25 years ago, the Queen of England was having her worst year ever
1992 was a nightmare for the family, and the Queen admitted it
Donning a dark green dress and matching hat, the Queen stood before a audience of 500 in London’s great Guildhall. The luncheon was in honor of the monarch’s fortieth year on the throne. But instead of celebrating four decades of a virtually untarnished reputation, her speech chimed a somber note. The royal family, with Her Majesty at its helm, was on the brink of breaking down.
On November 24, only four days after Windsor Castle burst into flames, Queen Elizabeth II addressed a group of luminaries, and by extension, the people of the United Kingdom. She told the crowd, “1992 is not a year on which I shall look back with undiluted pleasure…It has turned out to be an ‘Annus Horribilis.’”
In a personal and almost defeated tone, her reflections on the “horrible year” her family had just endured seemed to seep from her mouth. Her voice was fatigued. Marital scandals and other brutal stories were still fresh in the public’s memory.
It was during these 12 tumultuous months that the royal family’s image began to change.
British tabloids kicked off 1992 with intimate photos of Sarah Ferguson — the wife of the Queen’s second son, Prince Andrew — with Texas oil tycoon Steve Wyatt. The Duchess of York, Ferguson’s royal title, denied rumors of having an affair. Two months later, Andrew and “Fergie’s” imminent breakup bumped election coverage off the front pages. On March 19, Buckingham Palace announced the couple’s separation.
Five weeks later, the Queen’s only daughter, Princess Anne, and her husband, Captain Mark Phillips, ended their 18-year marriage in a “quickie” divorce (Neither spouse was in court when the judge dissolved the marriage in just four minutes.) Phillips not only had an affair with a New Zealand teacher years earlier, but he had also fathered a child with her.
The first, but not the last, of the royal children’s divorces, the split began chipping away at the family’s nobility. Echoes of King Edward VIII—who abdicated the throne to marry a two-time divorcee—reverberated across the nation. Although Anne didn’t face the kind of unwavering royal establishment and conventional government Edward had 56 years earlier, she did push the House of Windsor toward defying centuries of regal customs and traditions.
And then summer hit. Someone on the inside suddenly edged closer to the outside: Diana, Princess of Wales.
On June 16, 1992, Diana: Her True Story was published. The book, written by former tabloid reporter Andrew Morton, told the world about Diana’s loveless marriage to the heir apparent, Prince Charles. Her eating disorders and suicide attempts were no longer under wraps. Diana was cast as the palace’s isolated princess, trapped by a dysfunctional, emotionless family. As the documentary, Inside Buckingham Palace: The Queen’s Worst Year, put it, “Diana had deliberately broken one of the most sacred rules of the monarchy.” She talked about her problems living among the royal family, with journalists no less.
The palace made no comment on the explosive biography, as was customary with scandalous news. Diana denied having anything to do with the book, but made it clear she was not angry at those who had shared her personal experiences. It wasn’t until after Diana’s death in 1997 that Morton revealed the Princess provided interviews and photos for the book, edited the manuscript in her own handwriting, signed off on every page, and chose the book’s cover image.
Even though suspicions swirled around the book’s contents and Morton was called a liar for his portrayal of the Princess, the truth was out.
By the end of the summer, tabloids competed to see who could expose the raciest royal scoop. So when The Daily Mirror got a hold of photos showing the Duchess of York, who had just separated from Prince Andrew, lying topless next to her financial adviser, John Bryan, apparently letting him suck on her toes, the paper splashed it across 10 pages.
The palace condemned the press’s decision to run the story, but the paper’s editor argued that it “revealed the hypocrisy surrounding the duchess’ relationship with Mr. Bryan.”
Meanwhile, the country questioned the moral standards of the rest of the family.
Four days after the “toe-sucking scandal,” The Sun printed the transcript of a phone call between Diana and longtime friend, James Gilbey. “Squidgygate” as the story became known (“Squidgy” being Gilbey’s pet name for Diana), shed more light on Diana’s depression: “If you want to be like me,” she told Gilbey, “you have got to suffer.”
It seemed no royal matter was off limits. The press continued to broadcast the palace’s problems, while the monarchy’s popularity slid to a new low. Some Britons challenged the need for the crown at all. As the embarrassment began to “spread up the generations,” as Private Eye editor Ian Slope put it, the sunset of the regal institution was a real possibility.
The last piercing headline before the Queen declared 1992 a “horrible year” was “Camillagate” — a cringeworthy phone call between Prince Charles and the woman he would later marry, Camilla Parker Bowles. The two swapped so many “I love yous” that the palace had to acknowledge the bitter falling out between Charles and Diana. To the public, it was a fairytale undone.
At the time, no one could have predicted how this turbulent period would end for the royals. In retrospect, it summed up perhaps the worst year of the Queen’s 64-year reign. Then on November 9, Windsor Castle went up in flames. The private home of the Queen and a symbol of British continuity was in ruins. The honorable residence and royal family were gutted, open for all to see.
Outwardly, the Queen accepted all that had transpired in her fortieth year on the throne: “No institution — City, Monarchy, whatever — should expect to be free from the scrutiny of those who give it their loyalty and support, not to mention those who don’t.”
Then she reminded her country that the royal family are, at the end of the day, human. “We are all part of the same fabric of our national society, and that scrutiny, by one part or another, can be just as effective if it is made with a touch of gentleness, good humour and understanding,” she said. “This sort of questioning can also act, and it should do so, as an effective engine for change.”
For years to come, the monarchy would not only have to evolve with an increasingly modern society, but the family would continue to be at the center of public humiliation and tragedy. From Charles and Diana’s adulterous marriage to the premature death of the “People’s Princess,” the dreadful events of the 1990s made the royal family who they are today.
