Queen Elizabeth Delivered a Matter-of-Fact Retort When People Thought Princess Diana Was Haunting Sandringham, Per Author
A "mysterious and unhappy spiritual presence" was causing distress for housemaids at the property.
Royal fans might be surprised to hear that Queen Elizabeth once held a seance of sorts at Sandringham House, but she reportedly called in a local rector after some ghostly stories worried the staff. In his new biography of Queen Elizabeth, author Robert Hardman wrote that Queen Elizabeth stepped in after reports of an “unhappy spiritual presence” in the royal residence.
Princess Diana died in 1997, and in Elizabeth II: In Private. In Public. Her Story, Hardman shared a story about the late Queen’s friend, Prue Penn, staying at Sandringham “not long after” Diana’s tragic death.
“Some of the housemaids had reported sensing a mysterious and unhappy spiritual presence in one of the rooms,” the royal biographer wrote. “There were even mutterings about having an exorcism.”
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Queen Elizabeth called in the rector to investigate the happenings at Sandringham after Diana's death.
Princess Diana and Queen Elizabeth are pictured in 1987.
The always practical Queen “decided the simplest solution was to invite the local rector to investigate,” Hardman wrote.
According to Lady Penn, Queen Elizabeth “got the parson in and he agreed to have a communion service—just Her Majesty, Princess Margaret and me. He sensed a troubled soul unable to leave and he thought it was Diana.”
However, the late Queen wasn't buying it. “‘I shouldn’t think so,’ she told the rector briskly. ‘Diana didn’t like Sandringham much.’”
Prince Charles and Princess Diana are pictured with Prince Harry at Sandringham in 1988.
Her matter-of-fact answer reflected on the years Princess Diana dreaded attending functions at Sandringham, including Christmas, when the family would descend on the Norfolk estate en masse.
"It’s like a pressure cooker, Sandringham at Christmas, of people and emotion," Diana's former butler Paul Burrell once said. "Some can stand it, some can’t. Diana couldn’t stand it."
Diana herself reflected on Christmases at the royal estate in comments she shared with biographer Andrew Morton. “I know I gave, but I can’t remember being a receiver. Isn’t that awful? I do all the presents, and Charles signs the cards. [It was] terrifying and so disappointing,” she told Morton. “No boisterous behavior, lots of tension, silly behavior, silly jokes that outsiders would find odd, but insiders understood. I sure was [an outsider].”
