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Ken Wharfe, Princess Diana's former personal protection officer, told the story of how the Duke of Cambridge cunningly carried out the practical joke with his mother, instructing her to

opt for a photo call to dupe the press before he fired water balloons at them. Diana initially refused the photo call but changed her mind after the island's manager presented her sons

with large catapults as Prince William proceeded to plan a full-scale prank on the press. Speaking to Robert Jobson's Royal Podcast, Mr Wharfe said: “William said, we can go to the top

of the cliff and when mummy does the photo call we can fire the balloons at the press. As the press drew close enough the young princes launched water balloons – scoring a direct hit on the

“Captain Mainwaring” of the group - esteemed royal reporter James Whitaker. Mr Wharfe added: “It was probably some of the best pictures ever taken of Diana in the Caribbean." The prank

is understood to have happened during the royal family's holiday to Necker Island, Richard Branson's private retreat. Prince William and Harry are known to have a long-standing

stance against press intrusion, blaming the paparazzi for their mother's death in a Paris car crash on August 31 1997. The Duke of Cambridge remains firm against paparazzi

photographers, with the Royal Family winning a legal battle with a French glossy magazine after they published shots of Kate, the Duchess of Cambridge, sunbathing topless. In 2017, the two

princes publicly spoke to the BBC about their mother's death, marking the 20th anniversary since Princess Diana was tragically killed in the Paris car crash. Prince Harry said: “I think

one of the hardest things to come to terms with is the fact that the people that chased her into the tunnel were the same people that were taking photographs of her while she was still

dying on the back seat of the car. “She had quite a severe head injury but she was very much still alive on the back seat. And those people that caused the accident, instead of helping, they

were taking photographs on the back seat, and then those photographs made their way back to news desks.” Speaking previously of the incident, Ken Wharfe, Princess Diana's former

bodyguard said: “Part of her problem in Paris was this desire by the gathering media circus for a picture.”