(29 Sep 2000) English/Nat
STORY: PRINCE WILLIAM
LOCATION: HIGHGROVE, GLOUCESTERSHIRE
DATE: 29 SEPTEMBER 2000
A relaxed and confident Prince William, talking about his plans at a news conference Friday, said a book by Princess Diana's former chief aide was a betrayal of her trust.
'Of course, Harry and I are both quite upset about it - that our mother's trust has been betrayed and even now she is still being exploited,' 18-year-old William said during
a rare royal question-and-answer session with the news media.
Diana's former private secretary Patrick Jephson has defied the convention of courtier confidentiality and just published �Shadows of a Princess,� depicting his onetime
employer as manipulative, emotionally disturbed and occasionally cruel. Jephson resigned the year before Diana's fatal 1997 car crash.
Prince Charles and Queen Elizabeth II have deplored the book, now being serialized in a newspaper, saying it was bound to upset William and his 16-year-old brother Prince
Harry. William, casually dressed in jeans and a beige pullover, appeared unusually at ease in front of the reporters and cameramen gathered at Highgrove, his father's country
estate in southwest England.
Prince William also revealed he's heading for South America, joining an expedition to Chile on the next stage of his gap year.
The heart throb prince outlined his plans in his first face-to-face interview with journalists at Highgrove, his father's country home near Tetbury, Gloucestershire.
With the Prince of Wales present to lend moral support, a sometimes shy William faced the Press, posed for pictures and answered questions about his gap year.
18-year-old William said he would spend 10 weeks with a Raleigh International expedition in Chile during the year he is taking off before going to university.
He will travel to some of the most remote parts of Patagonia in southern Chile, where he will work alongside 110 other young volunteers on environmental and community projects.
William has raised the cash for the trip himself and has also raised the money to finance another boy from a less privileged background than his own.
William, who has just returned from Belize, and the paradise island of Rodrigues in the Indian Ocean, will fly to Chile to join the expedition.
Projects with which he will help include improving local buildings and constructing walkways.
The Prince, who scored an A grade in his geography A-level, will also carry out surveys to assist with map-making in the area.
He will take part in tracking rare species of deer to provide valuable information for nature conservationists.
The action-man Prince will also go trekking in the snow-covered hills of the region.
The Prince's travelling companion for part of the 10-week trip will be Mark Dyer, a former aide to the Prince of Wales, who has become William's close friend.
Sandhurst-trained Dyer, 34, a former temporary equerry at St James's Palace and captain in the Welsh Guards, has helped to organise William's gap year.
The young Prince chose to take a year out before studying for a degree in the History of Art at St Andrew's University, Scotland.
Find out more about AP Archive: [ Ссылка ]
Twitter: [ Ссылка ]
Facebook: [ Ссылка ]
Instagram: [ Ссылка ]
#princewilliam #royals #18thbirthday
You can license this story through AP Archive: [ Ссылка ]
