do, take up a hobby - I'm having a quiet day today where I'll do what I fancy, so go take your own advice.)

Theres nothing on telly

@smilesy The fake photo saw them going mainstream. There are always corners of the internet with way out theories. I have read some on Royal threads on MN yesterday that I had never heard of before, but are now going mainstream.

Here are both boys statements after the Bashir enquiry. I hated how William called her paranoid because it dismissed everything she said in her interview to my mind.
Harry's statement was very different I thought

www.independent.co.uk/news/media/prince-william-prince-harry-bashir-b1851151.html

So? They were always there, mainstream or not. Armchair diagnoses

FWIW I think William used the word paranoia to mean that his mother was feeling victimised. He wasn’t giving her a clinical diagnosis or being dismissive. She was his mother so he probably knew how she was feeling. Especially as she used him as a confident. It’s a pity that some people want to insist he didn’t respect or love his mother as much as his brother did. I think he was deeply upset by the way she had been used and the distress she had been caused by Bashir, and was trying to express that. I don’t think he would want to dismiss what she said in the interview, more how it contributed to her state of mind afterward he meant that Bashir had exacerbated her sense of mistrust in those around her

edited typo

Best answer yet!

Didn’t Diana throw her stepmother down the stairs?

If that’s true that’s not a rational act imo whatever you may think of the person.

Of course I’ve no idea if true or made up afterwards to paint Diana as more unstable.

Definition of paranoid: "feeling extremely nervous and worried because you believe that other people do not like you or are trying to harm you".

Which is how William says Diana felt at that time. I really don't see any trashing of her, or him using that term to diminish what she was experiencing.

If he was saying 'Oh, she was paranoid, pay no attention to what she says!' it would be trashing, but pointing out that she was lied to and felt paranoid as a result of believing those lies is the opposite of undermining her, showing that he understood her fears and the rational basis for them.

Yes I am agreeing with you. But others are saying he was dismissive of her etc 🤷‍♀️

Go on trying to minimise. According to your definition (unsourced) William is paranoid. I am sure he is worried and anxious at the moment.
William was undermining Diana. Women speaking out are always undermined and crazy and paranoid are well worn ways of doing this. Crazy ex is a well worn trope for this reason.
I do think William is not very bright so he may not have realised exactly what he was doing. But he should learn to be professional.

@WatchOutMissMarpleIsAbout The Royal Family fed lots of stories to the press to paint Diana as the crazy ex.

And I do not think Diana was a saint. I think the deification of women in the public eye harms those women. So Kate is also not a saint.
Both are women with strengths and weaknesses like any normal human.
But always be wary when a man paints his ex as crazy. It is a well worn tactic that me use to undermine their exes.

Diana was being fed stories by Martin Bashir about Charles impregnating Tiggy Legge Bourke, her children’s nanny, and that he wanted both her and Camilla killed. She said herself she thought she would be killed. She stopped using her royal protection because Bashir produced (what we now know to be) forged bank statements showing her protection was on the make and selling stories about her. Contemporary accounts from staff describe her spending an awful lot of time holed up with William (Harry being sent off to the nursery, Charles being pushed out of the picture). William was old enough to know the state of mind of his mother before her death, just as any reasonably intelligent and unfortunately triangulated child of a disturbed parent does. He knew his mother. You people who think you know her did not and you certainly don’t know her better than her eldest child.

@Mymilkshakebringsallthepapstomycar Diana knew Charles had cheated on her and lied to her. A man (Bashir) told her Charles had cheated on her with Tiggy and made her pregnant. She believed him. It does not make her crazy to believe Charles had cheated again.
Bashir said to Diana that the Royal Protection Officers were selling stories. That may have been false. But lots of people she came into contact with did sell their stories to the press. It does not make her crazy to believe this could be true.
Diana spent time after her divorce in her house with her children. That does not make her crazy.

Divorces are hard for any woman. When in the public eye and your ex and their family are trying to paint you as crazy it is doubly hard. Diana, like many women, took refuge in her home with her children. But she was starting to emerge again and seemed happier and ready to move on. Then she died in a car accident.

She was a real woman.

Diana was certainly no saint. Neither are William, Harry, Charles, Camilla, Meghan or Kate.

It would be nice though, and fitting, if the brothers could at least try to bury the hatchet. In reality though, I don't see that happening anytime soon as things are running too deep and I find that sad. It's all quite undignified at times.

@BenefitWaffle

Any more examples of William trash8ng his mum, or it your interpreation of his "paranoi" remark the only example of him trashing her that you have?

To your initial question, I think the Diana awards should be perhaps something that her sisters take over if the brothers can't be actually united and grown up about it. They don't belong to William, they're in memory of a mother, who was also a sister and daughter, and friend to many.

Regarding how William spoke about his mothers paranoia, we know that this word is used to dismiss people and their behaviour in a disparaging way, more than a diagnostic term. If people are upset with Harry for sharing his own recollections of his family, I do wonder why William gets a pass to call his mother paranoid. I would be upset if any of my children used that word for me after I was gone.

I think her sisters taking over the award is an excellent idea, although I think it is unlikely to happen.

Source: Cambridge Dictionary.

Cambridge Dictionary gives a much fuller definition. You cut and pasted a section of the definition to justify the crazy ex trope towards Diana.

If I were him I would not go since he doesn't seem to respect his mother and her challenges with mental health. Didn't he say she was paranoid.

Bashir also convinced Earl Spencer, and Diana that Patrick Jephson, Diana's blameless private secretary and equerry who had served her so well for several years was taking money to spy on her.
She accused poor Tiggy of having an abortion when anyone with half a brain would recognise that Charles was wrapped up with Camilla and hardly likely to be having an affair with Tiggy.
She had phones checked and the apartment swept for recording devices.
I think it's fair to say she wasn't always rational and did have a sense of being persecuted. I think Williams's reference to her sense of paranoia was a fair comment. He loved his mother and would never speak ill of her.

As for Harry I think his and Meghan's behaviour trying to derail an awards ceremony in honour of Harry's mother, was disgraceful.

Most people can see it for what it was.

Anyway William was there in person, gave his speech, shook hands and spoke to all the winners. By the time Harry beamed in I expect everyone was ready to go home. Truly the spare support act.

Hopefully William is beyond getting angry and just rolls his eyes at the tedium of the ongoing toddler level behaviour.

Why is Diana having her apartment swept for bugs a sign that she is a crazy ex? She was spied on. She had photos taken of her using long lenses when she was on private property. A gym owner released private film to the press secretly taken of her. Lots of people she was in contact with did sell their stories to the press. I would have had my apartment swept for bugs as well.
This was before the phone tapping scandal was exposed and action taken against the press. It was the wild west days when very unethical means were used by some reporters to get stories.
That does not make Diana a crazy ex.

William can say what he likes about his mother @BenefitWaffle. He knew her and is entitled to have an opinion on how she was especially now he’s older and can view it through an adult lens. I imagine she wasn’t the easiest person to have as a mother (or Charles as a father!) and it was documented years ago that he was her confidant which must have been very hard for him as a child who shouldn’t have been made privy to his parent’s personal issues.

He was actually saying she was made paranoid not that it was an inherent part of her character as a slur.

Random members of the public who didn’t know her outside of a press article don’t have ownership of her memory or get to dictate what her own son says about her! Nuts!

It was a slur. And it was exactly what the Royal family had been saying for years to discredit her.
William can say what he likes. But when he is appearing at engagements he should be professional. If he wants to present Diana Legacy Awards he should be respectful towards her memory in public. What he wants to say or do privately is up to him.