Now Boris bags Queen’s ex-aide Samantha the Panther for his new No 10 team
After Harry and Meghan, it’s another tricky brief
AFTER working for the Royal
Family for nearly two decades, including a bruising year with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, Samantha Cohen is a byword for tact and discretion.
She was liked and respected when she worked in Buckingham Palace’s press office for nine years, rising to become head of communications before moving into the Queen’s private office in 2010.
Brisbane-born Miss Cohen worked there for a further eight years as assistant private secretary, in charge of her official diary and dealings with government, the Church, charities and other national organisations.
Genial and approachable, but never a push-over, the stylish mother of three was a popular figure in the household and never put an elegantly-shod foot wrong.
‘She’s just bloody brilliant and a thoroughly nice person to boot,’ said one close source. Most assumed she would be given the top job as the Queen’s principal private secretary one day – and indeed she was named Commander of the Royal Victorian Order by the Queen in 2016 for her loyalty.
But the year after it was revealed she had suddenly resigned following the ousting of her boss, Lord Geidt, whom she had been loyal to, following a palace coup. But the powers-that-be were keen not to lose her expertise and persuaded her to postpone her departure in order to smooth the newly engaged Harry and Meghan’s path as a royal couple.
She agreed to go and work for them as interim private secretary, but sources say she found them ‘incredibly difficult’ to handle.
Mrs Cohen is known to have likened working for the Sussexes as trying to deal ‘with a couple of teenagers’. She left in 201 .
Friends expressed shock last night that she would even consider taking a job at the heart of No10 after the ‘poisoned chalice’ of the Sussex position.