Over the summer, royal biographer Ingrid Seward repeated an oft-told story about Prince William’s reaction to his mother’s infamous Panorama interview. The interview aired in 1995, when William was at Eton. The Eton headmaster basically allowed William to watch the interview alone, and William raged about it for days and weeks later. There are versions of the story where Diana told William about the interview before it aired, to prepare him. There are versions where Diana visited William at Eton after the interview aired and he screamed at her. Here was the version Seward told this past July:
It remains one of the most defining moments in modern royal history. When Diana, Princess of Wales, secretly recorded her landmark Panorama interview in 1995, her intention was simply to tell her side of a fractured story. But for her eldest son, Prince William, the public broadcast proved to be deeply devastating.
Speaking at a special live recording of HELLO!’s A Right Royal Podcast at the Taj 51 Buckingham Gate Suites and Residences, royal author and Majesty magazine editor-in-chief Ingrid Seward revealed that the broadcast triggered the worst argument the mother and son had ever had.
The young Prince, who was just 13 and had only recently started his studies at Eton College, was left completely blindsided by the TV special.
“He watched it at Eton in his housemaster’s study,” Ingrid told the audience in the hotel’s newly refurbished Ballroom. “He was absolutely furious with her, as well as embarrassed and humiliated. When he next went back to Kensington Palace, he had a huge fight with her – it was really their worst-ever fight. It was all very dramatic, but they did eventually make up. Still, at the time, it was an incredibly distressing and emotional experience for him.”
So now we’ve got a blindsided 13-year-old William seething over the interview, then getting into a “huge fight” with Diana at Kensington Palace days later? Well, ol’ C-Word had a new twist on this story during her interview, this week, on the Mail’s Palace Confidential YouTube show. Now she claims that William was so “upset” about it that he wanted to “put his hands around her neck” but “instead he just pushed her.” You can see the clip below. As the years pass and more of these stories come out, the more I believe that it’s been common knowledge for many years that William is violently temperamental. If he did assault his mother… gosh. Poor Diana.
🚨THIS WILL GIVE YOU CHILLS 🚨
Ingrid Seward says Prince William was so angry about Princess Diana’s Panorama interview that when he went back home from college, he wanted to put his hands around Princess Diana’s neck.
Ingrid says he then pushed her & they had a big… pic.twitter.com/rdyxarwLYK
— SK 💃🏾🕺 (@Rimmesfk) September 24, 2026
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He pushed her. Where have we heard *that* before?! Maybe Kate’s scar *coughprecancerouscellscough* came from the impact of whatever household item her head struck when “pushed” by Bulliam. I’ve always thought he threw something at her, but pushing works, too. 🤔
With friends like Ingrid who needs enemies. She is confirming that scooter has a propensity for DV. First his mother, then his brother. We also know about the cushions and possibly other things being thrown between him and Kate.
And yet…it seems to be framed as though it was Diana’s interview that was so atrocious, how else would W behave?
Curious why no royal commenters seem to point out that Charles’ Tampongate had happened years before this interview. THAT should have been humiliating and infuriating for a child, but no, apparently when the Windsor men misbehave, it’s fine. (Unless there are stories about William assaulting his dad as well? Please correct me if I’m wrong, but that’s not something I’ve ever heard.)
Yet when a son’s divorced mom shares her incredibly troubling marriage and fear that someone is trying to harm her, that’s the real justification for W’s violence. This family hates women.
Yeah, the tampon thing would have been much more humiliating for an adolescent, because it was so graphic and gross.
Will someone please come forward to tell us how William the Incandecent reacted to Charles’s interview 1994? Did he slap him? Push him? Yell and rage, throwing antiques?
I’ve heard the story about William pushing Diana, after this interview, for at least a couple of years now.
I still remember the mysterious drowning incident at KP that was never followed up on. Puts a lot of things into perspective, huh??
What!
Was it that Romanian girl (17 ish years old), Alisa Dmitrijeva that was found in the woods near Anmer Hall? It was on Royal property in 2011.
You know who else had a penchance for domestic violence? Johnny Spencer.
I’ve often wondered if William growing up got the worst of all worlds temperamentally. The Windsor appalling entitlement and arrogance and genuine apathy of almost everything, and the Spencer hotheadedness . Diana’s father apparently outgrew his thrown hands later in life but he was not easy on Frances in that 1st marriage.
Then With Williams position, when the Wales split – throw that manipulativeness in the mess, pitting mummy against papa and trumping them all with the queens indulgence. And then after Diana died. He had the dead mummy get out of jail free card. He was a good looking kid the next in line to the throne …he wasn’t accountable for anything in his life. And with the acrimonious separation then divorce and his mothers passing….man that’s a potent brew to concoct for anyone.
