Queen Elizabeth and Jaqueline Kennedy were described as having a difficult relationship and were even labeled as "frenemies" by some. When the Netflix series The Crown explored their friendship, Elizabeth and Jackie were portrayed as wary and even hostile toward one another.
The queen invited President John F. Kennedy and Jackie to Buckingham Palace in 1961, which was the first time the pair met in a formal capacity.
There was a guest list for the event, and Queen Elizabeth wasn't initially comfortable with some of the invitees. As Reader's Digest reported, "Traditionally, divorcées are not invited, so the queen has been reluctant to welcome Jackie’s sister Princess Lee Radziwill, who is on her second marriage, or her husband, Prince Stanislaw Radziwill, who is on his third. Under pressure, she relents, but, by way of retaliation, singularly fails to invite Princess Margaret or Princess Marina, both of whose names Jackie has put forward."
British photographer Cecil Beaton claimed that Jackie told him she didn't particularly like Buckingham Palace. Whether this was or wasn't true, the women still met again for a second time for lunch.
When the press asked Jackie about her one-on-one with Queen Elizabeth, she simply replied, "I don’t think I should say anything about it except how grateful I am and how charming she was."
Jackie's former Secret Service agent Clint Hill has shed a little more insight on how the former first lady really felt about the late queen. According to Town & Country Magazine, he said, "They had a good relationship. I know that the press has sometimes written it otherwise, but that’s not really true. The relationship was friendly, more warm than it was cold."
He also said, "They had small children and they had horses. Two things that they could discuss forever."
So in the end, it seems that perhaps the two women were closer than history (and The Crown) have led many of us to believe.
