Why Jackie Kennedy Was "Not Impressed" by Her 1961 Meeting With Queen Elizabeth II
- - Why Jackie Kennedy Was "Not Impressed" by Her 1961 Meeting With Queen Elizabeth II
Emma BanksJanuary 16, 2026 at 11:00 PM
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First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy and Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace in 1961.The Gist -
Queen Elizabeth II and Jackie Kennedy had an awkward meeting when the two women convened at Buckingham Palace in 1961.
According to sources, the First Lady thought the British monarch "resented" her.
Kennedy also reportedly described her conversation with queen as "pretty heavy going."
As King Charles prepares for his upcoming visit to the U.S. for America's 250th anniversary, royals fans are reflecting on the long relationship between the two countries, their politicians, and, of course, their celebrities. Most recently, there was Donald and Melania Trump's second state visit to the U.K.; roughly 40 years ago, all eyes were on Princess Diana when John Travolta asked her to dance. And then there was the supposedly awkward meeting that took place between Queen Elizabeth II and former First Lady Jackie Kennedy, which was later reimagined in Netflix's The Crown.
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President John F. Kennedy and First Lady Jackie Kennedy with Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip in 1961.
The year was 1961. John F. Kennedy was sworn in as the 35th President of the United States in January; that June, the newest residents of the White House hopped across the pond to pay a visit to Europe, the 35-year-old British monarch, and her husband Prince Philip. According to Q: A Voyage Around The Queen author Craig Brown, it didn't exactly go well.
"I think the Queen resented me," Jackie later told the writer and would-be politician Gore Vidal, per Brown. "Philip was nice, but nervous. One felt absolutely no relationship between them."
Jackie had other complaints about the dinner as well, specifically related to the guest list and the "furnishing" of Buckingham Palace. But how much of the rumored drama between the First Lady and the Queen actually took place in real life? It depends on who you ask.
The guest list was a source of tension.
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First Lady Jackie Kennedy with her sister Princess Lee Radziwill in London in 1961.
According to Brown, tensions arose long before the meeting itself thanks to a debate over the guest list. Jackie wanted to invite Princess Margaret and Princess Marina, as well as her own sister Princess Lee Radziwill, who had married into the Polish royal family in 1959. Radziwill was a divorcée, however, and therefore initially excluded by Queen Elizabeth, which made Jackie (understandably) "upset."
"Jackie got her way, but was upset first by the shenanigans and then by the dreariness of the dinner itself," Brown wrote, "to which neither Princess Margaret nor Princess Marina had been invited."
Jackie Kennedy was upset by the "dreariness of the dinner."
Speaking of the dinner, Jackie was apparently not impressed by the evening's festivities, nor by her host. Per Brown, the aforementioned Vidal told Princess Margaret that Jackie found conversation with the queen to be "pretty heavy going," to which Margaret quipped, "But that's what she's there for."
Brown added that Jackie thought her counterpart "seemed remotely human" just "once" during their visit.
She also reportedly critiqued Queen Elizabeth's style.
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Queen Elizabeth II during a royal visit to Pakistan in February 1961.
British photographer Cecil Beaton had even more tea to spill concerning Jackie's thoughts on Queen Elizabeth, per Brown. "To the blabbermouth Cecil Beaton, she declared that she 'was not impressed by the flowers or the furnishings of the apartments at Buckingham Palace, or by The Queen’s dark-blue tulle dress and shoulder straps, or her flat hair-style,'" he wrote.
Jackie, of course, was in the midst of establishing herself as a definitive style icon, in large part thanks to her "Secretary of Style" Oleg Cassini. With that in mind, perhaps the First Lady was something of a tough critic, at least sartorially speaking.
The Crown's portrayal was entirely "speculative."
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Queen Elizabeth II dancing with Ghanaian President Kwame Nkrumah during her royal tour of West Africa in 1961.
As for the fictionalized account of the meeting in season two of The Crown, the show's historical consultant Robert Lacey called the portrayal "imagined," albeit "plausible."
"I think that the personal tension between Elizabeth and Jackie is speculative," he told Vogue. "I’m not saying it didn’t exist—you can’t say it’s false, you can’t say it’s true. I think it’s perfectly plausible that the Queen felt upstaged by Jackie."
Lacey then called out Queen Elizabeth's royal tour of West Africa, which she undertook shortly after the Kennedy's visit. “The Queen then goes off to Africa and wows everybody and wows President Nkrumah in particular," he said. "Well, that did happen and she was a star but at the time, nobody talked [about it] in terms of competing with Jackie Kennedy."
on InStyle
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
