Feuds Jealousy & Reb Ellion The Wars Of The Windsor Women

Tiaras at Dawn! Shocking New Revelations Rock the Royals

- Judy Kean

The public may have adored her, but Princess Diana wasn’t a huge hit with some of her in-laws.

While her complicated relationships with some royals have been well-documented, including with her ex-husband Prince Charles, it’s now been revealed that she also didn’t get on with her sister-in-law Princess Anne.

There was tension in the air when the two were together, largely because Anne felt overshadowed by the younger and prettier Diana, according to a new TV show. And while Anne was busy carrying out her royal duties in a traditional and serious way, Diana stole the spotlight with her more casual approach, including her habit of hugging people, something Anne has never done.

Their fraught relationship is examined in the documentary Paxman on the Queen’s Children, in which TV presenter Jeremy Paxman digs into the family dynamics between the Queen’s four offspring and their spouses.

Jeremy says Diana, who had just turned 20 when she married Charles (then 32), made Anne (then 30) feel that she was out of touch and eclipsed. Fellow journalist and longtime royal reporter Richard Kay agrees, telling Jeremy that Anne had no time for Diana.

“She didn’t like the way she went about her duty and the way she used the camera and the media to promote herself, in her eyes. Anne had a much more traditional approach to monarchy and royal duty.”

Anne also disapproved of the high jinks of Diana and fellow royal wife Sarah, Duchess of York. She was most unimpressed when, during a summer break at Balmoral in Scotland, her sisters-in-law took the Queen’s Daimler on a joy ride.