When Princess Diana married King Charles in July 1981, she became acquainted with other members of the Royal Family. According to a royal biographer, Diana once made some remarks about Charles’s brother, Andrew Mountbatten Windsor, and she wasn’t exactly complimentary.
In his book, Entitled: The Rise and Fall of the House of York, royal biographer Andrew Lownie claimed that Princess Diana wasn’t initially a fan of the former Prince Andrew. “He was very, very noisy and loud,” Diana wrote, per Lownie (via the Daily Mail). “It occurred to me that there was something troubling him.”
The former Princess of Wales apparently said that Andrew’s personality “wasn’t for [her],” while claiming he was “very happy to sit in front of the television all day watching cartoons and videos.” Diana also reportedly said Andrew was “not a doer,” suggesting he lacked ambition.
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Princess Diana, Sarah Ferguson, and Prince Andrew during a skiing vacation in 1987.
(Image credit: Getty Images)
Andrew Lownie
‘Entitled: The Rise and Fall of the House of York’
According to Lownie, Diana wasn’t the only person to evaluate Andrew’s character. “One moment he would be diligent and polite, the next aggressive and rude,” the biographer wrote. “Like his father [Prince Philip], he had a short temper, a rather Germanic sense of humor, and did not bear fools gladly.”
Noting that Prince Philip appeared to favor Andrew, Lownie explained, “Whereas Charles was sensitive and thoughtful, Andrew was macho, confident, and extroverted, the sort of son Philip had always wanted.”
King Charles, Princess Diana, Sarah Ferguson, and Prince Andrew skiing together in 1987.
(Image credit: Getty Images)
In fact, Andrew’s temperament has been written about by a number of royal biographers. In Tom Quinn’s book, Yes Ma’am: The Secret Life of Royal Servants, a former staff member revealed, “A bit like his aunt [Princess] Margaret, Andrew always behaved as if he was frustrated about not being the first-born and therefore destined to become king.”
Tom Quinn
‘Yes Ma’am: The Secret Life of Royal Servants’
The source further explained to Quinn, “If he liked a member of his staff, he could be very loyal and supportive, but he couldn’t resist being imperious and bossy and bad-tempered if anything went wrong or wasn’t done exactly to his liking.”
It seems as though Princess Diana had her opinions about the former Duke of York, just like everybody else.
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Prince Andrew
Diana