Spell of Privacy Has Broken for Charming Prince

LONDON —  Happy days are here again for Britain’s tabloids as Prince William comes of age and old hands-off agreements with the royal family expire.

Or, if not happy days, at least happier.

Having just celebrated his 18th birthday, William finished school this week and has reached adulthood with his mother’s captivating good looks and appeal among the popular press. The question now is whether he will be hounded by the media to the degree Princess Diana was--some say to her death.

New guidelines issued this week by the independent Press Complaints Commission give the media more latitude in covering the charming prince than they had while he was a schoolboy. But since Diana’s death in a 1997 car accident while fleeing paparazzi, the British public has little appetite for pursuit and harassment by the tabloids.

The palace knows that William is its best draw at a time when three-quarters of British youth says it would prefer a republic instead of the monarchy. The royals want publicity--but only good publicity.

Palace officials are doing their best to control William’s image. In honor of his birthday last week, they released a series of becoming photographs of him cooking, playing his favorite sports and posing pensively in a black turtleneck, a shot remarkably similar to one taken of his mother.

William responded to written questions from the Press Assn. news service about his life with carefully written answers: He will study art history in college after a “gap” year, enjoys dancing, team sports and action films. His pet dog, Widgeon, is well after delivering a litter of pups, and he would love the media to continue to leave him alone.

“I don’t like the attention. I feel uncomfortable with it--I am grateful to the media for helping to protect my privacy, and I hope I can enjoy the same freedom at university,” he wrote.

The resulting coverage of the prince has been trite, if not sycophantic, prompting some political commentators to argue that the palace should be more forthcoming about a legitimate subject of public interest: Britain’s future king.

Ensconced for the past five years at Eton--an elite boarding school near Windsor Castle outside London--William and his brother, Harry, were protected by a code issued by the Press Complaints Commission that all photographs and details of their private lives should be kept private as long as they were minors.

On Wednesday, the chairman of the commission issued a new code for William that is to cover his gap year and time at college.

“Endless intrusion of the sort we have not seen for five years and the constant, powerful headlamps of unwarranted publicity would make his life a misery,” said the chairman, Lord Wakeham. “He must absolutely not be fair game, but things will change.”

That change will depend partly on the definition of public and private arenas. The guidelines call for leaving William alone in a “private” setting and prohibit pursuing or harassing him in order to take pictures.

Wakeham also stressed the importance of accuracy in reporting on William, especially regarding his personal life. British newspapers have linked the prince to different love interests, some of whom he says he has never met.

“Such fundamental inaccuracies are unacceptable,” Wakeham said. “I hope any editor would think quite carefully before printing such a story.”

British newspapers say that although William sells, too much hype would anger the public. David Yelland, editor of the Sun tabloid, says it would be “commercial suicide” to dog William the way his mother was.

“I think those days have gone. The public’s appetite for it is gone. Following the death of Diana, we all felt that it was important to protect the privacy of the two boys,” Yelland said.

But that doesn’t mean that the grown-up prince will always receive royal treatment by the press.

“It diminishes us as a nation,” wrote Jonathan Freedland of the Guardian, “that we can make a national event out of a few snaps of an 18-year-old boy.”