I have seen it said that William retains the most problematic aspects of both his parents and Harry retains their better qualities, more than once, throughout the years.
I’ve heard this story before. It’s been in circulation in the public domain for decades. No one has ever said it was out of character for William. And apparently afterwards Diana was really thrown for a loop and vowed that he needed help. And that he was not going to be fit to be king, without it, if ever. The interview really was the watershed. And Charles Spencer notes this in his book, that it was in theory possible for the two Waleses to keep doing their own thing, each on their own, but remain married, as they had done for three years before the interview. Everything that led to her death after divorce — being stripped of her security and effectively cast out — followed from that broadcast. And clearly her brother was crucial in bringing Bashir and the BBC to book for having deceived her, at her most vulnerable time.
Charles naming Camilla in his TV interview caused a lot of trouble. The PBs divorced. Diana’s interview was a reaction to Charles’ interview the year before. Under no conditions should have the Queen taken away security. Diana’s sons needed their mother around for one thing. She seemed to let Charles revelation be given a pass.
Yeah that story is nothing new, his violent behaviour when not getting what he wanted has been known since he was a child – many factors can cause that but the key takeaways were that a) it was absolutely enable by the RF and b) he’s never got professional help for it.
An inherent bad temper + enabled by the Firm + traumatic head injury = an uncontrollable William.
The golf club injury cannot be underestimated.
I’ve been aware of this story as well, but also with the addition that William brought Diana flowers afterwards to apologize.
Heir to some throne or not, I wish my child would. She was an empath, I’m a fighter. Lol.
I’m 60, barely over 5 ft 3 in and 115lbs. How I would wear my ADULT sons out if they put their hands on me. They know it and think their Mom is crazy. Hold that thought and don’t try me, try Jesus.
OMG what a pos. OMG who put hands on their own mother . What a disgusting human being. I’m more shocked how these people brushed off this details . It makes me wonder if there is way more about William ? No wonder louis learn this behaviour from William when he put his hands on his mother that too very publically.
I hope she wasn’t one of the people in the press who accused Harry of lying when he wrote about William assaulting him in a fit of rage.
While reading Seward’s account, my mind went immediately to Harry and the dog bowl. How could it not? She cannot fail to see the parallels.
So, another example of William pushing a close family member. This time his own mother. There is a pattern here which apparently started early as it often does in cases of domestic violence. I’m no fan of Kate’s, but that doesn’t prevent me from worrying about her and the children.
So how come Scooter was not bothered by his dad’s interview in 1994 where he admitted his involvement with Camilla (for the world to hear)? That forced Camilla and APB to divorce. Did Scooter care that his dad’s authorized biography criticized Scooter’s paternal grandparents. How come Scoot has the selective outrage?
I too was a child caught in the middle of an ugly divorce whose parents used me to hurt each other. I feel some sympathy here. Whatever we think of who William is now, we should have some understanding of child whose underdeveloped prefrontal cortex and emotional age simply wasn’t prepared for this trauma. I also had violent outbursts, (but as a girl I directed them on myself and my own possessions not other people.) I can’t help but feel that William could have been helped. Let’s not forget that Harry too acted out. But he found the help he needed to recover.
This is an insightful comment. I think William has huge anger within him. I think Harry has huge sadness. But, yes, you’re right, he was young. Shame no one ever helped him out of this emotional quagmire to find better ways to deal with conflict and confusion. He must be really difficult to live with or be around professionally.
Yeah, taken as an isolated incident I don’t really think this should be used against him. He was a young teenager in a deeply stressful situation who didn’t have the tools to cope with it. Unfortunately, he didn’t get help and seems to still have these tendencies as an adult. But that’s it’s own issue.
He told harry to pretend not to know him at eton. He had this disposition because he was treated as more special and believed he was.
Replying to Tessa. My sister told me the exact same – I had to pretend we weren’t related, even if her friends were saying “isn’t that your sister?”!
I think the issue with William is twofold – that he was always allowed to act like this with no restraints, no boundaries, etc. his behavior regardless of a divorce never seemed to be corrected – its not corrected now! No one seems able to stop him from doing what he wants every minute of every day.
But then also, if we have some grace and compassion for a boy caught in the midst of a very ugly very public divorce – which I think we all do – outside of his known behavior at that point – the follow up is why didnt anyone help him? why weren’t these boys in extensive therapy? Charles and Diana had both been in therapy by that point, it wasn’t a foreign concept to the BRF. What a difference some involvement along those lines might have made.
@Becks1 – All good points. We may never know when William crossed the point of no return with his behavior. I would hope that at 13, he was still able to find healing, had anyone given him the opportunity. That’s way too young to write someone off.
