At the age of 13, Prince William faced the daunting prospect of becoming a new boy in a school that was almost ten times the size of his old one. That was hard enough.

What made his transition to Eton far more of an ordeal was that no one — from masters to pupils — could fail to be unaware of the open warfare that was tearing his parents’ marriage apart.

Unlike his prep school, where the head often pretended the news-papers hadn’t been delivered, multiple sets arrived on the premises daily — and William could simply no longer be shielded.

So it was doubly unfortunate that, almost immediately after his arrival, his mother’s love life was once again making lurid headlines.