She once referred to the young princes as her ‘babies’.
Alexandra ‘Tiggy’ Legge-Bourke, former nanny to Prince William and Harry, was more like a big sister, joining them on holidays and teaching them to hunt and fish.
And after the death of Princess Diana in August 1997, Tiggy’s relationship with the princes grew even closer.
Even before she was appointed by the Palace, Tiggy had close ties to the Royal Family.
Her father had once served in the Royal Horse Guards and her mother, Shan, became a lady-in-waiting to Princess Anne in 1987.
Her brother, Harry Legge-Bourke, meanwhile, had been Page of Honour to the late Queen Elizabeth II from 1985 to 1987.
So, it was natural that she should have been hired by Prince Charles as an assistant and nanny to his sons in 1993.
William and Harry, aged 15 and 12 at the time, struggled with the sudden loss of their mother.
Tiggy stepped up to the maternal role, as royal bibliographer Tina Brown discusses in Palace Papers.
She wrote: ‘On the Monday after the funeral, hoping to distract the boys, Tiggy Legge-Bourke, their kindly big sister caregiver appointed by Charles after his separation from Diana, took them to follow the Beaufort Hunt on foot.’
The Beaufort Hunt is one of the largest and oldest hunts in the country and Tiggy would often accompany the boys there on family days out.
Her taking the boys to the hunt was intended to help them process their grief and provide a sense of normalcy.
Brown wrote: ‘They were greeted with all the right sensitivity by an old family friend, Captain Ian Farquhar, joint master of the Duke of Beaufort’s Hunt.
‘”It’s good to see you, sirs,” he said to the shattered young princes.
‘”I just want you to know that we are all very, very sorry about your mother. You have our deepest sympathy and we were all incredibly proud of you on Saturday. That’s all I am going to say, and now we are going to get on with the day.”
‘”Thank you. Yes, you’re right,” William gravely replied, as if the Queen’s stoic genes had fully asserted themselves in her grandson. “We all need to get on with the day.”
Known to all as ‘the Captain’, Farquhar was a close friend of Charles and became Britain’s most distinguished foxhunter.
William later dated Farquhar’s daughter Rose, calling her his ‘first love’ before meeting Catherine at St Andrews.
But younger prince Harry found his mother’s death harder to come to terms with.
Brown wrote: ‘Harry, always more fragile, struggled mightily to manage without a mother.’
In his autobiography Spare Harry wrote about his former nanny, calling her his ‘favourite’.
After referring to Tiggy as ‘one of our nannies,’ he clarified: ‘Our favorite nanny, to be accurate, though Tiggy couldn’t stand being called that.
‘She’d bite the head off anyone who tried.
‘”I’m not the nanny, I’m your friend!” Mummy, sadly, didn’t see it that way.
Like a real big sister, Tiggy was not afraid to reprimand Harry for his behaviour — even as an adult.
He wrote in spare that his former nanny was among those who chastised him for his tell-all interview with Oprah Winfrey.
‘”How could you reveal such things? About your family?”,’ he wrote.
‘I told them that I failed to see how speaking to Oprah was any different from what my family and their staffs, had done for decades — briefing the press on the sly, planting stories.’
Following Charles and Diana’s separation, Tiggy grew to spend more time with the young royals.
Her close bond with William and Harry sparked tension between the nanny and their mother.
Diana was reportedly suspicious of how much time Legge-Bourke spent with Prince Charles and her sons and disliked her habit of smoking around them.
In February 1996, Diana wrote to Charles and said Tiggy should ‘not spend unnecessary time in the children’s rooms, read to them at night, nor supervise their bathtime.’
Harry and ‘big sister’ Tiggy are pictured having fun at a polo match in 1997
Legge-Bourke is pictured with Charles and the young royals at Zurich Airport in 1999
The former nanny was thought of as a ‘big sister’ to William and often joined the family on holiday
Harry chats to Legge-Bourke at Cirencester Polo Club in June 1997
Tiggy has remained a constant by the princes’ sides, staying close to both royals over the years – even meeting Meghan Markle before she and Harry married.
Among other events, she attended Prince Harry’s commissioning as a Second Lieutenant at Sandhurst in April 2006 and Harry’s wedding to Meghan Markle in May 2018.
She is also the godmother to Archie, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s eldest child – continuing her sisterly role more than a quarter of a decade after she retired from her position.