There is a VIDEO of William repeatedly elbowing his father in the back of his head like an automaton while his Charles asks him to stop. William continues doing so, totally ignoring his father. In front of a cameraman. I don’t think William was even 10 years old at the time. He’s seen on video manhandling Harry when Harry was just a toddler. And he was known as “Billy the basher” by the time he was three years old. William has always had serious issues and early intervention would have been hugely beneficial, but also lots of therapy in his later years. His behaviour has nothing to do with divorce.
This story of William assaulting Diana is not new. Shoving was the word most frequently used though. The hands-around-the-neck thing is new to me though. And nowhere was there ever any mention of William “apologising with flowers”. 😀 That was Kate, to Meghan, while Meghan’s friend was in the kitchen as a witness.
That was not the first time he hit his mother, or the last time. There also were reports of William screaming at his mother in subsequent years, including in the week she died.
Harry didn’t just write about William assaulting him. He also wrote about William “flying at” their childhood friends because one of them dared to suggest that there might be room for both brothers to do good work(s) in African nations (“Africa is MINE, Harold!”).
“He wanted to put his hands around her neck”, but “decided to push her instead”! Look up the statistics on a man who has strangled or put his hands around his victims neck.. if this was his first impulse when angered at that age all my red flags when it comes to Willy are completely warranted he is a very dangerous man, and I myself believe domestic violence and abuse is very common in his house(s).
https://www.domesticshelters.org/articles/identifying-abuse/strangulation-is-the-highest-predictor-of-murder
It’s the scariest red flag that should never be ignored, I sadly lived this and didn’t understand the danger I was in until I was being sheltered in a security gated domestic violence shelter for women.
He really might have been a bad seed from early on. Harry was even younger, but his trauma manifested as heavy partying and getting photographed naked, not violence against women. I said above I can sympathize but no I never hit a human or any living creature. I slammed doors and defaced my bedroom walls (oh man the trouble that got me) and I over time healed. So maybe my knee jerk
sympathy is misplaced.
William is probably a psychopath.
I really believe this might be the case
Thomas Kingston anyone?
@Hypocrisy
I’m so very sorry you had to go through that. I hope things got enormously better for you!
I firmly believe that the Diana’s panorama interview was a devastating experience for the adolescent then William and it was something that determined his later decisions in life such as his choice of a “bland” wife who’s ready to accept everything for the title of queen…it’s obvious that he has serious issues and i hope for the sake of his children to accept therapy…
I can certainly understand how traumatic this interview was for him. It’s not surprising that he felt exposed, embarrassed, and humiliated. But it’s very telling that his first instinct was violence. Not only violence but strangulation of his own mother. I’m guessing that he had experienced these violent rages before.
Was he not having those feelings when Dad made his confessions on TV in 1994?
Not to excuse William in any way, and especially not to excuse the Palace from apparently refusing to get him some therapy.— but for those asking why William would be so enraged at Diana’s Panorama interview in 1995, but not Charles’s revealing interviews the year before in 1994?
The reason may be as simple as when Charles’s interview was broadcast, William was not yet at Eton. He started at Eton the following year, before Diana’s interview came out. It was his first year there, & Harry wasn’t there yet.
So, if what William was so angry about is that his schoolmates would tease or bully him over it, then it seems likely that bullying would be much worse from the “Old Etonians” than from the kids in the protective bubble of Ludgrove, his previous school.
And it’s public knowledge that the Eton boys did tease William about Diana in the press specifically.
Which just goes to show, again, how little mental health support the Firm gave either of Diana’s sons.
Tom Parker Bowles got teased in school he was upset that charles named his mother as mistress. I am wondering why will didn’t get upset it was in the headlines
What exactly did Diana say that was so humiliating for William? I don’t remember her talking much about the boys and most everything she said about the marriage was public knowledge after Charles interview 1 year before. Nothing I remember from the interview was an obvious target for bullying W
13 is a very immature age. I know I was embarrassed by the mere thought of my parents having sex, never mind with other people lol! And then to have it talked about on national TV and quoted in all the newspapers for days and weeks? Where other immature boys can read it/hear it/hear it discussed by their own parents and then make the immature comments? I’d be humiliated too.
I still wouldn’t do ANY acts of violence toward either of my parents though.
Why “devastating” for William and not Harry? He was only a couple of years younger, yet we hear nothing about his reaction to the interview.
When she says that William “wanted” to put his hands around her neck, does this mean he actually tried? Huge red flag, either way.
Remember when that Times journalist slipped up on X and said something like “you wouldn’t believe how bad the truth is” about William? Well, I think we’re getting close to it.
