Why Queen Elizabeth Wasn’t Impressed By Princess Diana ‘Mania’ During Prince Charles Marriage

While the press seemed to be obsessed with Princess Diana during her time in the Royal Family, Queen Elizabeth reportedly didn’t understand the public’s interest in Prince Charles’ wife.

When Diana married Charles in 1981, she was thrust into the spotlight and followed by paparazzi. Although one courtier believed it was the first time the Royal Family dealt with that level of attention, Queen Elizabeth revealed the employee was mistaken.

In the book, “The Firm,” Penny Junor claimed Princess Diana’s level of fame wasn’t unique. “Diana’s popularity was phenomenal, but it was not the first time that the nation, or indeed the world, had fallen in love with a beautiful royal princess,” she explained.

“When the mania over Diana was at its height, one of the Queen’s courtiers said, ‘Ma’am, you will never have seen anything like the publicity Charles and Diana are having.’”

However, Elizabeth informed the staffer she had a similar experience during her earlier years. “‘You were not around,’ she said witheringly, ‘when Margaret and I were having our future husbands talent-spotted for us.’”

Although there aren’t photographs that documented her courting process, Elizabeth understood the interest people had about a royal’s personal life.

“In comparison with the width and breadth and depth of the media in those days, it was just as great if not greater. Daily we were being lined up with some new suitor,” Junor wrote of Elizabeth.

The courtier admitted the conversation with Queen Elizabeth helped him to understand her perspective about Princess Diana.

“I couldn’t argue. People turned out in their thousands not just in Britain but in the countries she visited all over the world to see Princess Elizabeth, and cheer her. Monarchy at that time was revered in a way that the youth of today would find incomprehensible.”

While Queen Elizabeth insisted her daughter-in-law’s level of fame was nothing new for the Royal Family, Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s marriage seems to be shaking up the monarchy in unexpected ways.