Have you heard the rumour that the Queen Mother hated sex? I find it hard to believe.
Thank you for the question! ❤️
The fact is, we’ll never really know the truth to this, and even if there was evidence documented in diaries, it will unlikely ever see the light of day!
What we do know is that Elizabeth had two difficult pregnancies, both resulting in Caesarians, and which were performed under much more dangerous circumstances for both mother & baby back then. Forms of birth control were also, at best, incredibly unreliable and uncomfortable! So with this in mind it might have been that it was too risky to have sex (simply for pleasure!) regularly, and that once their family of ‘Us Four’ was complete, her focus was on helping raise the princesses, being incredibly busy with royal duties, and of course, the later additional strain that came with supporting Bertie in his kingship as George VI. They were also both very religious, and attitudes to sexual behaviour might have additionally been influenced by their faith and Elizabeth’s own aristocratic upbringing.
There is an account from a letter written to Bertie’s friend (& later courtier) Louis Greig: ‘Everything was plain sailing, which was a relief,’ Bertie wrote. ‘You know what I mean. I was very good!!’ This refers directly to their honeymoon in 1923, and, while it doesn’t suggest anything about the frequency of their intimate life between and after having their children, it could suggest that sex was at least an enjoyable experience… in Bertie’s opinion anyway! 😂
In another letter written to Elizabeth whilst he was in Balmoral and she only ‘across the hills’ in Glamis, Bertie sweetly stated, ‘Don’t get frightened at night sleeping all alone darling in that enormous bed.’ She replied with, ‘I miss you dreadfully and am longing for Monday, when I hope you will arrive here sunburnt, manly & bronzed…’
Again, this isn’t proof of their sexual relationship, but it does definitely show that there was a deep affection between them that almost certainly amounted to a bodily closeness of some kind.
I truly believe that The Queen Mother and Bertie absolutely adored each other; and that in loving (and emotionally trusting) someone so much, there was therefore no reason why there wouldn’t be physical intimacy on some level throughout their life together.
Sorry for the super-long answer! Obviously I’m guessing as much as the next person, but I wanted to take time to write a sensitive reply out of respect for the question and the fact that I’m commenting on something that isn’t really anyone’s business to know. So I hope this kinda helps! :)
Quotes cited from:
The King Maker: the Man Who Saved George VI, by Geordie Greig
The Queen Mother: the official biography, by William Shawcross.
