Queen Elizabeth II gave Jackie Kennedy a piece of advice that helped ease any awkwardness between the two iconic women. The claim was made by Caroline Hallemann, author of “The Kennedys & the Windsors,” which explores the two dynasties and how their paths crossed over the years.
Advice on Navigating Fame
Hallemann noted that although the two women were hardly kindred spirits when they met, the monarch’s words left a lasting mark on the first lady. “There’s a great quote that Queen Elizabeth allegedly said to Jackie during their 1961 meeting at Buckingham Palace,” Hallemann told Fox News Digital. “Jackie had been talking about how she struggled a bit on a recent visit to Canada being in the public eye, being in the spotlight all the time.”
The queen said, ‘You learn to save yourself,’ said Hallemann. “And I think that interaction between them is quite telling because, at that moment, Jackie was still a new first lady. She was shining brightly and was making such an impact on the global stage. By contrast, Queen Elizabeth had not only been queen for several years but had known for many years that it would eventually be her future.”
A Lasting Impact
According to Hallemann, the first lady accompanied her husband, President John F. Kennedy, to Buckingham Palace in June 1961. The visit was part of an overseas trip during which she spent time with her sister, Lee Radziwill, who lived in London with her husband, Prince Stanisław Albrecht Radziwiłł of Poland, and their infant daughter.
While Kennedy was excited to meet the royals, she was reportedly disappointed that the palace wasn’t as grand as she had hoped. In the book, Kennedy was reportedly “unimpressed by the drafty, aging building.”
Kennedy’s friend, photographer and legendary gossip Cecil Beaton, wrote in his diaries that the first lady found the royals “tremendously kind and nice.” However, “she was not impressed by the flowers, or the furnishings of the apartments at Buckingham Palace or by the queen’s dark blue tulle dress and shoulder straps, or her flat hairstyle.”
Despite initial reservations, the two women eventually developed a deep appreciation for one another. “Both women discovered shared interests, but one of the biggest was projecting a particular image of their family,” said royal commentator Meredith Constant.
Original reporting: Fox News (HLL/CB) — read the source article.
