The staff who create a royally happy household! As Kate Middleton and Prince William prepare for life without their live-in nanny FEMAIL reveals the carers who have helped to raise royals
- Prince William and Kate Middleton are reportedly set to uproot from Kensington
- Their young children will not have Spanish Norland nanny Maria Borrallo on hand
- She was hired by the royal couple to help look after George, Charlotte and Louis
- Among several childminders who have cared for royal youngsters over the years
- FEMAIL reveals the other carers who have helped to raise children in The Firm
Prince William and Kate Middleton are currently preparing to lose a mainstay of their family life when they move to Windsor in coming weeks – their nanny Maria Borrallo.
The Cambridge family are set to make a move to the four-bedroom Adelaide Cottage later this summer, it has been reported.
However, their young children will not have Spanish Norland nanny Maria Borrallo on hand when he do, because she will live elsewhere, according to The Telegraph.
According to the paper, it will mean the family ‘not having a live-in nanny for the first time in their children’s lives’.
Prince William and Kate Middleton are currently preparing to lose a mainstay of their family life when they move to Windsor in coming weeks – their nanny Maria Borrallo
Here FEMAIL reveals the other childminders who have helped to raise the Queen, Prince Charles and Prince William and Harry (pictured left, Tiggy Legge-Bourke with Prince Harry, and right, Jessie Webb and Prince William)
Ms Borrallo was hired by Kate and William to help look after Prince George when he was eight months old. She now cares for Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis too.
But she is far from the first nanny hired within The Firm to help royals care for their children.
Here FEMAIL reveals the childminders who have helped to raise the Queen, Prince Charles and Prince William and Harry…
Princess Anne’s son, Peter Phillips, on his way to nursery school today with his nanny, Mabel Anderson (left) and The Queen and Princess Margaret with Clara Knight, known as ‘Allah’ (right)
Maria Borrallo
Spanish nanny Maria Borrallo was born in Madrid but grew up in Palencia in northern Spain.
She is a graduate of the prestigious nanny school Norland College and is said to have been nicknamed Santa – Spanish for saint – by those closest to her when she was a youngster.
Friends in her hometown have previously claimed she would have become a nun had she not ended up pursuing her passion for looking after children.
Her austere lifestyle made her the perfect candidate to become a servant of God, they said.
Ms Borrallo’s brother Luis did follow a religious pathway, having been ordained a deacon in 2011.
Born in Madrid, but having grown up in Palencia, she is the second of eldest of four children, born to an engineer father Luis, who died of cancer and her teacher mother, Maria Teresa.
Prince George of Cambridge is held by his nanny Maria Teresa Turrion Borrallo as he waves from the window of Buckingham Palace as he watches the Trooping Tthe Colour on June 13, 2015 in London
Former Private Secretary to the Duchess of Cambridge Rebecca Deacon, and Nanny Maria Borrallo arrive at Sydney Airport on on April 16, 2014 in Sydney
She attended church regularly with the rest of her family as she was growing up.
Ms Borrallo left Spain for the UK more than 20 years ago after graduating with a degree in teaching. However she returns to Palencia to see her family whenever she gets a chance.
One of her brothers, Ignacio, teaches private students in the area viola and violin.
He boasts on an online CV he is one of the most sought-out violin and viola teachers in Spain’s Castile and Leon region, with more than 20 years of experience at conservatories and music schools in his home country and Canada.
Her youngest brother Pablo, a teacher, is living and working in the south of France.
Ms Borrallo was hired by Kate and William to help look after Prince George when he was eight months old. She now cares for Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis too.
The ‘Spanish supernanny’ trained at the prestigious Norland College which has been producing childminders for the rich and famous since 1892.
The institution’s students are known for their distinctive uniforms and are schooled in all aspects of looking after youngsters during their three-year degree course.
The training costs £36,000 in total and the college in Bath recently added martial arts training and stunt driving to its curriculum to cater for modern clients – many of whom are celebrities and the super-rich.
Tae Kwon-Do is believed to be the martial art of choice – which has been specially adapted to include how to dodge a potential kidnapped with a pram.
Nannies are also trained in how to deal with paparazzi and are taken to Castle Combe Racing Circuit in Wiltshire to perfect their driving skills and learn how to drive at high speed in any weather condition.
