Duchess of York: Princess Diana 'never understood how brilliant she was'

Sarah, Duchess of York and Princess Diana shared a close bond
Sarah, Duchess of York and Princess Diana shared a close bond - Hulton Archive

Princess Diana “never understood how brilliant she was”, Sarah, Duchess of York has said, as she revealed the pair often felt “left in the corner of a room” as Royal spouses.

The Duchess opened up about their shared bond and how they carved out their own roles in the institution with their philanthropic work during her latest podcast episode, revealing the pair would talk “incessantly about charity”.

She said: “She [Diana] never understood how brilliant she was really, you know, and together we both didn’t. And I used to hug her but she wouldn’t understand.”

The Duchess, who was a fourth cousin of the late Princess, said it was “just extraordinary” that the pair “were brought together” by their marriages to Prince Andrew and Prince Charles.

“We loved each other with all our hearts and she made me laugh more than any other single person I’ve ever met in my life,” she told her co-host and close friend Sarah Thomson on their Tea Talks podcast.

She fondly recalled Diana’s “tinkling laughter”, but alluded to her inner turmoil and the loneliness of public life.

The then Prince Charles and Princess Diana with Prince William
The then Prince Charles and the late Princess Diana with Prince William - Tim Graham

She said: “There was nobody like her in the world because she had that ability to give her entire heart because she didn’t give her entire heart to herself.

“It’s been written about many times, and I have decided at 63 to perhaps start understanding what that means. You have to look after yourself.”

The Duchess revealed that Diana, whom the Duchess affectionately called “Duch”, had chosen to champion causes highlighting HIV and AIDS, despite opposition.

“Everyone said, ‘No, you mustn’t go and touch them’. She said ‘why? I know what it’s like to be ostracised. I know what it’s like to be left in the corner of a room’.

“And I know that feeling too, when people don’t wish to talk to you because bad Fergie sells papers.”

Diana and Charles at a picnic in 1989 in Adu Dhab, United Arab Emirates
Diana and Charles at a picnic in 1989 in Adu Dhab, United Arab Emirates - Hulton Archive

Elsewhere on the podcast, in which the two close friends offer personal insights to listeners’ questions and dilemmas, the Duchess was asked about entertaining her grandchildren.

She is grandmother to Princess Beatrice and Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi’s one-year-old daughter, Sienna, and Princess Eugenie and Jack Brooksbank’s two-year-old son, August, and one-month-old son Ernest.

She joked: “The best thing [about] being a grandmother is when you’re sitting in the room and they’re really being naughty, and they won’t put the nappy on or something, you just get up and walk out.

But she suggested there were some chores she could not get out of as grandmother, revealing she had spent the weekend scrubbing her carpet after one-year-old August thought it would be “really fun” to pour bath oils all over it.

The podcasting co-hosts will also be joined by guests in the series and revealed they will be joined on a future episode by Kylie Minogue.