What This Royal Author Claims About Queen Elizabeth's Treatment Of Princess Diana
Relationships between royals can be especially hard, and this was the case for Queen Elizabeth II and Princess Diana of Wales, the latter of which was married to Elizabeth's son, Prince Charles, and died before her time in a 1997 car accident (via History.com). Charles and Diana had marital issues, including Charles' heart belonging to another woman, and it was never clear from the outside where Elizabeth stood on the matter. Did she support Diana, or did she stick by her son until the end?
The relationship between the two has led people to wonder if Diana was afraid of Elizabeth, but this is something we may simply never know. Now, over two decades since Diana's untimely death, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle paid tribute to her with their daughter, who they named Lilibet Diana. People are now just left wondering if Queen Elizabeth has met Lilibet Diana due to the supposed strained relationships between the monarch and the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.
While the relationship between the queen and the Princess of Wales has been long shrouded in mystery, the queen herself may finally be breaking her silence on the subject. Royal author Matthew Dennison recently released his latest biography, "The Queen," which details Elizabeth's nearly 70-year reign, and, according to Fox News, the queen felt a certain way about Diana during her marital struggles.
Elizabeth was 'sympathetic' toward Diana
Matthew Dennison's "The Queen" is crafted from multiple perspectives. According to Fox News, the author spoke to royal insiders from throughout Queen Elizabeth II's reign to paint a full picture of the queen's time as monarch, which included the need to grow along with the times. "There's no doubt that the queen was sympathetic to the Princess of Wales," Dennison said. "But you know, people didn't discuss mental health to the extent that we do today. And people's knowledge of it was less. And of course, the queen, being a generation older than the Princess of Wales, had a very old-fashioned upbringing."
Because of Elizabeth's upbringing, Diana's raw assertion of her emotions was new for the queen. Still, the monarch "was sympathetic." It's not hard to see her sympathy in action, either. Whether it was strictly protocol or not, Diana remained a royal even after divorcing Prince Charles, a move that strayed from Britain's royal history (via Royal.uk).
Still, the queen's feelings were nuanced, as any person's are. "I don't think there was ever any lack of affection," Dennison further told Fox News. "I think the queen didn't understand why the princess might say or do things that would jeopardize the institution that she'd married into, which was also her own children's inheritance ... I think the queen found that very difficult." The ultimate takeaway here is that Diana was loved by the queen. Elizabeth simply found her in a tough position, where she couldn't necessarily side with any one party, but was "sympathetic" nonetheless.