William Condemns Diana Book

By Stephen M. Silverman

07/20/1998 at 12:00 AM EDT

Britain's Prince William, speaking for himself and his younger brother, condemned a new book about his mother, the late Princess Diana, on Friday at his first major news conference. "Of course, Harry and I are both quite upset by this -- that our mother's trust has been betrayed and that even now she's still being exploited," William, wearing a wheat-colored pullover sweater, told a group of reporters. The book, "Shadows of a Princess" by Diana's former private secretary (from 1987-1996, a year before her death), Patrick Jephson, reportedly portrays Diana as a scheming rebel who fabricated the truth, schemed, indulged herself in quack health therapies, binged on sweets and loved dirty jokes. In an excerpt that appeared in Sunday's Times of London yesterday, Jephson, who maintains that his book is a balanced portrait, writes: "She would laugh at anything. Sometimes I thought you could read her the phone book in a funny voice, then look at her expectantly, and she would laugh. She was that desperate to be happy."