Royal photographer spills all – including ‘most difficult’ subject

A former royal photographer has dished up juicy behind-the-scenes details about what some of the world’s most alluring princesses were like away from the public eye — including who was the “most difficult.” 

Photographer Reginald Davis told the Daily Express that, “the most difficult royal I ever photographed was Princess Grace of Monaco.”

#GraceKelly ??? RT @HistoryInPix The timeless Grace Kelly, 1955. pic.twitter.com/hMjbqbCA9F

— Gabriel Ferreira (@GabrielF_MA) June 26, 2017

Davis previously worked as a royal photographer for four decades and revealed a more intimate look to the last century’s royals in his new book My Life Photographing Royalty and the Famous. 

As for Princess Grace, he said, “She only agreed to a private audience because I had previously had a private audience with the Queen.

“Everyone wanted to shoot Grace. She was such an attractive woman, why be so haughty, arrogant and awkward? Of course, you’d never know that from looking at her face.

“[In the photo] she seems every inch the relaxed, happy mother.”

As for his favourite subject? Davis named Queen Elizabeth’s younger sister, Princess Margaret, and even went so far as to compare her to the late Princess Diana. 

“She was just so vibrant — and had these beautiful azure eyes,” he said.

“She really was the Diana of her day. Everything I took of her was in demand.”

Davis trained as a photographer with the Royal Navy during WWII before joining the Daily Express in 1949 — 10 years later he photographed the Queen for the first time and would be invited back for the next four decades, accompanying the royal family on state visits and royal tours across the globe. 

He also revealed a more playful side to the Queen: “I’d been invited to Windsor Castle to photograph the family in the gardens. I had this idea of sitting them all on the grass. But the ground was so wet I had to get something for them to sit on [but] all I could find was a Persian rug.