Although Diana died long before she could meet Meghan Markle, royal fans often wonder what she would make of her daughter-in-law.
Now, in the latest episode of Palace Confidential, one of Diana’s closest confidantes, has theorised that she would have found the American actress ‘intriguing’.
Richard Kay, the Editor at Large for the Daily Mail, has reported on the Royal Family since the 1980s, becoming Diana’s close friend ‘in the last five or six years of her life’.
The pair would go for dinner, watch films at the cinema and take scenic drives along the Norfolk coast where the late Princess of Wales grew up.
‘The Diana I knew was amusing,’ Richard said. ‘Not at all as she came across often in public. What I mean by that is she had a wry sense of humour.’
Indeed, Richard and Diana were so close that he was the last person she called before her tragic death in the Pont de l’Alma tunnel in Paris.
Richard is, therefore, well positioned to answer questions from Palace Confidential viewers about Diana – the woman he described as both ‘remarkable’ and his ‘very good friend’.
Writing in the comments of the Daily Mail Royals YouTube channel, a viewer by the name of Debster asked: ‘About how long after meeting Meghan Markle would she [Diana] have sent her packing? I think five minutes, tops.’
Richard Kay, the Daily Mail’s Editor at Large, answers questions from Palace Confidential viewers
Richard became close friends with Diana ‘in the last five or six years of her life’
Taking off his glasses, Richard said he had to ‘disagree’ with Debster.
‘None of us really know,’ he said. ‘But I think there is something about Meghan that Diana would have found not just intriguing but slightly liberating.
‘I think she would have liked Meghan’s independence and the fact that she was able to offer Harry an escape route, if you like, from royal duty.’
But Diana’s close friend was also quick to point out just how ‘disappointed’ she would have been by ‘how things panned out’ between her sons.
The brothers have had a ‘strained relationship’ since Harry and Meghan quit frontline royal duties and moved to California in 2020.
Recent reports have suggested that the Duke of Sussex’s calls to family members including his elder brother Prince William are ignored.
‘I think she would have admired Harry’s decision to settle in America,’ Richard clarified. ‘She wouldn’t have admired, however, the rift with William.
‘I I think she would have been very disappointed by how things panned out but I think initially she would have been very welcoming to [Meghan]. That’s my view.’
Debster asked Richard what Diana would have thought of her daughter-in-law Meghan Markle
‘I think there is something about Meghan that Diana would have found not just intriguing but slightly liberating,’ he said
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle announce their engagement in November 2017. Diana would have been ‘very welcoming’ to the American actress, according to Richard
Although Diana would have ‘admired Harry’s decision to settle in America’, Richard said she would not have been pleased with the rift between her boys
Elsewhere in the episode, Richard spoke of Diana’s own desire to live in the United States.
‘She talked about it right at the very end of her life to me – about settling for a time in the U.S,’ he said.
‘She loved the U.S. I think that if she could, she would have moved there and lived there.
But what was holding Diana back?
Richard believes it was her commitment to William and Harry who were 15 and 12 respectively at the time of her death.
‘She couldn’t just abandon them – they were young boys,’ he said.
‘I don’t think she had quite worked out how she could live in New York or California, for example, and maintain that close contact that she needed to have with William and Harry.
‘As they got older, that might have changed and I could see her living there.’
Diana had a desire to live in America, according to her confidante Richard
The Princess of Wales speaks at the Council of Fashion Designers of America Ball in New York on January 31, 1995
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle at the ESPY Awards in Hollywood on July 11, 2024
Remembering conversations with his dear friend, Richard revealed that Diana thought America would give her greater freedom than she had in Britain.
‘I often asked her what it was about America that attracted her to the country,’ he said.
‘It was this idea that she felt she would be freer somehow, that they took a more nuanced attitude towards celebrity.
‘She based that assumption on the fact that there were so many Hollywood stars who lived their lives pretty much unhindered and she thought that she would just be one among many.
‘When I pointed out that she would be the number one among many, she didn’t agree but that has always been my view.
‘In fact, I think that’s really what Prince Harry has found, that there was huge interest in him when he moved to California, quite above all those home-based American celebrity and Hollywood stars.
‘I think that would have plagued Diana just as much as it plagued her really living in the United Kingdom.’
For more fascinating insights from Richard Kay, watch the latest episode of Palace Confidential in full now and subscribe to the Daily Mail Royals YouTube channel.
