Queen Elizabeth ‘didn’t enjoy’ conversations with Princess Diana

Diana may have been the People’s Princess, but a high-profile member of the Royal Family described spending time with her as “draining”.

Despite being her mum-in-law, the Queen reportedly “didn’t enjoy” having conversations with Princess Diana.

Ingrid Seward, one of the late royal’s former friends and royal editor, claims the monarch was left feeling “drained and confused” following meetings with her son’s wife, reports The Sun.

Writing in her book, The Queen & Di: The Untold Story, editor-in-chief of Majesty magazine Ingrid said: “The Queen came to dread these meetings with her daughter-in-law.

“They left her feeling drained and despondent and confused — an uncommon state for a woman accustomed to the certainties of her position.”

The royal women at a wedding in 1988. Picture: Jayne Fincher/Princess Diana Archive/Getty Images

Seward explained that as a result of this, the pair began to meet less and less.

According to the Express, this was not out of jealousy — which Diana is said to have interpreted it as.

Princess Diana and her mother-in-law, Queen Elizabeth II, in 1981.

However, speaking about Charles and Diana’s popularity at the time of their wedding — one of the most-watched events around the globe — royal author Penny Junor wrote: “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.

“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’.

“‘You were not around’, she said witheringly, ‘when Margaret and I were having our future husbands talent-spotted for us’.”

The Queen with Princess Diana, the Queen mother, Prince Philip and Prince Charles in an official portrait from Prince William’s christening in 1982. Picture: Tim Graham/Getty Images

Despite this, the Queen reached out to Diana following her separation from Charles to invite the princess to a state banquet as well as to Sandringham for Christmas in 1993.

When Princess Diana tragically passed away in 1997, Her Majesty wrote: “It was indeed dreadfully sad, and she is a huge loss to the country.

“But the public reaction to her death, and the service in the Abbey, seem to have united people round the world in a rather inspiring way.

“William and Harry have been so brave and I am very proud of them.”

This story originally appeared on The Sun and was reproduced with permission