I trotted out horse joke to make Queen laugh
BBC star Jennie reveals her most embarrassing moments
EXCLUSIVE BY REBECCA RUSSELL VETERAN BBC royal reporter Jennie Bond has lifted the lid on the day when she left the late Queen far from amused.
On a state visit to South Korea in 1999, Elizabeth II was being told a boring anecdote.
So knowing the monarch was a keen equestrian, Jennie tried to liven things up by telling an anecdote about a horse – but it fell at the first fence.
Jennie, 73, reveals: “I was told to tell her she would remember Jupiter because he always used to blow raspberries.
“So I burst into the conversation and said, ‘Oh, ma’am, I just wanted to send you the good wishes of Jupiter. You’ll remember him, because he was part of the Household Cavalry and always used to blow raspberries’. She stared at me for a minute, then just continued her previous conversation.”
The “icy stare” was something Jennie, who has reported on the monarchy for 35 years and was the BBC’S royal correspondent from 1989 to 2003, became familiar with. But she reckons when she went into the jungle for I’m a Celebrity in
2004, she did put a smile on the late Queen’s face.
Jennie says: “I was told the
Queen had expressed quite a lot of interest that I was buried in a coffin full of rats…
Something I think she probably wanted to do to me herself !”
And Jennie recalls another humorous moment after a raucous night of karaoke with the press pack on tour in Australia with the then Prince Charles.
She says: “Charles had said he was going to come down but he didn’t. We reporters sat in a hot tub surrounded by wine bottles having a lovely time.
“The next morning, when Charles came down, he said, ‘Was that you lot making all that bloody awful noise? You kept me awake all night!’”