Jessie Webb
Michael Middleton and nanny Jessie Webb (R) leave Chapel Royal in St James’s Palace in central London after the Christening of Prince George of Cambridge on October 23, 2013
Jessie Webb, 71, cared for Prince William and his brother, Harry, in the early 1990s.
Miss Webb was first employed by Prince Charles and his wife to look after William and Harry when the future king was seven and about to start at prep school.
While to the outside world all seemed well, Miss Webb soon found herself walking a tightrope as Charles and Diana’s relationship disintegrated.
‘Diana was often in tears and there were frequent rows,’ a former Kensington Palace figure recalled.
‘Jessie did not see it as her job to console the princess, so she did her bit to keep the children occupied and out of the way.’
It was against this background that Miss Webb began her duties. For generations, royal nannies had been picked from a relatively limited social circle.
But with her warm Cockney informality and no-nonsense approach, Miss Webb seemed just the person to bring a bit of much-needed cheer into the household.
Miss Webb enjoyed a healthy appetite herself and she thought the boys, especially Harry, needed feeding up. The nursery fridge groaned with sausages, bacon, buns, cakes of every description, and biscuits.
When William went away to Ludgrove school in the autumn of 1990, Jessie had only Harry to look after.
She was eventually let go by Princess Diana, who often became jealous of those her sons grew close to.
So it was agreed that she would leave ‘KP’ when Harry started at Ludgrove in the autumn of 1992.
William enjoyed a warm, loving relationship with his nannies, and has always regarded Miss Webb fondly. He ensured she was a guest of honour at both his 21st birthday party and his wedding.
Olga Powell
After Jessie, Prince Charles and Diana went on to hire Olga Powell, who was initially ‘deputy nanny’ and then took over once Barbara moved on.
After Jessie, Prince Charles and Diana went on to hire Olga Powell, who was initially ‘deputy nanny’.
She was described as loving but strict, and stayed with the royal family for 15 years, supporting them through tumultuous events.
Her firm but caring presence supported Princes William and Harry throughout their formative years, and she made sure that their feet remained firmly on the ground.
Their relationship remained strong with William cancelling an appearance so that he was able to attend her funeral in October 2012.
But seven weeks after Prince William welcomed his first son Prince George with Kate Middleton, he bought Jessie on to help.
According to sources close to the couple, Mrs Webb, 71, came out of retirement to look after Prince George on the condition that she would work only for three months.
Tiggy Legge-Bourke
It was Prince William’s godmother Lady Susan Hussey, a lady-in-waiting to the Queen, who recommended Tiggy Legge-Bourke for the £18,000-a-year job of nanny for Prince William, then-11, and Harry, then 9.
Throughout the tumult of an upbringing scarred by the separation and divorce of his parents, and then by Diana’s tragic death, Tiggy was an ocean of calmness, providing stability, affection and unquestioning support.
She would load the boys’ ponies onto trailers for polo and hunting and while away hours with them outside fishing — at which she is highly skilled — climbing, go-karting and shooting rabbits. She organised treats like fairground rides on summer days at Highgrove.
But her closeness to the boys stirred maternal jealousies in Diana, who feared she was becoming a surrogate mother figure. When Tiggy began referring to the boys as ‘my babies’ Diana’s concerns seemed to be justified. She believed Tiggy had too much influence, not only over the boys but also over Charles.
The princess complained to Charles, who airily dismissed her worries.
It didn’t help when, unwisely, Tiggy said of her royal charges at the time: ‘I give them what they need —fresh air, a rifle and a horse. She (Diana) gives them a tennis racket and a bucket of popcorn at the movies.’ Diana was incensed, and pointedly suggested that if she employed a male companion she would never have heard the end of it from the prince.
But things became serious in 1995 when Diana allowed herself to become convinced that Tiggy and Charles were having an affair.
At a Christmas party for royal staff she confronted Tiggy, believing she had been pregnant with Charles’s child.
Diana told Tiggy: ‘So sorry to hear about the baby’ — an apparent reference to her belief that the nanny had lost the child. The story of the ‘pregnancy’, like her alleged relationship with Charles, was without foundation and a figment of Diana’s imagination.
