Housekeeper who refused to answer Queen

FEW would be so bold as to refuse to answer a question from the Queen.

But when Her Majesty first met Angela Kelly, a Liverpudlian docker’s daughter working as a housekeeper at the British ambassador’s residence in Berlin, their unusual exchange would prove pivotal for both.

As the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh bade farewell to the household staff following a visit, she politely asked who their next visitors would be.

Ms Kelly said she could not possibly divulge such confidential information.

The incredulous Duke tried again: “Surely you can tell Her Majesty the Queen?” he said.

But Ms Kelly insisted that she had signed the Official Secrets Act.

A few weeks later, she received a call to say that the Queen had asked if she would come to work at Buckingham Palace as her assistant dresser. Twenty five years later, she has become one of the Queen’s closest confidantes.

Their friendship is detailed at length in Ms Kelly’s book, The Other Side of the Coin: the Queen, the Dresser and the Wardrobe, published yesterday.

At a recent fancy dress competition at Balmoral, staff went as The X Factor judging panel – with Ms Kelly as Cheryl Cole. “(The Queen) didn’t have a clue who I was supposed to be, but she immediately recognised my assistant, Jackie, who was dressed as Her Majesty’s great-great-grandmother Queen Victoria,” she writes. Another dresser went as Queen Victoria’s friend, John Brown.

As the Queen made her way to dinner, she was heard to declare: “I’ve just been dressed by Queen Victoria and Mr Brown. And I believe by Cheryl Cole.”

Ms Kelly recalls the illfated Annie Leibovitz shoot in 2007, after which the BBC was forced to issue an apology for suggesting that the Queen had flounced out in a

‘I’ve just been dressed by Queen Victoria and Mr Brown. And I believe, Cheryl Cole’

“huff ”. Ms Kelly revealed that Ms Leibovitz was chosen to take the Queen’s 90th birthday photographs in 2016 to “make amends” for the misunderstanding, with the Queen “in full agreement” it would be “the right thing to do”.

She recalled one occasion when the Queen was draped in a piece of bold jacquard material for a fitting just as the Duke of Edinburgh strolled past, remarking: “Is that the new material for the sofa?”