The Queen has always kept a calm demeanour throughout her 70-year reign, but a new biography reveals her “despair” during the divorces of three of her four children.
According to author Robert Hardman’s upcoming book, Queen of Our Times: The Life of Queen Elizabeth II, Her Majesty found the periods life during which Prince Charles, Prince Andrew and Princess Anne’s marriages came to an end “deeply upsetting”.
In an excerpt published in PEOPLE Magazine, Hardman writes that although the 95-year-old monarch appeared “outwardly stoical, as ever”, former members of the Royal Household said that “every now and then, there would be a glimpse of her despair”.
He quotes on former staffer as saying that the divorces “distressed her much more than she let on”.
The staffer said they attempted to comfort the Queen and reassure her that divorce was “almost common practice”.
But they quoted Her Majesty as replying: “Three out of four!” with “sheer sadness and exasperation”, Hardman writes.
Anne was the first of the Queen’s children to be divorced. She separated from her husband of 19 years, Captain Mark Phillips, in 1989 and divorced in 1992.
Charles and Andrew both divorced from Princess Diana and Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York, respectively, in the same year.
Both princes separated from their wives in 1992 and were officially divorced in 1996.
That year also saw a massive fire break out in Windsor Castle, which destroyed 115 rooms. It took five years to complete the restoration project.
The Queen famously described 1992 as her “annus horriblis” (a Latin phrase that translates to “disastrous year”) in a speech to mark the 40th anniversary of her accession.
However, the monarch maintained a “completely steady” approach to her work throughout the tumultuous period and “got on with it”, according to her former press secretary.
Charles Anson tells Hardman in the book that there was not “a single occasion” that the Queen avoided dealing with problems.
“The issue was sometimes embarrassing, but she got on with it,” he was quoted as saying. “It is immensely reassuring in those situations to work for someone who isn’t knocked back.”
Anson added that the Queen was “never short; never irritable; completely steady”.
Former prime minister, Sir John Major, also spoke to Hardman for the book and described the Queen as someone who would “always put her head down and plough through” any storm.
“The Queen has always lived by the doctrine, ‘This too shall pass’,” he said.
The Independent has contacted Buckingham Palace for comment.
