Family life provided the biggest shocks during her record-breaking reign. In 1992, her daughter Anne divorced her husband Mark Phillips, Charles split from Diana, and Andrew separated from Sarah Ferguson.
Compounded by a major fire at her favoured Windsor Castle home west of London, the queen called the 12 months her “annus horribilis”. After Diana’s death in 1997, the queen initially rejected the idea that Charles would marry his long-term mistress Camilla Parker Bowles. She did not attend their civil wedding in Windsor in 2005 but did organise a reception at the castle. Asked about Charles’ criticism of their mother, Anne said: “I don’t believe any of us for a second thought that she didn’t care for us in exactly the same way as any other mother did. “I just think it extraordinary that anybody could construe that that might not be true,” she told the BBC.
Relationship with Princess Diana:
Queen Elizabeth had approved of Diana’s marriage to her oldest son, Charles in the year 1981. The prince married Lady Diana Spencer at London’s St. Paul’s Cathedral in a fairy-tale wedding watched by an estimated 750 million people worldwide. They later divorced in 1996 after the royal family was rocked by revelations about the news of infidelity. Charles has been a controversial royal over the years, from his affair while married to Princess Diana, and alleged persistent political interference, to occasional gaffes…