Charles, The Prince of Wales, and Prince Harry, with nanny, Tiggy Legge Bourke, arrive at Aberdeen Railway Station, heading for Balmoral Estate, Scotland, on August 17, 1993
Tiggy and her son Tom Pettifer attend the wedding of Prince Harry to Ms Meghan Markle at St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle on May 19, 2018
Tiggy fled the party in tears and days later instructed libel lawyers to write to the princess demanding she withdraw the remarks and give an apology. It never came. The full details only emerged at the inquest into the princess’s death, which also heard suggestions that Diana believed Charles wanted her killed to clear the way to marry Tiggy.
Tiggy in fact came into her own after the boys’ mother died, providing invaluable comfort and consolation to the princes.
‘The truth is she never wanted to replace their mother but rather to protect them from the effects of their parents’ feuding,’ says a friend. And she did it rather well, earning William and Harry’s lasting affection and the royal family’s gratitude.
In 1996 at the age of 13, William pointedly asked his parents not to attend Eton’s Fourth of June celebrations, inviting Tiggy instead.
Prince Harry went on to select Tiggy as one of Archie’s godparents (pictured, the nanny at the christening in 2019)
Harry was even closer to her, and she has been part of every landmark event in his life —including his Sandhurst passing out parade and his graduation as a helicopter pilot at the Army Aviation Centre in Andover, Hants.
It was no surprise that when she had her first son, Fred, now 16, Tiggy asked Harry to be his godfather. A year later William accepted the role of godparent to her younger son Tom, 15.
She carried on working for the royals until 1999 when, aged 34, she married Charlie, a former childhood sweetheart.
He now works in the world of private security, guarding merchant ships from Somali pirates in the Indian Ocean. William and Harry were at the wedding in Wales.
Prince Harry went on to select Tiggy as one of Archie’s godparents.
Mabel Anderson
The Queen met Mabel, a policeman’s daughter from Elgin, Scotland, in 1949 after she replied to an advertisement, not knowing it was from the royal household (pictured, with Peter Philips)
The Queen met Mabel, a policeman’s daughter from Elgin, Scotland, in 1949 after she replied to an advertisement, not knowing it was from the royal household.
It was to be an assistant nanny to help the then Princess Elizabeth who was pregnant with Charles. Despite her lack of formal training,
Mabel, at 22, was chosen by the future Queen because Her Majesty liked her quiet, unassuming manner.
It was Mabel who put the children to bed, told them stories, patched up their cuts and bruises and hit upon the idea of teaching the royal corgis hide and seek with Princess Anne so that she wouldn’t miss Charles when he started school.
She even sent Charles bottles of Vosene shampoo for his dandruff at boarding school.
Mabel also helped out when Princess Anne gave birth to the Queen’s first grandchild – Peter Philips.
When she retired, Charles secured her a lifelong grace-and-favour home in a wing of Frogmore House, Windsor Great Park, and personally supervised its re-decoration using his own designer.
In 1999, Charles took her along on his romantic royal cruise of the Aegean with Camilla aboard John Latsis’s yacht – giving armchair psychologists a field day about how Charles was seeking unconscious approval for his controversial relationship with Mrs Parker Bowles.
Clara Knight
The Queen’s nanny, Clara ‘Allah’ Knight, was a no-nonsense farmer’s daughter who had nursed her mother 25 years earlier
The strength of character that has sustained the Queen through more than 63 years on the throne was forged in her earliest childhood.
Her nanny, Clara ‘Allah’ Knight, was a no-nonsense farmer’s daughter who had nursed her mother 25 years earlier.
‘Allah’ believed that to spoil the child was to ruin the adult, and so did everything to a strict schedule, from breakfast at 7.30am to bedtime at 7.15pm.
The nanny took her orders not from Princess Elizabeth’s mother, the Duchess of York, but from her grandmother — Queen Mary, the wife of George V.
Queen Mary was a formidable character, who insisted that Elizabeth, as a toddler, be taught how to wave and smile.
‘Teach that child not to fidget,’ she would bark. In return for the reward of a biscuit, Elizabeth would learn how to control her bladder for hours on end.
Source: Read Full Article
