Awkward’ moment when Princess Diana ‘tried to hug’ Queen Elizabeth II

Princess Diana once tried to hug Queen Elizabeth II to find comfort- an act that awkwardly ended due to Her Majesty’s long practice to conceal emotions.

The former Princess of Wales stepped forward to show affection towards her mother-in-law back in the day and the story around has been resurfaced in Prince Harry’s memoir.

He writes in ‘Spare’: “There was a famous story about Mummy trying to hug Granny. It was actually more a lunge than a hug, if eyewitnesses can be believed; Granny swerved to avoid contact, and the whole thing ended very awkwardly, with averted eyes and murmured apologies. Every time I tried to picture the scene it reminded me of a thwarted pickpocketing, or a rugby tap-tackle. “

Adding further of the Royal Family practice of distance, Harry continued: “I wondered, watching Granny rock out to Brian May, if Pa ever tried? Probably not. When he was five or six, Granny left him, went off on a royal tour lasting several months, and when she returned, she offered him a firm handshake. Which may have been more than he ever got from Grandpa. Indeed, Grandpa was so aloof, so busy traveling and working, he barely saw Pa for the first several years of his life.”