The Search for Privacy

By Anthony Faiola

Washington Post

 In the search for privacy, Prince William and Catherine, the Duchess of Cambridge, might be swimming against the tide.
Whereas the notion of a fairy tale and, later, a train wreck of a relationship drove public interest in Charles and Diana, the image of a modern young couple — at once accessible and a world apart, and seemingly able to do no wrong — appear to be driving the story. That interest seems set only to grow after the addition of the littlest Windsor.
Compounding that is commercial pressure for every detail of their life. A photo of the Duchess leaving a retail store with a white baby basket sent sales of similar items soaring. Ditto after the mere whiff of a rumor that she had chosen a sky-blue stroller. Pundits have called on her to “set an example” to women everywhere by breast-feeding. And the hot story line is that she isn’t “too posh to push” — as some had suggested — and will opt for natural childbirth. The question, many here say, is where to draw the line between reasonable privacy and duty to chronicle the royal family?
In some ways, William’s upbringing might be a model for a modern couple who most view as wanting to follow a path similar to Diana’s — she fiercely guarded the privacy of her sons but also wanted them to grow up as normal as possible. She took them on outings to McDonald’s and Disneyland. And unlike Charles, who went to a boarding school in Scotland, she and Charles sent William to the closer, if still quintessentially highbrow, Eton College near London. While William was at Eton, the family struck a deal with the tabloid press: They would back off in exchange for periodic updates on his life.
But will those periodic updates be quite as periodic with the baby, who will be third in line to the throne, regardless of the sex? During William’s early years, Arthur Edwards, a dean of the royal press corps who works for London’s Sun newspaper and is credited with a number of the most famous shots of Diana, recalls regular press calls by the palace for photo opportunities with William. There was the baptism. The day he took his first steps. His first international trip. But while Will and Kate will need and probably want a photo documentary of the life of a child who would be monarch, Edwards and others believe those calls are likely to be fewer and farther between.
“I don’t think we will get quite that access,” he said. “I suspect they will be more private.”