Lady Pamela Hicks, 88, met Gandhi when her father was serving as India’s last viceroy.
Lord Mountbatten was killed while on a wooden fishing boat in 1979 along with young boys and the dowager Lady Brabourne.
Irish republican Thomas McMahon was convicted for the killings after he slipped onto the unguarded boat at night to attach a 23kg bomb.
Asked if she had forgiven the IRA, Lady Pamela said ‘yes, that is essential’.
She told the BBC: ‘I mean, we loved the Irish. We’d lived there for so much of our lives. You absolutely have to go forward. Lady Pamela was a lady in waiting for the Queen as well as a bridesmaid at her wedding to Prince Philip.
Recalling identifying her father’s body when he died aged 79, she said: ‘I honestly thought “I am not going to be able to do this”, which is ridiculous because in fact every next of kin has to identify a murdered family member.
‘But I found that a horrible idea. Luckily James (Duke of) Abercorn arrived at that moment and I said “James, I can’t do this. Will you identify him?” I felt slightly wimpish doing it.’
The bomb killed Lord Mountbatten, his grandson Nicholas Knatchbull, 14, a young crew member Paul Maxwell, 15, and the dowager Lady Brabourne, 83.
Also on board was his eldest daughter Patricia, her husband John and their other son Timothy Knatchbull.
The IRA claimed responsibility for the killings.
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