6 Royals Princess Diana Didn't Care For

Diana, Princess of Wales never quite fit in with the royal family. During her explosive interview with the BBC's "Newsnight" in 1995, Diana elaborated on why they treated her like an outsider after she married King Charles III back in 1981. "I do things differently because I don't go by a rule book, [and] because I lead from the heart, not the head," the beloved royal explained, per Bustle. Since she was evidently referring to her tendency to go out of her way to embark on charitable endeavors, it's unsurprising that Diana confirmed that the isolation was well worth the difference she was making in the world. 

Elsewhere in the headline-grabbing chat, the late Princess of Wales also divulged that she didn't look back too fondly on her wedding day to Charles, recalling, "The day I walked down the aisle at St. Paul's Cathedral, I felt that my personality was taken away from me, and I was taken over by the royal machine," (via Business Insider). And she naturally felt the changes in her life more profoundly during the holidays too. Speaking to Andrew Morton for his 1992 biography "Diana — Her True Story," the princess admitted that she dreaded Christmases at Sandringham because she could never get her head around all the really weird royal family traditions. 

To make matters worse, Diana couldn't remember a time when a single royal family member bothered to get her a gift. Despite everything, though, Diana notably didn't let anyone dull her shine and always did what she felt was right whenever possible. Although Diana's free spirit made her the People's Princess, it also drove a wedge between her and several other royal family members. 

Princess Diana reportedly had an icy relationship with the royal family's late matriarch, Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother. According to royal biographer Christopher Wilson, Her Majesty took issue with Diana because she couldn't comprehend how the princess could have so much freedom as a royal family member without any reparations. In fact, in "Diana — Her True Story," author Andrew Morton claimed that the dislike was mutual, noting, "[Diana] keeps a distrustful distance from this matriarchal figure, describing social occasions hosted by the queen mother as stiff and overly formal."

An insider informed Express that the friction between the two women didn't bode well for Diana's position in the royal family since the queen mother supposedly used her influence to isolate her from the other members. While Diana may have kept her grandmother-in-law at arm's length, she wasn't afraid to approach her on behalf of the people who mattered most to her. In Gareth Russell's 2022 biography about the queen mother, "Do Let's Have Another Drink! The Dry Wit and Fizzy Life of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother," he shared that Diana believed that she treated her eldest son William, Prince of Wales, far better than his younger brother Harry, Duke of Sussex. 

She understandably wasn't pleased about the matter and made her feelings known to the matriarch in person. According to Russell, their uncomfortable discussion ultimately weakened their relationship further, leading Diana to refer to the queen mother as "the chief leper in the leper colony." Unsurprisingly, the pair's tense relationship remained fractured until Diana's untimely passing in 1993. 

It's widely known that Princess Diana had an ongoing feud with her sister-in-law Princess Anne. In her book "Prince Edward," royal expert Ingrid Seward proclaimed that King Charles III's younger sister wasn't too fond of Diana from the get-go and made no attempt to hide her dislike either. The Princess of Wales tried to clear the air with Anne about a month before her wedding, but it only made things worse. Seward claimed that the beloved royal approached her soon-to-be sister-in-law while she was in the nursery and busy dealing with her young children. 

"Diana, still only a lady, gave the princess the benefit of a full curtsey and declared: 'Ma'am, how wonderful to see you,'" Seward noted. However, Anne didn't take kindly to the interruption, and according to the royal biographer, "She looked up at Diana — and looked straight through her." Seward continued, "Diana, confronted by the searing force of Anne's scorn, fled the room." Unfortunately, that wasn't the last time that Anne triggered Diana's flight or fight response. 

According to "Diana — Her True Story," nobody bothered to tell the late Princess of Wales that the royal family only exchanged gag gifts on Christmas Eve. As a result, she was humiliated when she opened her present from Anne to find that she had gifted her a toilet paper holder when Diana chose a beautiful cashmere sweater for her. Their relationship was evidently so distant that Diana wasn't even in attendance at Anne's second wedding to Timothy Laurence in 1992.

Diana, Princess of Wales, had a complicated relationship with her mother-in-law, Queen Elizabeth II to say the very least. In Andrew Morton's 1992 biography, he detailed how the late Princess of Wales behaved around the queen, divulging, "Diana was quite simply terrified of her mother-in-law" and "kept the formal obsequies — dropping a deep curtsy each time they met — but otherwise kept her distance." However, the royal biographer pointed out that their relationship improved significantly when Elizabeth gave Diana more freedom. Unfortunately, the decision apparently only caused more trouble in the long run. 

