New Book Reveals Queen Elizabeth's Advice to a 'Struggling' Jackie Kennedy During Awkward Meeting
A new book revisits the advice Queen Elizabeth gave Jackie Kennedy after the First Lady confided her concerns about life in the public eye.
Queen Elizabeth was often described as a woman of few words, choosing careful restraint throughout her reign. Yet when she did offer advice, it carried remarkable weight in people's lives. A new book by Caroline Hallemann recounts one such incident from her 1961 Buckingham Palace meeting with Jackie Kennedy, in which the young First Lady confided in her about her nervousness in the public eye. In response, the late Queen advised her to learn to save herself, a remark that also helped ease any tensions between them.
In her new book, The Kennedys & the Windsors, Hallemann claimed that Jackie and her husband, former US President John F. Kennedy, were disappointed that Buckingham Palace was not as grand as they had hoped, creating an awkward air with the royal family. However, when the First Lady spoke about how she struggled with the spotlight during a recent visit to Canada, Hallemann wrote, "The Queen said, 'You learn to save yourself.'" The author later told Fox News, "I think that interaction between them [Queen and Jackie] is quite telling because, at that moment, Jackie was still a new First Lady. 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."
On that note, the author stressed that the Queen's advice was something she and her family had followed for a long time. "You can't expend all that energy at once because you have to manage it. And I think that helps illustrate how the royals have managed fame." Jackie and John F. Kennedy had met Queen Elizabeth and Prince Phillip at Buckingham Palace as part of their overseas trip. In London, Jackie had spent time with her sister, Lee Radziwill, and her husband, Prince Stanisław Albrecht Radziwiłł of Poland.
Chiming in, royal commentator Meredith Constant also told the outlet that she was not surprised by the conversation between the Queen and the First Lady, and Jackie's alleged displeasure with the Palace renovations. She argued, "Jackie was at the D.C. welcome for then-Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip in 1951...One of the questions she reportedly asked photographers was if Princess Elizabeth was as pretty as her picture. You have to imagine she had Elizabeth and her life built up in her mind, that the reality was somewhat deflating."
While Jackie and the Queen came from different backgrounds and mindsets, royal expert Hilary Fordwich revealed that the late monarch admired Jackie's resilience and strength. She said, "She [Jackie] survived such a trauma, which would have destroyed most, with a public dignity, composure, and class unmatched to this day," referring to John F. Kennedy's assassination. In her book, Hallemann wrote that the Queen was reportedly 'shocked and horrified' by the assassination and immediately reached out to a grieving Jackie. She also wanted to attend John F. Kennedy's funeral, "but given that she was expecting, that wasn't an option," with Prince Phillip attending instead.
