Charles Spencer writes that young Princess Diana told her father, John Spencer, “Take that thing off!” after he returned from Turkey with a reddish beard. Decades later, Princess Charlotte cried over William’s beard; he shaved it, then won her over.
In Swan Song: Diana, My Sister, Charles Spencer says his parents, John and Frances Shand Kydd, often differed: Frances and Diana preferred staying home, while John loved travel. He went to Turkey alone because Charles was ill and Frances stayed with him.
William first showed off his beard in an August 2024 video for the Paris Olympics, but appeared clean-shaven at a church service later that month. He had grown it back by September. William said Charlotte was 9 and described her initial reaction as “floods of tears.”