Speaking to Reader's Digest in April 2023, Arianne Chernock, an associate professor of history at Boston University, posited that Her Majesty was bothered by how her daughter-in-law outshone everybody else in the royal family. Elizabeth's feelings caused friction between them, and their bond only grew weaker when King Charles III and Diana's marriage hit rock bottom too. In the 2017 documentary "Diana: In Her Own Words," we heard snippets of a conversation Diana had to express her frustrations about her mother-in-law's cold response to her opening up about her marital problems. 

"So I went to the top lady and said, 'I don't know what I should do,'" Diana recalled, per the New York Post. "She said, 'I don't know what you should do.' And that was it. That was 'help.'" Meanwhile, in another documentary, "Two Golden Queens," the late Princess of Wales' private secretary claimed that the generational gap between the two women prevented an honest and open dialogue from happening and caused the queen to view Diana's behavior as childish.

Much like her fractured bond with his late wife, Diana, Princess of Wales' relationship with her father-in-law Prince Philip was turbulent. In royal expert Ingrid Seward's 2020 book "Prince Philip Revealed," she recounted that Philip provided Diana with some much-needed support when she was adjusting to royal life in the early days of her marriage to King Charles III. However, their tight-knit bond was irrevocably altered after the prince consort learned that she had aired their family's dirty laundry to Andrew Morton for his 1992 biography. 

In the aftermath, Philip and Queen Elizabeth II sat Diana and Charles down and urged them to put the monarchy above their marital issues going forward. Additionally, the late royal also penned several letters to his daughter-in-law to foster a reconciliation between the pair. Sadly, Seward professed that Diana ultimately "came to dislike Prince Philip as she found him impossible to deal with." According to the royal biographer, the People's Princess believed, "He might be entertaining as a dinner guest, but as a father-in-law, he was too judgmental." 

Meanwhile, Philip supposedly grew increasingly frustrated with Diana because of her public bad-mouthing of the royal family, which he loved more than anything else. According to the princess's former royal butler Paul Burrell's 2000 book "A Royal Duty," Philip wrote Diana a letter in which he claimed that her supposedly unpredictable behavior drove Charles away and brought him closer to Camilla Parker Bowles. Further, during a 2008 inquest, Simone Simmons, a complementary therapist who was friendly with the late Princess of Wales, disclosed that he had penned two extremely insulting letters that made Diana "red in the face," per The Guardian.

According to Princess Diana's dance teacher, Anne Allan's, 2024 book, "Dancing With Diana: A Memoir," she revealed the beloved royal confided in her about her marital problems. "I just can't seem to do anything right when it comes to my husband," the late Princess of Wales confessed as she teared up. "I do love him so much and want him to be proud of me, but I don't think he feels the same way." On another occasion, Diana cried as she told Allan that she was in tremendous emotional turmoil because she wanted to work on her marriage to King Charles III, but he had no desire to communicate with her. 

Meanwhile, when Diana spoke to Andrew Morton for his 1992 biography, the People's Princess devastatingly acknowledged that she realized their marriage was doomed only two days after the happy couple walked down the aisle to tie the kont. Eventually, Diana grew so frustrated and sad about their unhappy relationship that she tried to take her own life by throwing herself down a flight of stairs — while she was pregnant too.

While her mother-in-law Queen Elizabeth II was shaken up by the incident, Charles seemed pretty nonchalant and even went out horse-riding shortly afterward. "My husband made me feel so inadequate in every possible way," Diana declared to Morton. "Every time I tried to come up for air, he pushed me back down again." Ultimately, Charles and Diana both reportedly had several affairs before they officially separated in 1992. 

If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, help is available. Call or text 988 or chat 988lifeline.org

In royal biographer Penny Junor's book "The Duchess," she noted that King Charles III didn't tell Diana, Princess of Wales, that Camilla Parker Bowles was his ex-girlfriend and only introduced her as a dear friend. As a result, Diana and Queen Camilla initially shared a cordial relationship. However, the Princess of Wales found deeply personal gifts that the pair had exchanged and started suspecting they were closer than her husband maintained. The dynamic between the two women obviously soured once Charles made Diana aware of the truth in the days following their engagement. Diana later grew to dislike Camilla to the point where she created a shady nickname for her which was totally cutthroat. 

In "Diana: The Last Word," which was penned by Simone Simmons, she included that the royal had dubbed Camilla "The Rottweiler" because "once she has got her teeth into someone she won't let go." The People's Princess didn't shy away from publicly shading the future queen consort either. When BBC's Martin Bashir asked Diana if Camilla had played a role in the downfall of her marriage, she infamously answered, "There were three of us in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded." 

Meanwhile, a 1991 recording of a private conversation revealed what really happened when Diana confronted Camilla about Charles. According to The Mirror, the beloved royal point-blank asked the future queen consort about the true nature of her relationship with her husband. Although Camilla tried arguing that Diana should just be grateful for her blessed life, since "You've got everything you've ever wanted," the princess stood her ground and stated firmly, "I want my husband."