Queen Elizabeth has always had a close relationship with her family and she’s proud of that. Some of the worst moments in her life occured when her beloved family was hurting, like during the 1992 “Annus horribilis” (horrible year) when Prince Charles and Princess Diana separated, Princess Anne got divorced, and Sarah Ferguson got caught in a toe-sucking photo scandal. It was all too much to take, even for the resilient queen.
But Queen Elizabeth’s troubles weren’t relegated to a single year, unfortunately. Even before those tragic events in the early 90s, the queen was suffering a different sort of heartbreak — apparently, she wasn’t seeing enough of her grandson Prince William, and that was starting to take a toll.
Queen Elizabeth has a special bond with Prince William
The queen is a dotinggrandmother to her many grandchildren and great-grandchildren. But shefeels an especially close connection to Prince William, the eldest son ofPrince Charles and Princess Diana. It’s because she knows exactly what hisfuture holds and sympathizes with his life.
One royal biographer even claims that the queen felt “great sadness” over her lack of involvement in Prince William’s early life. While she should have been instructing and guiding him, Princess Diana was extremely wary of the “establishment” of the royal family and tried to provide guidance herself instead.
Diana’s private secretary Patrick Jepherson explained, “It was no secret that towards the end of her [Princess Diana’s] life, reactionary elements in the establishment were questioning her desirability as a mentor in the art of kingship.”
The queen offered PrinceWilliam gentle guidance
Everything changed after Prince Charles andPrincess Diana separated. In the book “My Husband and I: The Inside Story of 70Years of the Royal Marriage,” biographer and royal expert Ingrid Seward explained:“The one person who could help, who had to help, was the Queen.”
“Sheknew only too well what pressures William was facing. She told her advisors shefeared he might crack up like his mother had.”
Seward said Prince William and Queen Elizabeth, along with the Duke of Edinburgh, began having frequent lunches together and began discussing the young prince’s future. Their time spent together also helped them forge a closer relationship than ever.
“They talked in a way they never could havedone before. One of her great sadnesses was that, until the separation, she hadhardly seen him,” Seward wrote.
The queen and Prince William are still close today
It wasn’t guaranteed to turn out this way, but luckily Prince William and his grandmother Queen Elizabeth still have a very close relationship. She’s also become quite taken with the Duke of Cambridge’s wife, Kate Middleton, and even made her a Dame Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order, the highest honor she could bestow.
Very few people know precisely what it’s like to rule a nation. But Queen Elizabeth does know… and before long, her grandson Prince William will, too. It’s clear that these two will have a special bond that will last forever based on that commonality alone.
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