Beard ‘offered to teach royal children’
REVERED historian Professor Mary Beard said she offered to become the personal Latin tutor to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s three children as she collected her damehood from Buckingham Palace.
The broadcaster, wellknown for her documentaries and appearances on the BBC, said she would do “anything” to ensure princes George and Louis, and Princess Charlotte, grew up with an understanding of the ancient Roman language.
Speaking after she received the honour for services to the study of classical civilisation from William at Buckingham Palace, Dame Mary said: “Of course he was very polite and said: ‘I’ll have to get you to teach them’, and I said: ‘Anything’.”
Dame Mary was at the palace five years on from receiving her OBE for services to classical scholarship.
The Cambridge University professor, 63, previously said she had “a “touch of republican” about her, but felt much more comfortable accepting the honour now.
She said: “Had somebody said to me at 23 that I would accept a damehood of the British empire, I would have said ‘Sorry, sunshine, that’s not what my politics is all about’. But I’ve grown older and wiser.”