True but I meant that Diana may have felt that Sophie was dressing a bit like her, cutting her hair to look like her and perhaps trying to "take her place" now that she was moving out of the RF.
I don't think Sophie has done any particularly wonderful job. She fits in better with the RF, but that's just the luck of the draw, and she has to do the royal duties because she has failed at her business and caused a lot of embarrassment to them because of the Fake Sheik thing. Perhaps she knows she has to get on with them, because she needs them. Diana perhaps arrogantly felt that she didn't need them, after a while. Or perhaps it wasn't arrogance but a well founded belief that she was very popular because of her own personality and star quality.
Ad I imagine that Diana and Soph met at times. Even when she was separated from C Diana was still invited to things and tried to keep up a polite front with her in laws, at least some of the time. I don't know if she did stare at Sophie, or make remarks about her clothes.. Its in Andrew Mortons' second book so I don't know how accurate that is, since he wasn't being briefed by Diana by then..
Just to clarify things, when this fake shiekh business happened, HM, The Queen was very much behind Sophie and supportive throughout the entire thing. Its been stated that the Queen's reaction according to Buckingham Palace was:
"In a separate statement from Buckingham Palace, the Queen lashed out at the "entrapment, subterfuge, innuendo and untruths to which the Earl and Countess have been subject in recent days."
The Queen said she has supported the desire of both Sophie and Edward to continue pursuing their working careers, but noted in so doing, they're "always open to accusations of pursuing their royal status in pursuit of their own business interests."
Sophie's choice words fuel Royal row - The Globe and Mail
(be mindful that also the Globe and News of the World are not what is a good representation of responsible journalism)
To me, that sounds more like a mama bear circling those that would hurt her family rather than someone that would lay down the law and enforce royal duties on both Edward and Sophie. So, the insinuation that the Queen, all embarrassed to the hilt by her son and daughter-in-law forces them to "toe the line" just doesn't ring true for me. To this day, Sophie and HM are well known to be quite close, share similar interests and with Bagshot Park close to Windsor Castle, spend private times together. Both Edward and Sophie have represented HM over the years enthusiastically and particularly in work pertaining to the Duke of Edinburgh Awards Scheme which will be Edward's in the future. They are the go to couple for representing the BRF at occasions overseas such as weddings and funerals and out of all of the BRF, probably have the closest relationships with their European counterparts.
The notion that how Sophie fits within the BRF is the luck of the draw is by far, IMO, a very untrue and derogatory statement.