Princess Diana Once Had the Best Reaction When She Wasn’t Greeted ‘Properly’ as a Royal
There are all kinds of strict rules regarding interacting with British royal family members. However, one royal expert recently revealed Princess Diana had the best reaction to not being properly greeted.
Sally Bedell Smith recently recalled what happened when her son ‘didn’t properly greet’ Princess Diana
Author Sally Bedell Smith is considered an expert on the British monarchy. She has written books such as Prince Charles: The Passions and Paradoxes of an Improbable Life, Elizabeth the Queen: The Life of a Modern Monarch, and Diana in Search of Herself: Portrait of a Troubled Princess.
In a recent To Di for Daily podcast episode, Smith revealed she met Princess Diana in the 1990s on Martha’s Vineyard. Diana was visiting Katharine Graham, The Washington Post’s publisher.
“She was wearing a bikini. And my then-college-aged son — he practically just exploded when he saw her. He didn’t properly greet her at all! I had already instructed my younger children to say, ‘How do you do, ma’am?’ And he didn’t have a chance,” Smith recalled. “He stuck out his hand and said, ‘Hey, how’re you doing?'”
Some royal family members might see that greeting as a slight, but Princess Diana was perfectly at ease. “She laughed,” Smith revealed. “She was adorable.”
The author’s impressions of Princess Diana and King Charles on the occasions she met them
Smith further discussed the Martha’s Vineyard meeting in an interview with Wheaton Magazine. The author shared that Princess Diana’s moods were “variable: and that she could be “very affable” but then “completely shut down.”
“The rest of the afternoon, she was sort of withdrawn,” Smith recalled of their day together. “She was in some respects different from what the public saw.”
Two days after Diana’s death, Smith was asked to write a book about the princess, and she agreed.
Diana isn’t the only royal whom Smith has encountered. In 1991, she saw King Charles at a polo match and noted he seemed “so different from his public persona,” describing him as “charming and warm.”
“This was at a time when the tabloids were filled with stories about how awful he was to Diana,” Smith added. “There was this caricature of him as this stick-in-the-mud type, and he just seemed so different.”
Surprisingly, no formal rules exist on how to greet the royal family
Although Smith had instructed her children on the proper way to greet royals, no official protocol exists for interacting with members of the British monarchy.
According to the royal family’s official website, Royal.uk, there are no “obligatory codes of behavior” one must follow. However, many people choose to “observe the traditional forms.” That could mean anything from a slight bow or curtsy to a handshake. Others choose not to touch a royal unless that family member initiates contact.
Although no official rules exist about touching the royals, there are a few guidelines about addressing them. When meeting a royal family member, one should first refer to them as “Your Royal Highness” — or “Your Majesty” for King Charles — and then “Sir” or “Ma’am.”
