Royal Family
Queen Mother and Princess Diana had a complicated relationship with each other. Pictured: Royal family flanked by the Queen and the Queen mother, as Prince Charles and the Duke of Edinburgh stand behind them, at Buckingham Palace. Getty Images/PA/AFP

Princess Diana reportedly resented Prince Charles for always prioritizing Queen Mother over her.

Royal expert Sarah Bradford wrote in the book “Diana” that Princess Diana wasn’t pleased with how Prince Charles would always offer Queen Mother a drink before turning to her. Princess Diana was told that this was actually normal as grandmothers and mothers usually came before wives.

Princess Diana’s upbringing was not similar to how Prince Charles was raised so it is no surprise that they had trouble finding a common ground with their many differences. During her honeymoon with the future king, Princess Diana refused to show up because she was upset.

Prince Charles was placed in an awkward situation because other members of the royal family were also there with them. Queen Elizabeth II asked Prince Charles to go upstairs and persuade his wife to come down so that they could eat together, but the Princess of Wales still refused.

“Can you imagine any of us with our mother-in-law, can you imagine anybody, whether they were staying with their mother-in-law in a hovel somewhere, who would actually start not to do with their mother-in-law wanted on their honeymoon?” Bradford said.

Despite Princess Diana’s questionable behavior, the members of Prince Charles’ family did not publicly humiliate her. In fact, Prince Philip was even sympathetic to the mom of two. The Duke of Edinburgh was especially warm towards Princess Diana especially during dinner when she was overcome with shyness.

However, Princess Diana did not receive the same treatment from the late Queen Mother.

“Of the older generation, Queen Mother remained an enigma to Diana herself, although those who knew her well detected she did not like her. That Diana’s grandmother, Ruth Fermoy, later joined the ranks of those who denigrated her could be taken as an accurate reflection of her friend and employer’s views,” Bradford said.

On the contrary, Queen Mother had a very close relationship with Prince Charles. When she passed away in 2002, Prince Charles declared that his grandmother meant everything to him.