The secret lives of royal nannies: Who raised Prince Harry, Charles III, Elizabeth II and other monarchs
March 31, 2023
12:34 PM
Palace nannies are real “gray cardinals”, because they are entrusted with the most precious thing – the heirs to the throne. For obvious reasons, these people are not very public, but especially for you, we collected interesting facts about who keeps the children of Kate Middleton, who raised the sons of Princess Diana and even the former queen of Grande -Britain Elizabeth II herself.
Marion Crawford
Marion Crawford became governess to Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret in 1932, when the royal family’s daughters were 6 and 2 years old.
“Crawphy”, as they called her, remained their close friend for the next 16 years, helping the sisters through the abdication of their uncle Edward VIII, the coronation of their father George VI in 1937 and the horrors of the Second World War. But the close relationship ended when, in 1950, Marion published a memoir about her life at the palace called Les Petites Princesses. When Elizabeth learned that American publishers were offering Crawford a book of revelations, she wrote him a letter.
“You have to resist the lure of American money…and say no, no, no, to dollars offered for stories about something as personal and precious as our family,” he said. -he declares.
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But the book came out anyway. Rumor has it that Marion was persuaded to write it by her husband, George Bootley, whom she married in 1947, after leaving his post as royal nanny.
Crawford was never pardoned and neither the Queen nor Princess Margaret ever spoke to him again. “Crawfie” died in 1988. The Royal Family reportedly did not send flowers to his grave.
Mabel Anderson
When Queen Elizabeth II became a mother herself, she enlisted the help of Mabel Anderson, a nurse and police officer’s daughter, to look after her young children. Mabel was the same age as Elizabeth and started working as a royal nanny when the Queen’s first child, Prince Charles, was born, then left to care for Her Majesty’s youngest children, Prince Andrew and the Prince Edward, when Charles and Princess Anne grew up. .
Mabel remained a close friend of Elizabeth II until the latter’s death. Insiders said the Queen sometimes called a friend, invited her to visit and together they watched TV.
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Olga Powell
Olga Powell joined the royal family when Prince William was 6 months old. Subsequently, she became close friends with Prince William and Prince Harry – they maintained a relationship until the nanny’s death in 2012 at the age of 82.
“Their parents wanted them to have as normal a childhood as possible. If the boys saw a muddy puddle, they wanted to jump in it, and if there was something to climb over, they wanted to climb it,” Powell recalls .
The fact that she shared this belief kept her in office. After all, little William had another nanny since birth – Barbara Barnes. But she believed royal children should be raised differently from regular children, which ultimately led to conflicts with Diana, who wanted her sons to have a normal childhood. Barnes was fired in 1987.
But Powell was more than just a nanny: She was the one who later helped the brothers through Charles and Diana’s divorce and comforted them after their mother’s death in 1997.
On the day of the funeral, Powell William canceled four events to attend the memorial service (Harry was serving in Afghanistan at the time).
Tiggy Legge Bourke
By becoming Alexandra’s royal nanny, Pettyfer (known as Tiggy Legge-Bourke before taking her husband’s surname) effectively continued the family tradition of serving in the palace – her mother was the lady of honor of Princess Anne.
In 1993, Tiggy became the nanny of Prince William and Prince Harry, invited to this position by Prince Charles. She approached the job with enthusiasm, encouraging the princes to enjoy the traditional royal pursuits of hunting, fishing and shooting, and regularly joining them on vacations.
Like Olga Powell, Tiggy then played a central role in the brothers’ lives after their mother’s death and has remained close ever since, maintaining relationships with the heirs. Both princes attended her wedding to security consultant Charles Pettifer in 1999, and she herself was a guest at Harry’s wedding to Meghan Markle in 2018.
However, his presence at the palace was not without media scandals. She was once photographed smoking while driving a Land Rover while Harry leaned out the window and shot rabbits. Rumor has it Diana didn’t like him after Tiggy once called Gary and William “my kids.” Additionally, it was reported that Diana suspected that Tiggy and Charles were having an affair. Things came to a head at a 1995 Christmas party for Charles and Diana’s staff at the Lanesborough Hotel. Citing false rumors that Tiggy had an abortion while pregnant with Charles, Diana reportedly walked up to her and said out loud, “I’m so sorry to hear about the baby.” Tiggy reportedly left the party in tears.
Maria Teresa Turrion Borrallo
The Spanish-born nanny joined Prince William and Kate Middleton in 2014 when their first child Prince George was 8 months old and stayed at Kensington Palace to help raise the couple’s other children as well.
“Mary is very fond of children. She can be firm and strict, but she’s also very loving and gentle with them,” a source said of her.
The nanny had previously worked for other high-profile families, which is how Kate and William discovered her.
Turrion Borrallo studied at the prestigious Norland College in England, where nannies are trained in everything from developing a child’s brain to cooking food and first aid. Maria even took a course on safe driving techniques in extreme situations!
Insiders say Turrion Borrallo has the key skill of a modern royal nanny: the ability to always be there when needed, but never crossing the line or interfering with the royal parents’ decision-making process.
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I am Amanda Gans, a motivated and ambitious professional in the news writing industry. With over five years of experience in this field, I have developed an eye for detail and an ability to craft stories that captivate readers. I currently write for Gossipify, where I specialize in beauty & celebrities news. My passion lies with exploring the world of beauty through writing, interviewing experts and developing articles that are both informative and entertaining.