Lady Elizabeth Anson, a niece of Katherine and Nerissa, spoke out on behalf of the Bowes-Lyon family in 1987 and told the BBC that “was no attempt at a cover-up,” that many family members had visited the sisters, and her grandmother was “a very vague person who often didn’t fill out the forms that Burke’s Peerage sent her, either properly or completely.”

A recent article in Daily Mail, however, claims Katherine and Nerissa were “neglected and forgotten about for decades” and that the queen mother never visited them, despite being a patron for the organization Mencap, which the tabloid says campaigns against families placing individuals with learning disabilities relations in state care.

When the story broke in 1987, Buckingham Palace passed the buck, so to speak. 

“We have no comment about it at all,” the palace said in a statement. “It is a matter for the Bowes-Lyon family.”