Princess Diana once “confronted” Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother over showing favoritism for Prince William over his younger brother Prince Harry, according to a new biography.

In an advance copy seen by Newsweek, the royals’ relationship has been examined by author and historian Gareth Russell for his new book Do Let’s Have Another Drink! The Dry Wit and Fizzy Life of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother.

When Diana married Prince Charles in 1981, she became the Queen Mother’s granddaughter-in-law, and despite the widowed queen being a close family friend, relations between her and the young princess were not always cordial.

Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother (L) photographed in London in 1990. Princes William and Harry (R) on August 19, 1995. (inset) Princess Diana, photographed on June 17, 1997. The princess reportedly confronted the Queen Mother… More GEORGES DE KEERLE/GETTY IMAGES/TIM GRAHAM PHOTO LIBRARY VIA GETTY IMAGES
“‘His grandmother is always looking at me with a strange look in her eyes,’ Princess Diana told a friend, via a telephone conversation that was being secretly taped and was later sold to a tabloid,” Russell wrote of a 1989 conversation between Diana and friend James Gilbey, nicknamed by the press the “Squidgygate” after a term of affection used.

“‘It’s not hatred; it’s sort of interest and pity mixed in one. I am not quite sure. I don’t understand it. Every time I look, she’s looking at me, then looks away and smiles…'”

Russell recounts that between the call in 1989 and a recording of it being sold to a newspaper in 1992, the relationship between Diana and the Queen Mother had soured.

He wrote: “Diana did not enjoy herself at the Queen Mother’s ninetieth birthday party in August 1990, calling it ‘grim and stilted. They are all anti-me. My grandmother has done another good hatchet job on me.'”

“Diana’s grandmother Ruth, Lady Fermoy, had been one of the Queen Mother’s ladies-in-waiting since 1956 and, initially, Diana seems to have blamed her for turning the Queen Mother against her.”

One issue that Diana reportedly found with the Queen Mother was that she was demonstratively preferential towards her eldest son, William over her younger son, Harry.

“She also apparently felt that sometimes the Queen Mother, to an extent she made obvious, preferred William to Harry,” Russel wrote, “until Diana confronted her about it.”

This preferential treatment has been commented on by other royal experts, including Harry’s biographer Angela Levin, who said in the 2021 documentary Prince Harry: The Troubled Prince that: “The late Queen Mother would always invite Prince William over for tea and talk to him about his future and not invite Prince Harry.”

Above, the Queen Mother, Princess Diana and Prince Harry ride in a convertible during the Trooping the Colour parade on June 13, 1992. The Queen Mother is reported to have left a larger share of… More UK PRESS/GETTY IMAGES
Journalist and friend of Diana’s, Richard Kay, also said in the documentary that “the Queen Mother always made sure Prince William was seated in a prominent seat next to her and Harry never was.”

He added that Diana’s concerns were shared by Charles, who was keen on “making sure the boys shared things in their early years.”

The Queen Mother, who lived to the age of 101, appeared to favor Harry over William later by reportedly leaving him a larger share of money than his brother.

The BBC reported in 2002 that “Princes William and Harry will reportedly share about £14m from the estate of their late great grandmother. The bulk of the cash will go to the younger brother since William will benefit financially by becoming king.”

The Queen Mother married the younger son of the monarch in 1923, never expecting to become queen. In 1936, she and her husband the then-Duke of York were thrust onto the throne as King George VI and Queen Elizabeth following the abdication crisis of Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson. This may account for her decision to financially prioritize Harry.

 

Following Diana’s “confrontation” with her grandmother-in-law, relations between the pair deteriorated even further according to Russell, with the Queen Mother reportedly referring to Diana as “a liar,” and the princess retaliating by calling the aged monarch “the chief leper in the leper colony.”

This year marked the 25th anniversary of the death of Diana in a Paris car crash at the age of 36. It also marks the twentieth anniversary of the death of the Queen Mother.

Do Let’s Have Another Drink! The Dry Wit and Fizzy Life of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother by Gareth Russel is available in the United States on November 1, published by Atria Books/Simon & Schuster.