WATCH: Inside our event celebrating late Queen
We hosted our first royal event in central London with author Robert Hardman
Hello Royal Clubbers,
It’s Ainhoa here, still on a high after organising our first in-person royal event earlier this week. It was so wonderful to meet some of you Royal Clubbers in person – I hope you enjoyed the morning as much as we all did at Team HELLO!.
For those who couldn’t make it, a group of HELLO!’s most ardent royal fans gathered at Browns Covent Garden, London for an exclusive event celebrating the life and legacy of the late Queen Elizabeth II.
As more than 60 readers sat down, our hosts of A Right Royal Podcast – Andrea Caamano, Emily Nash, and Emmy Griffiths – took their seats alongside our guest, royal author Robert Hardman, for a special live recording.
The subject of the episode was Her Late Majesty, whose centenary falls on 21 April marking 100 years since her birth. The timing was also particularly apt as Robert was celebrating the publication day of his new book, Elizabeth II: In Private. In Public. The Inside Story, which is the fifth he has written about the late Queen in two decades.
“I’ve had a wonderful morning here at Browns Covent Garden with lots of HELLO! readers and staff,” Robert said after the event. “And it’s publication day for me, so what a great way to start. I’m a very happy author.”
Anecdotes about the late Queen
Robert, who is the only biographer to have interviewed all senior members of the royal family, was able to answer the question on everyone’s lips, “What was the late Queen really like?” And more. He captivated the audience with unheard stories, such as the time the late monarch suffered from “nervous exhaustion” in 1969 and took to her bed. The palace claimed she had “summer flu” when in fact she was at breaking point.
However, her overarching sense of duty and renowned stoicism were brought up from the start of our conversation, when Robert pointed out the time that the late Queen discovered an intruder in her room at Buckingham Palace – and how she went on to carry out an investiture at 11o’clock that morning.
Robert also clarified other well-known reports, such as the notorious “Tiaragate” episode, when the Sussexes fell out with the late Queen’s dresser, Angela Kelly. Our podcast host and Entertainment Editor, Emmy Griffiths, said: “It was so interesting to have an insight into what the Queen actually thought and felt about the Sussexes’ exit from the royal family. At the time, there was so much speculation, and every single news outlet was covering it and reporting different things.
“So, the fact that she still had that sense of humour during what was obviously a really challenging time in the monarchy, and her quip about how she knew they weren’t coming back because they’d ‘taken the dogs’, I think it just shows how she always maintained that sense of humour through every situation. And it was really interesting to see a little behind the curtain of what it was like for her during that time.”
Meanwhile, our Royal Editor and podcast host Emily Nash particularly enjoyed hearing about the late Queen’s earlier years on the throne: “I really loved hearing Robert talk about how the late Queen managed herself as a young woman in a man’s world. I thought that was absolutely fascinating.”
The thorny issue of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor was also unpicked by Robert and our podcast hosts, including Robert’s extraordinary revelation that the ex-Prince came to blows with the Master of the Royal Household after he was unable to secure a room for a business meeting.
After the wide-ranging conversation, which can be played in full below, we opened the floor to our audience members, many of whom had come from far to attend the special event. “I really enjoyed hearing the questions from the readers and what it was that they wanted to know,” HELLO!’s Chief Content Officer, Sophie Vokes-Dudgeon, said. “And one of the questions about the Queen and the corgis was particularly brilliant and resulted in a story about how the Queen used to keep a little silver tray of corgi biscuits on her dining table. I thought that was very cute.”
Our readers also had the chance to speak to Robert as he signed books, making friends with each other as they stood in line. “My highlight was meeting some of our loyal listeners, who have been with us since the beginning of the podcast, but also hearing them laugh and just enjoy themselves,” our podcast host and Digital Content Director, Andrea Caamano, said. “I also loved meeting one of the listeners who said that she’d met wonderful people today and that she’d made lots of new friends, which I think is 100 per cent the point of all of these events.”
Audience members also went home with a luxury goodie bag including products from Clarins, Elizabeth Arden, Floris, Simple, Yardley, and Bronnley, as well as our special keepsake issue, Queen Elizabeth II: A Centenary Tribute.
I’d love to hear if you attended the event and what you thought of it. Please leave a comment below!
Next royal event
If you missed out on this event, fear not as we will be hosting another live podcast recording about the late Diana, Princess of Wales. We'll be able to share more details soon, but the event will take place at the end of June in central London.
Catch up on the Robert Hardman episode
To watch the full recording of the podcast episode, and to see what it was like to attend our event, become a paid subscriber below.
Watch the episode below: