Reversing roles in Palace racism row
WHAT ‘INQUISITION’ OF LADY SUSAN HUSSEY WOULD REVEAL
LADY SUSAN HUSSEY is very upset at being asked repeatedly where she was really from when she clashed with British-born but Caribbean-origin Ngozi Fulani at a function last week – and this is a very different version of the transcript of the conversation between the two women: Ngozi Fulani: Where are you from? Susan Hussey: Buckingham Space. NF: And where exactly is that? SH: Just a short walk from the Hinduja mansion in Carlton House Terrace. NF: Oh, you mean Buckingham Palace? SH: That’s what I said. NF: Sorry, your accent’s a bit funny. But where are you from? Let me move your tiara so I can read your name ....
SH: I am a toff, I am a noblewoman from the upper classes, a lady-in-waiting to the late Queen. I was her woman of the bedchamber.
NF: I thought there were servants to do that sort of thing. Look here, good lady, where are you really from? What’s your nationality? Where do your people come from?
SH: My people come from the aristocracy, have done for generations. I am one of seven siblings. My dad was the 12th Earl Waldegrave. My younger brother James is the 13th Earl Waldegrave. I have two children and six grandchildren. Prince William is my godson. My late husband was Marmaduke Hussey.
NF: Marmalade? You are having me on – is that a real name?
SH: He was chairman of the BBC, boss of Associated Newspapers and chief executive and managing director of Times newspapers. He was made Baron Hussey of North Bradley.
NF: Well, Baroness Fussy, you still haven’t told me your true nationality?
SH: What’s this, a grand inquisition? I am English and I was born in England with this superior manner ....
NH: Now, we are getting somewhere... Postscript: Many people have rightly questioned the authenticity of this “transcript”, but it does show how things would look if the interrogation was “reversed”.
The one person I would like to hear from is the Bengali Indrojit Banerji, who has been happily married since 2009 to Katherine (“Katie”) Waldegrave. They met at Oxford, and had their first wedding in India, followed by a second in Somerset.
“We are thrilled for them,” Katie’s mother, Caroline, said at the time.
Katie’s father, William Waldegrave, a life peer, served in Margaret Thatcher’s cabinet. He is also Susan Hussey’s younger brother.