Navigating life in the spotlight as a member of the royal family can’t be easy, and Princess Diana never tried to hide what a struggle it could be sometimes. But looking back, it sounds like she may have had an old family friend in her corner the whole time who became one of her closest confidantes: Elsa Bowker.
In royal expert Sally Bedell Smith’s Substack newsletter, Royal Extra, she shared intel about those who were close with Diana during her life, such as her crew of “surrogate mothers.” That group included Elsa Bowker, an older woman who ended up becoming one of her dearest friends.
“Effortlessly, Elsa enchanted all kinds of people, from great aristocrats to high ranking politicians and bureaucrats; from the mixed company in a doctor’s waiting room to the nuns in Burma who kept her picture on the walls of their convent,” an insider told Sally. “She spoke with heavily accented femme fatale English that would have earned her a fortune in Hollywood. Her personality and vitality were pure Mediterranean.”
Though Elsa was in her mid-80s when she and Diana were at their closest, it didn’t stop them from forming a tight bond.
“She was extremely close, incredibly close. They used to laugh a lot, see each other all the time, more than anyone else I could mention,” Elisabeth, Baroness Ampthill, told Sally.
Sally also spoke to Elsa herself for her book Diana In Search of Herself and is sharing what Elsa told her again in her newsletter years later. Elsa was introduced to Diana by Oliver Hoare, an art dealer who was once reportedly romantically linked to the Princess of Wales.
“She would pour out private things, her thoughts and reactions and descriptions,” Elsa told Sally. “She told me so many intimate things.”
This wasn’t the only time that Elsa spoke out about her friendship with Diana. As royal author Edward White wrote in his book Dianaworld: An Obsession, which was released earlier this year, Elsa said Diana “took great strength from her Spencer heritage,” especially during the time when her marriage to then-Prince Charles was falling apart.
Elsa died in 2000 – three years after Diana died at the age of 36. But during Diana’s life, it sounds like Elsa was exactly the kind of friend to support her when she needed her most.
