Lady Anne Glenconner, a lifelong friend of Queen Elizabeth II and Lady in Waiting to the Queen's sister, Princess Margaret, lamented in a recent interview about today's generation of royals, who she said "complain and whine" in public, while previous generations remained loyal to the monarchy.
Prince Harry's tell-all memoir "Spare," named for his role as the younger brother of Prince William - the heir to the British throne – exposed deeply personal details about Harry and the British royal family. Critics and allies of the Royal Family have pushed back on Harry's claims, chastising the Duke of Sussex for airing the Windsors' dirty laundry so publicly.
PRINCE HARRY SAYS 400 PAGES CUT FROM BOOK 'SPARE' BECAUSE WILLIAM, CHARLES WOULD NEVER FORGIVE HIM
Glenconner, 90, who served Queen Elizabeth's younger sister Princess Margaret for 30 years, offered insight into the dynamic between Princess Margaret and the Queen in a new interview with PEOPLE. Glenconner told the outlet that unlike today's generation of royals, Princess Margaret never wavered in her loyalty to the Queen.
"I knew Princess Margaret very, very well. And of course, she was a spare for quite a long time. But I mean, she was always completely loyal to the Queen," Glenconner said.
Glenconner said Princess Margaret's only qualm was that she wished she had received a better education.
"The only thing I ever heard her complain about was that she wish she'd been better educated," Glenconner added. "The Queen had people from Oxford and Cambridge universities and Eton College to tutor her. Princess Margaret was left with the governess. But that was the only thing she ever said — that she wished she'd been better educated. But otherwise, I mean, there was no whinging, no complaining."
Glenconner, whose book "Whatever Next? Lessons from an Unexpected Life," comes out on Feb. 21, said she hopes the new generations of royals will take a page out of their ancestor's playbook and learn to complain less.
"When I was talking about the young, that's what they do now — they seem to complain and whinge," she said. "My generation lived through the war and had a really awful childhood. My parents were away for three years. I didn't see them. My father was fighting in El Alamein in Egypt, and my uncle was killed. So when we came out of it, we just felt so lucky to be alive. There's so much to enjoy in this world. I think that my, you know."
"I hate banging on about my generation," Glenconner continued, "but we are quite different."
"Spare" is the latest in a string of public pronouncements by the Duke and Duchess of Sussex since they quit royal life in 2020. At the time, they cited what they saw as the media’s racist treatment of the duchess and a lack of support from the palace.
The memoir hit bookstores on Jan. 10. It sold 1.43 million copies during its first day on sale in the U.K., U.S., and Canada, making it the fastest-selling nonfiction book of all time, Guinness World Records shared.
Harry’s story is dominated by his rivalry with his elder brother Prince William, who is heir to the British throne, and the death of their mother, Princess Diana, in 1997. Harry alleged that during an argument in 2019, William called Markle "difficult" and "rude," then grabbed him by the collar and knocked him down. Harry said he suffered cuts and bruises from landing on a dog bowl. Harry also alleged that William and his now-wife Kate Middleton "howled with laughter" when he notoriously wore a Nazi uniform to a costume party.
The prince also made damning allegations of a toxic relationship between the monarchy and the press, describing how family members would leak unflattering information about other members in exchange for positive coverage of themselves.
Buckingham Palace officials have declined to comment on any of the allegations made in Harry's book.
Fox News' Stephanie Nolasco and Ashley Papa contributed to this report.
