Prince William reveals the clever way Princess Diana would ease his ‘anxiety’ over ‘going back to school’

"It felt like a real family moment"

Princess Diana, Prince William and Prince Harry
(Image credit: Tim Graham Photo Library via Getty Images and Antony Jones/UK Press via Getty Images)

Prince William has revealed that Princess Diana would ease his ‘anxiety’ over ‘going back to school’ by playing 'all sorts of songs' on the drive there while 'singing at the top of her voice.'


Transitioning from the long, laid-back summer holidays into the back to school season can be a difficult for many families. Even those parents who are excited for their kids to get back into lessons with their best new school shoes and fresh-out-the-box school supplies, it's especially hard for highly sensitive children to get back into the swing of lessons and every Sunday can be accompanied by the 'Sunday Scaries' during back to school season.

Even Prince William wasn't immune to the anxious feeling when he was younger but his mother Princess Diana, who passed away in 1997, came up with the perfect solution to help ease his ‘anxiety’ over ‘going back to school,’ the Prince has now revealed. 

Prince William and Prince Harry both attended boarding school in their younger years, just like their father King Charles III despite Charles experiencing childhood bullying at school that once even left him with a broken nose. While it is unknown whether or not Prince George, who sits second in the royal line of succession, will attend the prestigious boarding school Eton College in the future, if he does, it's sure that William will employ the same tactic as his mother did to help keep him calm on the journey there. 

Princess Diana, Prince William and Prince Harry

(Image credit: Terry Fincher/Princess Diana Archive/Getty Images)

Speaking on an episode of AppleFitness+'s Time to Walk podcast in 2021, he shared, "When I was younger, Harry and I, we were at boarding school. And my mother used to play all sorts of songs to kind of while away the anxiety of going back to school.

"And one of the songs I massively remember and has stuck with me all this time, and I still, to this day, still quite enjoy secretly, is Tina Turner's The Best because sitting in the backseat, singing away, it felt like a real family moment.

"And my mother, she'd be driving along, singing at the top of her voice. And we'd even get the policeman in the car, he'd be occasionally singing along, as well. You'd be singing and listening to the music right the way out into the gates of school, when they dropped you off.

"And, and that's when reality kind of sunk in that you really were going back to school because before that, you're lost in songs."

He added that he often listens to the song now as it takes him right back to being in the car with his mum, saying, "You'll want to play it again just to keep that family moment going. When I listen to it now, it takes me back to those car rides and brings back lots of memories of my mother."

Princess Diana, Prince William and Prince Harry

(Image credit: Anwar Hussein/WireImage/Getty Images)

Diana's love for music still lives on in the Wales household, with William revealing how his three young children, Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis, all loving to listen to their favourite songs and often argue over who gets to pick what song is playing. 

On the podcast he shared, "Most mornings there's a massive fight between Charlotte and George as to what song is played in the morning. And I have to, now, basically prioritize that one day someone does this one, and another day it's someone else's turn. So George gets his go, then Charlotte gets her go. Such is the clamour for the music."

And even when the Prince is alone in the car, he still channels his mother's energy for music, though Tina Turner is not his choice for 'bleary-eyed' Monday mornings. "There's nothing better than, on a Monday morning, when you're a bit bleary-eyed after the weekend and trying to get yourself back into the grind of the week, listening to AC/DC, 'Thunderstruck'," he said.

"I have to say the first time I put it on, and I've heard it a million times now, I was kind of like, 'Well, this is quite heavy for a Monday morning.' But now, when I listen to it, it's the best tonic for a Monday morning. It absolutely wakes you up, puts your week in the best mood possible, and you feel like you can take on anything and anyone. 

"I'd imagine you're going to walk quite fast listening to it, maybe with a skip in your step, with the head-banging. It's a difficult song not to dance to or to nod along to."

News writer

Charlie Elizabeth Culverhouse is a news writer for Goodtoknow, specialising in family content. She began her freelance journalism career after graduating from Nottingham Trent University with an MA in Magazine Journalism, receiving an NCTJ diploma, and earning a First Class BA (Hons) in Journalism at the British and Irish Modern Music Institute. She has also worked with BBC Good Food and The Independent.