The Queen and Diana were said to frequently be at loggerheads with one another during her time in the Royal Family. The People’s Princess was known for subverting convention and some believe her compassion and warmth altered the Royal Family forever. Her charitable work became so significant that she was dubbed the ‘People’s Princess’ by Tony Blair following her tragic death in 1997.

Yet, according to Diana’s former royal protection officer, Inspector Ken Wharfe, the Queen actually tried to prevent Diana from getting involved with Aids charities.

During the 2008 inquest into Diana’s death, Mr Wharfe revealed: “The princess would go to see the Queen on a number of occasions.

“One she returned to the car, distressed.

“I asked, ‘What’s the matter?’ and she said, ‘The Queen doesn’t like me getting involved with Aids and said, ‘Why don’t you get involved with something more pleasant?’.

“I think Diana was very angry and annoyed that the Queen could not see what she was doing.

“Diana felt a member of the Royal Family should be involved with campaigns to find a cure for Aids.”

He also said that the Queen’s private secretary – along with Prince Philip’s – was “incredibly jealous” of Diana’s success with the public.

He added: “They didn’t like the fact that Diana was in the national media daily.”

However, Diana went on to become a champion of the Aids movement anyway, especially during the height of the health crisis in the Eighties.

Diana famously said during a Children and Aids Conference in April 1991: “Aids does not make people dangerous to know, so you can shake their hands and give them a hug.

“Heaven knows they need it.”

Diana changed attitudes towards the illness when she famously shook hands with an Aids patient in 1987. 

She was opening the UK’s first-ever Aids ward at the time, and did not wear gloves – a move which even shocked nurses.

This one action made headlines around the world due to the stigma attached to the illness at the time.

Many thought it was so contagious, that even to touch an Aids patient would lead to infection.

Diana was also the first member of the Royal Family to touch someone with Aids, although it is not known if the famous image is the first time she made physical contact with an Aids patient.

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Her son Prince Harry said in 2017 accepted the Attitude Legacy Award on his mother’s behalf, and claimed that in that moment she “knew exactly what she was doing”.

He explained: “She was using her position as Princess of Wales, the most famous woman in the world, to challenge everyone to educate themselves, to find their compassion, and to reach out to those who need help instead of pushing them away.”

Harry has since followed in his mother’s footsteps by championing the fight against Aids.

 He even travelled to see popstar Rihanna in Barbados in 2016, so the two of them could take public HIV tests together.

Diana regularly visited the London Lighthouse which offers care for people living with HIV and Aids throughout her life.

She was still a patron of the National Aids Trust when she died in 1997.

The Queen also publicly acknowledged the difficulties faced by Aids victims in November 2007.

She copied Diana by shaking the hand of an HIV-positive man when she visited Uganda during her first visit to a specialist Aids clinic.

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