Did Prince William really go missing from Balmoral after Princess Diana's death ?

Prince William, his brother Harry and father, now King Charles, pictured at Balmoral Castle around a fortnight before the death of Diana, the Princess of Wales. PIC: PA.

The search for the young Prince William at Balmoral is featured in Netflix show The Crown – but did it really happen?

The deep grief of Prince William and his brother, Harry, was ripe dramatic territory for the makers of Netlfix series The Crown – but did they get it right?

In the show, a search party is launched for the young prince – now the Duke of Cambridge and first in line to the throne – after he disappeared from Balmoral Castle in the days after the death of his mother, Diana, Princess of Wales.

Members of the Royal Family and their support team are shown bundling into Land Rovers to find the prince, then aged 15, on a rainy, misty day on Royal Deeside, the weather reflecting the grim mood of the time.

Prince William is ultimately found alone, freezing and soaking wet some 14 hours after he was last seen, according to programme makers.

But the scene was branded untrue by Dickie Arbiter, the Queen’s former press secretary who was in charge of media at the time of Princess Diana’s death.

He criticised the show’s broader depiction of events as “dramatic licence gone bonkers” and said the scene of William’s disappearance was inaccurate.

Arbiter said Prince William did not disappear for 14 hours at Balmoral - but added that he and his brother did go for walks as they wrestled with grief.

Other sources said Prince Philip, in a phonecall ahead of the funeral, claimed Prince William had “run away up the hill, and we can’t find him”.

There may have been some truth in the story, however. In a speech in 2021, Prince William himself said he “found comfort and solace in the Scottish outdoors” in the period following his mother’s death.