In new biography ‘Battle of Brothers’, royal historian Robert Lacey reportedly claimed that Barnes was prohibited from saying goodbye to William and Harry or otherwise contacting them after her departure.
“So far as the boys were concerned, she just vanished into thin air,” according to the royal historian.
Lacey writes that when Barnes was hired she “stepped in firmly to assert control.” One Kensington Palace staff member reflected, “Barbara guarded the nursery floor like the Vatican… It was her kingdom.”
Barnes was lovingly called ‘Baba’ by William and Harry. She reportedly “became something of a surrogate mother” to the princes as they spent an increasing amount of time in her care, with the nanny teaching them to “walk, talk and read.”
According to the historian, “less admiring observers felt that Barnes was getting too possessive with ‘her’ boys,” an opinion Diana “came to share.”
The People’s Princess reportedly instructed “that the nanny’s bags should be packed and all trace of her removed,” and forbid her from saying goodbye to William and Harry, or even “send them a postcard.”
From the princes’ perspective, Lacey alleges, Barnes “just vanished into thin air.”
To Lacey, the loss of Barnes had a formative effect on William and Harry. “Following the death of Diana in 1997, people remarked on how well the two young princes reacted to the unjust and unexpected removal of a mother figure from their lives—surprised, bewildered and distraught though they were,” he writes.