‘Good King Harry’: Diana felt William never wanted to be King and was ‘preparing the way’ for Harry to take the throne, RICHARD KAY reveals in new episode of the Daily Mail’s Palace Confidential

Princess Diana believed William ‘never really wanted the top job’ and quietly worked to pave the way for a potential King Harry, the Daily Mail’s Editor-at-Large Richard Kay has told Palace Confidential.

He has spent more than four decades at the Mail, devoting much of that time to covering the royal family as the paper’s royal correspondent.

Kay became a close personal friend of Diana in the final years of her life, going on to win the coveted title of Royal Reporter of the Year for his coverage of her tragic death in Paris in the summer of 1997.

He is widely believed to be one of the last people ever to speak to the Princess, having exchanged a final phone call with her on the evening of 30 August 1997, just hours before the crash that would claim her life.

Speaking to Palace Confidential host and former You magazine editor Jo Elvin, Kay revealed that Diana believed William, ‘a shy young man’ at the time, would grow up not wanting to be King.

+4
View gallery

Diana believed William ‘never really wanted the top job’ and quietly worked to pave the way for a potential King Harry, the Daily Mail’s Editor at Large Richard Kay has told Palace Confidential

+4
View gallery

Kay revealed that Diana believed William, ‘a shy young man’ at the time, would grow up not wanting to be King

+4
View gallery

Elsewhere in the episode, Kay looked ahead to what a William reign might look like and how it would differ from those of his father and grandmother before him

‘The generation I had the most opportunity to study closely is the William and Harry generation. They were babies when I started and it has been very interesting to see them develop.

‘William has been a bit of a surprise. Certainly when his mother was still alive, he was a shy young man. Diana used to tell me she never really thought that William wanted the top job.

‘In her mind, Diana was preparing the way for Harry to succeed his father. She had a little nickname for him, good King Harry. A throwback to medieval days.

‘Of course, things didn’t work out like that. I think we’re all rather grateful that they haven’t worked out like that.

‘I think the consensus is that we got the right one. We’ve got the right one in William as Prince of Wales.’

Elsewhere in the episode, Kay looked ahead to what a William reign might look like and how it would differ from those of his father and grandmother before him.

He believes William will have his work cut out, with the monarchy’s popularity among the British public at arguably its lowest ebb since the death of Diana.

+4
View gallery

WATCH: Princess Diana told me she was ‘preparing’ PRINCE HARRY TO BE KING

The Andrew-Epstein scandal in particular, Kay noted, has heightened demands for greater transparency from the Palace and reignited debates about the family’s finances.

William will therefore have to grapple with a ‘paradox’, Kay said, of satiating calls for a slimmed down, more modern and open monarchy, while preserving those elements that set the British royals apart from their European counterparts.

‘I think William is going to take on some of his father’s ideas. For example, slimming down the monarchy even more’, he said.

‘We will eventually become much more like the Scandinavian and European royal families, where they are not quite so involved in the daily life of those countries. Presumably, that will make the family less expensive to run.

‘The big question William has got to answer is: why do the royals have all these homes? Why do they need so many at a time of great financial difficulty for so many people? That sense of extravagance is bad for the family.

‘William is a young man who is appreciative of that – I think we have to be very grateful to the Middleton family, who have a terrific grasp on what matters to ordinary people.’