A GLAMOROUS royal climbs into a waiting limousine with a high-profile lover. There are rumours of an engagement. Waiting paparazzi pounce, their flashlights illuminating their targets in the night. The couple speed away, pursued by a swarm of snap-happy photographers in cars and on motorbikes.
As Prince William and Kate Middleton left a fashionable London nightclub in the small hours last week, the scene - to some onlookers - seemed all too familiar. In a week when his mother's final moments of life were being dissected moment by moment, c
omplete with car-crash photos and CCTV footage, was the Prince coming face-to-face with his own demons?
It seems the incident did leave its mark on William. A complaint was made by Clarence House alleging that Middleton and the Prince were pursued by photographers "on motorcycles, in vehicles and on foot". The Prince was reportedly "left concerned" after he and Middleton were "aggressively" pursued by members of the press.
William's spokesman quickly released a statement saying that the events were "incomprehensible" in a week that saw the start of an inquest into the death of Diana, Princess of Wales. Paddy Harverson, the Prince's spokesman and a former press officer for Manchester United, said: "Prince William was concerned by the threatening behaviour of the paparazzi. Having already been photographed leaving the club, he and Kate Middleton were then pursued in his car by photographers on motorcycles, in vehicles and on foot. The aggressive pursuit was potentially dangerous and worrying for them. It seems incomprehensible, particularly at this time, that this behaviour is still going on."
Only the heartless would try to deny that the inquest, which is expected to last eight months, will be a psychological and emotional ordeal for William and his brother Harry. Last week, the jury heard that his mother was not, contrary to rumour, carrying his half brother or sister at the time of her death, making headline news. In the months to come, yet more words and images will fill pages throughout the world as Diana's sex life, friendships, every comment and most deeply-held fears are pulled apart piece by piece.
Yet a backlash against the royals' version of events is already gathering momentum, as the circumstances of last week's spat with the paparazzi become clearer. Questions are being asked about whether the palace has been using the inquest to try to put pressure on the press to back off from golden couple Wills and Kate, as rumours of an impending engagement gather pace.
Photographers at the scene outside the Boujis nightclub, in South Kensington, played down any suggestion of a hot pursuit, insisting they kept their distance and putting the complaint down to bad timing and heightened emotions surrounding the inquest. Reports suggest that both the Prince and Middleton - out publicly for the first time since their high profile split in April - were happy to get their pictures taken outside the club.
British newspapers have restricted themselves to using pictures of a smiling Middleton and the Prince leaving the hip London nightclub. There is no suggestion the couple felt harassed as they were taken. It was only later in the night that they were followed by photographers and became alarmed. Some journalists have questioned whether there really is cause to make a comparison between last week's events and those in Paris 10 years ago.
Whatever the true nature of events, the response from all corners suggests that Diana's most public legacy to her son will be her ambivalent relationship with the press.
William may be the new face of the monarchy but for the coming months he will find it hard to escape the past. The inquest will rehearse - in public and with legal protection - all the conspiracy theories about his mother's life and death. Mohammed al-Fayed, father of Diana's lover Dodi, will be de facto chief prosecutor. He believes Diana and Dodi were murdered by the British establishment and he will accuse the Prince's grandfather (the Duke of Edinburgh) of the Princess's murder.
Perhaps it was inevitable that the royals' relationship with the press would again come under scrutiny. William has little chance of escaping the fact that his mother created a new industry for the press and soon became the most photographed woman in the world. The cameras were still clicking as Diana lay dying inside a mangled Mercedes in an underpass in Paris in 1997. A year ago, the Princes condemned the publication of a photograph of their mother taken moments after the crash.
The image, which appeared in an Italian magazine, showed Diana being given oxygen as she lay dying. Chi magazine, which used the black and white picture, also ran autopsy diagrams detailing the Princess's injuries. Earlier this year, Channel 4 showed a documentary which featured photographs of the Princess as she lay fatally injured, despite pleas from Diana's sons. Little wonder that feelings run high.
Middleton's seemingly scandal-free love affair to the dashing young Prince is the kind of thing that sells papers. The pair are no stranger to media intrusion. Yes, they have gone to extraordinary lengths to avoid being spotted, even booking virtually the whole of an isolated island resort in the Seychelles last month, but they seem to accept that some level of interaction with the media is a necessary tool for the monarchy's survival. A factor, presumably, not lost on Clarence House itself.
Last night, publicist Max Clifford said the pair should give the press what they want to avoid confrontation. "If this is the first time they've been together for months, you know there's going to be considerable interest," he said. "They know that they're going to be photographed when they come out. So, they stand for five minutes and pose for pictures.
"Everybody's got their pictures - nice pictures, relaxed pictures - they go away, because they don't need to chase them."
Others observers disagree. Former royal press secretary Dickie Arbiter has said of the media fascination with Middleton: "A similar thing happened to Diana, Princess of Wales, at the time of her engagement and here we are, so many years on, and exactly the same thing is happening. They [the press] haven't learned a lesson."
Certainly interest in the couple shows no sign of disappearing. Indeed, exposure reached new heights early this year, amid mounting speculation they were about to get engaged.
In January, a well-documented media scrum formed outside Middleton's home on her 25th birthday. Days later, a letter was circulated from her solicitors, saying she was being harassed and a formal complaint would be made if paparazzi pictures continued to be used.
A month later, police officers were called to a London nightclub to stop photographers getting too close to the couple. In the months that followed the couple split blaming, in part at least, media intrusion. In August, she pulled out of a boat race amidst "security fears".
Regardless of the cat and mouse nature of the courtship with the Prince and the media hype surrounding it, Kate has undoubtedly been welcomed by the Firm, and there is little wonder. In a decade sprinkled with right royal clangers, Middleton is PR gold dust. Robert Jobson, royal correspondent and author of a biography of Middleton, William's Princess, agrees and has suggested in the past that the young woman is fully aware of the role she has to play.
He said: "Whenever you see the couple together she always looks immaculate. And that's even when she comes out of nightclubs at three in the morning with him."
Tiring of conspiracy theories and Camilla bashing, the Noughties focus has shifted towards a more photogenic fairytale, complete with early-morning drinking sessions and secret holiday hideaways. The monarchy, it seems, has caught up with real life. While publicising his mother's anniversary concert in June, a laid back, open-shirted William told the host: "What I do with my private life is really between me and myself."
Beyond anything else, this week will surely have reminded the Prince that the honeymoon is over. During his years at the University of St Andrews , the Prince was largely left alone by the press. It was a deal due, in part, to the press's acceptance that its behaviour with regard to the royals had to change in the aftermath of Diana's death. Since his graduation, however, William has had to realise that school's out and open season has been called.
Seeking survival through reinvention, the Princes have, like it or not, become poster boys for a new age of the monarchy. Five hundred million people in 145 countries tuned in to watch the Princes' memorial concert to their mother in July. Young, attractive and seemingly in love, the Princes help wipe the slate clean of "three in our marriage" indiscretions and shift the focus from MI6 conspiracy theories.
"Behind the media glare she was quite simply the best mother in the world," Prince William told an adoring crowd this summer, as he stood before the famous picture of his mother, taken by celebrity photographer Mario Testino.
Three months on, in the wake of yet more lurid and seemingly unending speculation, Diana's legacy has never been more evident. The picture may have changed but those in the frame are all too clear.
