A Prince and His Princess Arrive: Charles and Di

(5 of 9)

Charles and Diana are not exactly two peas in a pod. He adores opera; she revels in rock 'n' roll. He plows through historical biographies; she leafs through romance novels. He loves polo; she prefers the pool. Yet they do appear to be in love. Assorted smooches in the woods and snuggles on the polo field are the public sparks of what seems a private passion. Their public displays of affection are thawing out the normally frozen reserve of royal protocol. Charles and Diana try to spend as much time together as possible. The breakfast hour is kept sacred; during their stay at the embassy, for example, they will probably not be intruded upon much before 8 and will take breakfast in their homey, three-room suite.

While they are both adjusting to married life, Diana has the added % difficulty of getting used to living in the crystal palace of royal life. In addition to the loss of privacy, the duties--opening factories, pressing thousands of hands, walking about dreary industrial towns--can be as tedious as they are arduous. The ITV interviewer, Sir Alastair Burnet, asked Diana whether she had anticipated that she would not even be able to walk down a street without kicking up a fuss. Her forthright answer: "No. I didn't."

Charles and Diana are determined to raise their sons as normally as possible, lest they become little potentates in a kingdom of petticoat power. One of the first signs of Diana's resolve was her decision to give birth to Prince William in a hospital, despite the Queen's preference that she lie in at the palace. Diana then chose a decidedly unstuffy and untraditional nanny named Barbara Barnes (Prince William calls her Ba-ba). Diana is not of the children-should-be-seen-and-not-heard school of absentee royal mom. She is a hands-on mother, and some palace observers say that Barnes is driven half- batty by Diana's frequent nocturnal visits to the nursery.

Diana spends as much time as she can with the children. She often plays with the boys in the morning in the walled garden at Kensington Palace, where there is a sandbox and a swing. Charles, who has less time, is far warmer with his children than his father was with him. (William calls him Daddy; Charles called his father Papa.) Recently Diana, concerned that she and Charles would be late for an appointment, found him in the bathtub with Wills (as William is known in the family), splashing about and having a jolly old time.

Diana and Charles decided that Wills would be the first royal heir to attend a regular nursery school alongside other children, classmates who may one day be subjects of King William V. Charles remembers the lonely hours he spent being tutored at Buck House and did not want the same for his son. Every morning, with a small flask filled with fresh orange juice, Wills trots off to Mrs. Mynors' nursery school, a terraced Victorian house in the multiracial Notting Hill section of London.