Princess Diana used to entertain her sons by singing along to Tina Turner as loud as she could while driving them back to school, her son William said.
One of her favourites was The Best – an undeniable banger – and the impromptu karaoke session would be so infectious that even the security detail sometimes joined in.
In an interview for a podcast, the Duke of Cambridge said he still ‘secretly’ likes this song (we would encourage him to feel loud and proud about it).
He said it made him feel less anxious about heading back to school, which is thought to have been a reference to Ludgrove in Berkshire, where he and his brother both boarded from the age of eight.
The duke said: ‘Because sitting in the backseat singing away, it felt like a real family moment.
‘My mother, she’d be driving along singing at the top of her voice and we’d even get the policeman in the car, he’d be occasionally singing along as well.’
He added: ‘You’d be singing and listening to music right the way up to the gates of school when they dropped you off and that’s when reality kind of sunk in – you really were going back to school.
‘Because before that you’re lost in songs – want to play it again, just to keep that family moment going. And when I listen to it now it takes me back to those car rides and brings back lots of memories of my mother.’
He made the comments during an audio walking tour recorded for Apple.
His own children have inherited a love of music too, although Princess Charlotte is more a fan of Shakira and goes ‘crazy’ dancing to Waka Waka in the kitchen.
The duke said: ‘One of the songs that the children are loving at the moment is Shakira, Waka Waka. There’s a lot of hip movements going along with a lot of dressing up.
‘Charlotte particularly is running around the kitchen, in her dresses and ballet stuff. She goes completely crazy with Louis following her around trying to do the same thing.’
William said he was ‘amazed’ how his three children had inherited him family’s love of music and ‘most mornings there’s a massive fight between Charlotte and George as to what song is played in the morning’.
To keep order in the Cambridge household the duke said he alternates between his two eldest children as to who can pick the music.
He says about his final music choice: ‘There’s nothing better than, on a Monday morning, when you’re a bit bleary-eyed after the weekend and trying to get yourself back into the grind of the week, listening to AC/DC – Thunderstruck.’
The duke adds: ‘It absolutely wakes you up, puts your week in the best mood possible, and you feel like you can take on anything and anyone.’
William strolled around Sandringham in Norfolk sharing personal stories as well as three songs, played in full, as part of the Time To Walk series featured on the Apple watch, for the technology company’s Fitness+ subscribers.
He also described how Diana took him to a homeless shelter to meet people ‘down on their luck’ and teach him the important lesson that there is life outside ‘palace walls’.
William, who holds patronage roles with the homeless charities Centrepoint and The Passage, said: ‘And we sat there, and we listened. It really brings it to life when you hear somebody sit in front of you and talk very movingly and very openly about the challenges they’ve been up against.’
The duke also revealed the impact of dealing with life and death moments when he was a helicopter pilot with East Anglian Air Ambulance (EAAA) – becoming emotional as he describes meeting a former patient.
His voice broke when he recounted being introduced to the un-named person who recovered, but not fully, following an incident dealt with by the duke and his former EAAA crew, and he says: ‘It even makes me quite emotional now.’
Dolly Parton, Anthony Joshua and Naomi Campbell have also recorded audio walking tours to encourage the public to get active for their mental health.
Apple will stream three special audio airings of the Time To Walk episode featuring William free of charge on Apple Music 1, the global radio station on Apple Music, on Monday.
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