The late Queen Elizabeth believed that Princess Diana should have married a different member of the royal family, a biographer has claimed.
In the new book ‘My Mother and I’, author Ingrid Seward has claimed that one month before her wedding, Diana was invited to Prince Andrew’s 21st birthday party at Windsor.
The then 20-year-old had not seen her fiance, Charles, for a while as he had been away in America so she wanted to spend time with him.
When he did not seem interested, she danced with the other men at the party and then alone, according to Ms Seward.
At some point in the night, footman Mark Simpson says he saw Diana in the castle quadrangle “looking exhausted and lost in her thoughts yet still moving in slow, rhythmic time to some tune in her head”.
And at about 5.30am, Diana left to go to her father’s home and tell him she didn’t want to marry Prince Charles, Ms Seward claims.
According to the biographer, Queen Elizabeth would have preferred Diana to marry Prince Andrew, who was only a year older than her. She worried Diana could not differentiate between Charles as a man and as the Prince.
Ms Seward wrote in her book: “The Queen, alert to a possible new woman in her son’s life, had just two reservations.
“She wondered whether anyone that young could differentiate between the man and the Prince. And she couldn’t help thinking that the Spencer girl would be far better suited to her younger son, Andrew.
“The Queen Mother took a more positive approach. In a grandmotherly intervention, she invited Diana and Charles for a few days’ stalking a month later at Birkhall, her house on the Balmoral estate.”
While there, an insider claimed that Diana was “everywhere”, “oozing charm” and “being terribly gracious”. The royal source said: “She looked marvellous, very relaxed and quite thrilled with herself.”
But Charles “certainly didn’t look as though he had just found the most wonderful girl in the world”.
The royal author went on to say that Charles and Diana discussed the issues they might have, including their 12-year age gap and the pressures she might feel if they got married.
