Donald Trump’s latest insinuation that Princess Diana and Queen Elizabeth II “kissed” his “ass” during an interview promoting a new book is not the first comment he has made that will have offended the royal family, according to a new episode of Newsweek‘s The Royal Report podcast.
In a recent interview with Breitbart, the former president promoted his book letters to trump, which includes notes written to him by high-profile public figures including Oprah Winfrey, Ronald Regan, Queen Elizabeth II and Princess Diana. Describing the people whose notes are included, Trump said: “I knew them all—and every one of them kissed my ass.”
This comment notably upset Diana’s brother, Charles Spencer, who took to Twitter to voice his anger at Trump.
“Surprised to hear that Donald Trump is apparently claiming that my late sister Diana wanted to “kiss his a***”,” he wrote on the social media platform. “Since the one time she mentioned him to me – when he was using her good name to sell some real estate in New York – she clearly viewed him as worse than an a*** fissure.”
This is not the first time the former president has spoken about the royals in a way that has caused close family members distress.
Discussing Trump’s comments on The Royal Reportchief royal correspondent Jack Royston said that his history stretches back to the 1990s, shortly after Diana’s death as a result of injuries sustained in a high-speed Paris car crash with then-boyfriend, Dodi Fayed.
“Essentially this is just the latest in a long line of incidents involving Donald Trump that have reportedly upset the royal family,” he noted.
“Back in the ’90s, shortly after Princess Diana’s death, he was being interviewed by Howard Stern on the radio, and […] Stern suggested that Trump ‘could have nailed her’, and Trump replied: ‘I think I could have.'”
“It really wasn’t long after Princess Diana’s death. That would have caused a huge amount of offense and distress among the royal family, but also, you know, also among the Spencer family too.”
The royals did not publicly comment on Trump’s Stern appearance, though a number of commentators have spoken about his relationship with the royal, with one claiming that he sought a relationship with her after her divorce from King Charles.
“He bombarded Diana at Kensington Palace with massive bouquets of flowers, each worth hundreds of pounds,” journalist Selena Scott, who knew Diana well, wrote in a 2015 article for The Sunday Times. “Trump clearly saw Diana as the ultimate trophy wife.”
“‘What am I going to do?’ she asked. ‘He gives me the creeps.'”
“‘Just throw them in the bin,’ I advised. Diana laughed.”
Trump subsequently denied any desired romance, telling Piers Morgan in 2016: “I did respect her, but no interest from that standpoint. But I did meet her once, and I thought she was lovely.”
But, as Royston noted on The Royal Report“it’s not just Diana,” who the former president has made offensive comments about.
In September 2012, Kate Middleton found herself at the center of a privacy battle after a French magazine published photographs of the royal sunbathing topless while on holiday at a private chateau with Prince William which was owned by the son of Queen Elizabeth II’s younger sister.
The royals sued the magazine in a lengthy legal battle that did not end until 2017, resulting in a win for Kate and William, whose right to privacy was seen as having been invaded.
“Trump at the time that it happened said that Kate only had herself to blame and shouldn’t have been sunbathing topless, even though she was in privacy,” Royston said. “She was in a kind of walled-off chateau. The only way the photographer managed to get the pictures was by standing on a hill hundreds of meters away. And using a very, very powerful zoom lens which was able to see over the wall because of the hills.”
Trump’s comment was made in a tweet posted on September 17, 2012, which read: “Kate Middleton is great — but she shouldn’t be sunbathing in the nude — only herself to blame.”
Royal biographer Christopher Andersen wrote in his recently released book, The King: The Life of Charles IIIthat Trump’s comment sparked “torrents of profanity” from Charles, William and Prince Harry at Clarence House.
“They were furious about it, obviously, because they were upset on Kate’s behalf at the time and now Trump has basically done it again,” noted Royston.
Donald Trump’s latest insinuation that Princess Diana and Queen Elizabeth II “kissed” his “ass” during an interview promoting a new book is not the first comment he has made that will have offended the royal family, according to a new episode of Newsweek‘s The Royal Report podcast.
