Sarah, Duchess of York has said she and Diana, Princess of Wales loved each other “with all our hearts” and said they talked “incessantly” about charity. Sarah, speaking on the third episode of her Tea Talks podcast on Thursday, also spoke about the close relationship she has with her daughters Princess Eugenie and Princess Beatrice.
The duchess, who is known to her now-three grandchildren as GG, said she had the family over at the weekend and they had an “incredible” time. Eugenie and husband Jack Brooksbank welcomed Ernest George Ronnie Brooksbank on May 30.
Sarah has three grandchildren – Ernest, who the duchess revealed is known as Ernie, Eugenie’s eldest son August and Beatrice’s daughter Sienna. She also has a step-grandson, Wolfie – Beatrice’s stepson.
Speaking about Diana, Sarah said: “Diana and I, we definitely talked incessantly about charity. We, both of us, we loved to give. So she was very similar to me.
"She 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. And her mother and my mother were at school together. And they were best friends. And Diana was my fourth cousin, and you know it’s just extraordinary that we were brought together.
"And 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.”
Sarah said there is “nobody like her (Diana) in the world because she had that ability to give her entire heart because she didn’t give her entire heart to herself”. Reflecting on Diana’s charity work, Sarah said: “Diana and I talked about when she did HIV/Aids, when she started really highlighting it. And everyone said ‘No, you mustn’t go and touch them’. And 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 that’s what she did. And I know that feeling too, when people don’t wish to talk to you because bad Fergie sells papers. They’ve already judged you and you’re left alone."
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Sarah said she was inspired by Diana, who she refers to as Dutch, when she began her royal life: "I remember when I first became a princess with Dutch, and I watched her work a room, and I just copied her. I mirrored her, how she did it, because she was just incredible."
Sarah added: “She just immediately went in with her heart, full heart, full energy, and she left everything outside the door."
Meanwhile, Sarah talked about the fun weekend she had with her grandchildren.
“So my grandchildren had the most incredible weekend,” she said. I was very lucky. I had everybody in. I had Edo and Beatrice and Jack and Eugenie and August and new Ernest. Well, Ernie.”
She said her granddaughter Sienna is “just a completely independent fabulous joy”: “And she has a relationship with Beatrice the same relationship I have, which is only mummy, mummy is mummy. And no one else does, just mummy.
“And I still have that with Beatrice and she’s 34. And I wrote to her this morning, I said, Beatrice, the relationship you have with Sienna is the same relationship I have with you,” she said.
Sarah added: “Beatrice and Eugenie both want their mummy, which is kind of nice. We’re a tripod.”
