When Prince William was eight he suffered a major blow to the head, leaving him with a distinctive scar. This scar, surprisingly, symbolises the ultimate breakdown of Prince Charles and Princess Diana’s turbulent marriage.
This is why…
Prince William’s head injury and scar
In June of 1991, Prince William suffered an injury to his skull when he and a fellow pupil were playing with a golf club in the grounds of their private boarding school Ludgrove in Berkshire.
At the time, Princess Diana was having a meal at her favourite Italian restaurant in Knightsbridge. It was here that a meal time conversation was interrupted by her bodyguard, informing her of William’s wound.
Of course, as a devoted mother, the then Princess of Wales left her friend, departed the restaurant and hurried to the hospital where the young heir would be treated.
Meanwhile, Prince Charles also made his way from Highgrove to the Royal Berkshire Hospital in Reading, to see his son, who had been taken for tests.
It was then decided William should be treated at Great Ormond Street Hospital for Sick Children in London. Thankfully, William was “chirpy and chatty” as he rode in the ambulance, with his mother Princess Diana at his side.
Prince William’s hospitalisation
Prince Charles reportedly followed closely behind in his Aston Martin sports car.
Doctors quickly discovered that William had suffered a depressed fracture of the skull and required an immediate operation.
“They made it clear that there were potentially serious risks, albeit relatively small, both in the operation and in the possibility that the Prince could have suffered damage to the brain during the initial accident,” royal biographer Andrew Morton documented in Diana: Her True Story – In Her Own Words.
Despite the seriousness of the situation, Prince Charles left his eldest son and wife to attend a performance of Puccini’s Tosca at the Royal Opera House in London.
The end of Charles and Diana’s connection
All the while, Diana was to endure awaiting the results of William’s 75-minute operation. Biographer Morton claims the abandonment didn’t come as a shock to Diana, who saw Charles’ visit to the opera as “nothing out of the ordinary.”
Diana anxiously waited for the procedure to be over, which she later described as one of the longest hours of her life, before Dr Hayward emerged and told her all had gone smoothly.
Elsewhere, Charles boarded the royal train for an overnight trip to North Yorkshire, where he was due to attend an environmental study.
At the time, a Buckingham Palace spokesperson said he stayed in close touch with the doctors looking after his son.
However, as Diana remained faithfully by William’s side and Charles departed, the media quickly observed how the future king had left his son.
Prince Charles returned to duties whilst William was in hospital
Consequently, snaps of the then Prince of Wales in the Yorkshire Dales hit front pages. As well as the the headline: “What kind of dad are you?”
Princess Diana was said to have seen this as a continuing pattern.
Morton stated that: “Had this been an isolated incident it would have been unbelievable. She wasn’t surprised.
“It merely confirmed everything she thought about him and reinforced the feeling that he found it difficult to relate to the children. She got no support at all, no cuddles, no affection, nothing.”
“The dramatically different manner in which the couple responded to William’s injury publicly underlined what those within their immediate circle had known for some time: the fairytale marriage between the Prince of Wales and Lady Diana Spencer was over in all but name,” concluded Morton.
Charles and Diana’s split
Of course, we now know Prince William made a full recovery and was discharged from hospital just two days later. He has since dubbed the remaining scar on his forehead, his Harry Potter scar.
Charles and Diana ultimately divorced in August 1996. Tragically, Diana died the following year.
