Queen ‘loved it’ when things went wrong

Queen Elizabeth “loved it” when things went wrong because it “spiced her life up”, one of her closest aides has claimed.

Samantha Cohen, who served the late Queen for 17 years as her press secretary, and then as her assistant private secretary, spoke fondly of her relationship with the monarch in an interview with an Australian newspaper.

She told the Herald Sun: “The Queen had no ego, she was so comfortable in herself, yet she loved it when things went wrong. If a cake was not cutting, or a plaque didn’t unveil, because everything was so perfectly organised, it spiced her life up when things went wrong.”

Ms Cohen, who stopped working for the royal household in 2019, said the “best times” were her two royal tours accompanying the queen to Australia.

The queen and Prince Philip visited South Australia and Queensland in 2002, and returned to Australia in 2011.

Recalling how she was invited to bring her family to Balmoral and also to Sandringham at Christmas, Ms Cohen said: “The queen and I used to talk a lot. I miss her, she was a special woman.”

The former aide said the queen nicknamed her “Samantha Panther” for her no-nonsense work attitude, and was enthusiastic about the royal family launching a YouTube account when it was suggested.

She said: “We did a mock up and showed The Queen what YouTube was. She said: ‘Fantastic’, she was up for it.”

In 2018, Ms Cohen worked as private secretary to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex on the personal request of the queen. However, she resigned in October 2019 after being “treated harshly” and likening the job to “working with teenagers”, it was claimed in Valentine Low’s book, Courtiers: The Hidden Power Behind the Crown. (© Telegraph Media Group Ltd 2024)