I’m wondering where on earth Seward got this information— or is claiming that she got this information? I’ve no doubt that it’s true, but who would have told her? William at 13 — as a minor? An older William? Diana herself— who’s unable to refute it? Someone else? We’ve got one “journalist “ who’s delighting in being the center of public attention because of a slightly wrong date, and another who is so sure of herself that she’s revealing extremely problematic behavior on the part of the presumed future king, and she’s perfectly comfortable chatting openly about it? I don’t get this. Her sources must be impeccable, and willing to speak on record, if compelled to do so. None of this makes sense to me.
I do agree with @KristenfromMA — between his temperament, the childhood head injury, and an environment that seems to have enabled highly problematic behavior, the prognosis is quite troubling.
Ingrid claims to be a friend and confidant of Anne. I don’t know if it’s true, she at least never speaks about Anne. Can’t remember a scathing article about Anne’s children either.
I have to say on this occasion I feel for William. I despise William, he is obnoxious and entitled, however who on earth lets a 13 year old child watching an interview of his mother on TV knowing very well that there is an acrimonious separation going on between the parents.
This does not justify William attacking his mother Princess Diana. There are a lot of reports about William’s temper as a young child and Charles and Princess Diana’s unwillingness and inability to reign in William and his temper. It was left to the nannies. Not very succesful it seems. William still has not learned to control his temper.
This is a shallow comment, but is Seward trying to look like Camilla?
As for William, yes the desire to strangle someone is the most serious red flag. If someone tries to strangle you, you’re at high risk of being killed by that person.
William may have been just a kid, but he clearly should have gotten intensive therapy.
William is a known Rage Monster, so this is totally believable. It just makes you wonder about the bodies found on various royal properties.
Ingrid Seward is bat shit, unreliable and lies at the drop of a hat. I have heard versions of this story before. But saying a young boy put hands on his mother and pushed her is a serious charge. It’s the kind of thing that if it were untrue, William should nail her to the wall for saying such a thing. The fact that he hasn’t? Idk. I just know that ima need more than just Ingrid Seward to believe this. I just can’t remember who else has made this same claim . The laying hands part. Tbc, I’m not saying it’s not true but ummm it’s also Ingrid Seward.
That’s one ugly wig she’s wearing.
I have heard this story before. He’s always been a rotten, selfish thug. Can you imagine daring to get physical with your mother? He is thoroughly Windsor.
The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. Probably learnt it by watching how his shitty father behaved. I think it was Patrick Jephson (sp?) Diana’s former private secretary that told the story one evening then Prince Charles threw a boot jack at Diana in a rage barely missing her head. And don’t forget the ripping the sink out of the wall incident.
Bulliam is a violent thug. Just like his Pa!
Does make one wonder if William has better aim than his pa, dunnit?
There’s been red flag after red flag regarding William. I really believe he is so much like Trump, a malignant narcissist. It’s the worst kind of narcissist. They have standard narcissistic traits but with anti-social behavior, paranoia, and sadism/cruelty.
Anti-social Behavior: They display a total lack of remorse or guilt, and have no internal moral brake.
Paranoid Orientation: They view the world with deep distrust, frequently framing others as enemies or threats, which triggers explosive rage.
Sadism and Cruelty: unlike regular narcissists who merely seek admiration, malignant narcissists often derive genuine satisfaction or a sense of triumph from hurting, humiliating, or dominating others.
We’ve heard of his explosive rage, about how it seemed that he wanted to dominate Harry and almost control him, how he’s out to destroy Harry’s accomplishments, how fiercely he guards his privacy and distrusts everyone. I’m sure he has no remorse as well.
I feel Charles is just your garden variety narcissist, but William is your, more dangerous, malignant narcissist.
If this IS true, I am furious on Diana’s behalf. As if…. she’s not allowed to speak of her mistreatment? He pushed her?? (sound familiar? like when he tackled Henry!) This is reprehensible.
So that little piece of shit put his hands on his own mother in an act of rage? Willie has serious issues. I would NEVER raise my hands against either of my parents. I think the press is hiding things about William that would ruin him, thats why the royals keep throwing Harry and Meghan to the wolves. I never thought I would read something this bad about him. Attacking your own mother is on a whole different level.
This interview must have been really traumatic for a 13 year old. I honestly don’t think it was the right thing to do for her children but then again I don’t know how you would protect children in that situation or environment.
And yes, personalities are formed very young and if the trait is negative (like a short temples) you have to give that child so much love, attention and resources to help them understand their emotions and how to express them in a healthy way. I fear these boys were just basically ignored and how do you expect people to turn out that had zero guidance? Some have personalities that will turn out ok and some won’t.