In honor of Diana

Prince William: I don't want to be liked by someone just because of who I am.  You know, I don't want the sycophantic, you know, people hanging around, you know?
Matt Lauer: But you can tell those people right off the bat, can't you?
Prince William: You can, yeah.  Although some of them are…
Prince Harry: Yeah, you can…
Prince William: …are better than others.
Prince Harry: …some of them are good at playing along.
Matt Lauer: Because obviously there's also a lot to lose if someone befriends you.  You've got a lot of people out there who want to make money.
Prince Harry: But at the same time, you’ve got to understand that it's just as hard for our friends as it is for us. There's a massive element of trust.  You look surprised when I say that.  But the reason I say that is because our friends have to put up with a lot when it comes to us.
Matt Lauer: So the baggage is two-sided.
Prince William: There's a lot of baggage that comes with us, trust me, a lot of baggage.
Matt Lauer: That's a whole other subject, right.
Prince Harry: Talk about yourself.

Even more complicated than making friends is having girlfriends, as both of them have learned recently. When Harry and his girlfriend Chelsey Davy vacationed in the Caribbean, their every move was photographed for the tabloids.

Prince Harry: You always find yourself hiding somewhere and doing something that you don't really want to be doing; why?  Because you just don't want to get photographed doing it because of what will be written about it.
Matt Lauer: So how does that impact the relationship?  You can't, you know, look, when I was courting my wife, I could do whatever I wanted.
Prince Harry: It's…
Matt Lauer: That's how we got to know each other.
Prince Harry: It's difficult.  But the private time that we have, with whomever we're with, it's amazing.  And that's the way we want it to be really.  That's the way we want it to stay.

William's recent breakup with longtime girlfriend Kate Middleton made headlines around the world. They met in college at St. Andrews. Her family was wealthy, but Kate was a commoner with no royal blood. William reportedly became very interested in Kate when he saw her modeling lingerie at a charity benefit. They dated for years. It was an irresistable story. Had the future king found his queen?

When Kate attended William's graduation from Sandhurts Military Academy, speculation about an impending royal wedding reached a full boil and Kate was thrown into the pot. She reminded a lot of people of Diana, right down to the horde of photographers that followed her every move. Then in April, abruptly, the romance ended. Kate and William broke up. Was the pressue too much?

Matt Lauer: As I left the States, obviously, you're on the cover of a lot of magazines there for what's happened with your relationship with Kate. Is there blame, in your opinion, on the press for what happened?
Prince William: No. I mean, what I do with my private life is really between me and myself basically.  You know, I don't listen to newspapers.  I don't take any advice from them. I don’t.
Matt Lauer: Do you read any of it?
Prince William: Well, you occasionally see a bit of it here and there.  But you know, you just let it wash over you, you know? I'm bigger than that.  I don't need the press to tell me what to do.
Matt Lauer: But if you read something that's not true about a personal relationship, do you ever want to get up on the highest point in London or in England and scream out, "Hey guys, you're wrong.  Here's what really happened"?
Prince William: Possibly. But then you come down, you get to their level.  You don't want to do that.  You know, just let…
Prince Harry: Just…
Prince William: …them write what you want to write because at the end of the day, you can't stop it.  And, you know, there's no point in fighting it.
Prince Harry: …it's very hard because the press have given us images that suits them, which…
Prince William: …at the end of the day, neither of us care much about images. We just -- we're ourselves.  And if, you know, what gets reported and what people make up that assumption or their opinions is -- is up to them.  But, you know, we don't go about trying to do anything we wouldn't normally do.

Recently a British tabloid reporter was jailed for hacking into the private voice mailboxes of the princes' staff, looking for scoops. It's one more hazard of life in a fishbowl.

Matt Lauer: Do you e-mail each other?  You text message each other?  How do you…
Prince William: Yeah.
Matt Lauer: …do you get a nightly phone call?
Prince Harry: We communicate in the normal ways. We are slightly normal.  We have a normal side to us.
Matt Lauer: Facebook? You know, MySpace.com?
Prince Harry: Oh, no, we don’t. We contact each other the normal way, text messages, phone calls. 
Prince William: Usually means he's left something at home and I have to bring it for him.
Prince Harry: Yeah.
Matt Lauer: How would you describe your relationship?  And how close are you two?  How often do you get to see each other and talk to each other?  I mean, you've got…
Prince Harry: As little as possible.
Matt Lauer: ...very busy lives individually.
Prince William: It's not easy, I mean, especially with the army as well at the moment. 

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