In the days following Princess Diana‘s tragic death in 1997, thousands gathered outside Buckingham Palace, leaving behind flowers and tears.
But Queen Elizabeth II — who notoriously had a complicated relationship with the Princess of Wales — remained conspicuously silent.
It was five long days before the queen, who by now had been accused by the public and the press of being insensitive and downright cold, finally addressed the nation.
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“We have all been trying in our different ways to cope,” she said in her speech to the world on Sept. 5. “It is not easy to express a sense of loss, since the initial shock is often succeeded by a mixture of other feelings: disbelief, incomprehension, anger — and concern for those who remain.”
She went on to pay tribute to Diana, calling her “an exceptional and gifted human being. In good times and bad, she never lost her capacity to smile and laugh, nor to inspire others with her warmth and kindness. I admired and respected her,” she insisted.
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But the damage was done. The queen’s initial silence seemed to cement the belief that she had a rocky relationship with Diana, especially as her marriage to then-Prince Charles fell apart.
Now, more than two decades later, the Examiner can reveal Elizabeth eventually had a change of heart about Diana. “On the queen’s deathbed,” says a source, “she admitted she was wrong about Diana! For years, she had regrets about how she treated Diana, but she never went as far as to say she was wrong about Diana.”
The queen felt immense guilt, says the source. “Had she and Charles treated Diana differently, the course of history would have changed and maybe Diana would be alive today,” says the source.
“The queen blamed Charles for causing Diana to unravel,” adds the source. “In a way, she felt he was responsible for her death because he set her on a path with the divorce that ended in tragedy.”
According to palace whispers, Elizabeth also believed she had failed to show compassion at key moments — like during the contentious divorce.
“Diana was right to feel sad, confused and shocked by the terms of that divorce,” the insider says. “If the queen were able to do it over again, she would no doubt have spared Diana grief by leaving her ‘Her Royal Highness’ status intact despite the divorce from Charles.”
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Stripping Diana of her HRH title meant she was technically no longer a member of the royal family. In public events, she had to curtsy to her former husband. And she no longer was supplied security by the palace. She did keep the Princess of Wales title and was awarded a lump sum of about $26 million.
“It was obvious Diana could have been treated better,” says the source. “And while she had her faults, Charles could have been a much better husband to her. If he hadn’t carried on with Camilla — the third person in their marriage, as Diana once pointed out — the unfolding of events over time might have played out very differently.”
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The queen may have shared her remorse with Diana. In his new book, The Royal Insider, Diana’s longtime, trusted butler, Paul Burrell, reveals that when he was going through Diana’s belongings after her death, he found letters the queen had written to the princess. He doesn’t say if he read them, only that he destroyed them. When he brought the letters up to the queen months later, he told her, “That shredding machine is smoking, Your Majesty.”
In the wake of Diana’s tragic death, speculation about a palace cover-up swirled. “Because the queen remained silent for five long days, some people started to wonder if the palace was hiding something about the investigation into Diana’s death,” says the source.
“The silence did so much damage to the monarchy, even leading some to accuse the royals of having Diana killed.”
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Mohamed Al Fayed — father of Diana’s lover Dodi Fayed, who also died in the crash — was a proponent of the conspiracy theory that Diana’s death was not an accident, but rather a plot involving MI6 at the instruction of The Firm.
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“The rumors were preposterous, but they had an effect on the already guilt-ridden queen, who was always cast as Diana’s opposite — duty versus emotion, tradition versus change, icy reserve versus warm humanity,” says the source. “Yet in the end, she recognized how Diana touched people’s hearts in a way the queen couldn’t.”
The devastating impact Diana’s death had on her sons, Prince William and Prince Harry, also weighed on the monarch.
“Although she knew she wasn’t responsible for Diana’s death, she was always trying to make it up to them,” says the source.
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“She became more involved in William’s and Harry’s lives and was a loving mentor to them, wanting to protect them from those who had hounded Diana to her death.”
“It was her way of making amends — by ensuring Diana’s boys were cared for and shielded in a way their mother had not been,” adds the source.
When Elizabeth finally passed, her family was at her bedside, and her conscience was clean. “By admitting she was wrong about Diana,” says the source, “everything was made right in the queen’s eyes — and she was able to die in peace.”