THE Queen was naturally shy and enjoyed a modest and frugal lifestyle, according to Royal expert Nicholas Owen.
Speaking to GB News, the veteran broadcaster also suggested people often underestimated the amount of work the Queen had to perform – and how hard it could often be.
He told Weekend Breakfast: “The Queen did have a lot of work to do. It was n a tough life for her really.
“Yes I know, she enjoyed all the luxuries and comforts and all the things that most of us don’t have to worry about, like running a household and getting the car out. She didn’t have to worry about that. But look at the meetings with so many different people day after day after day, so many different ceremonies, always being the centre of attention. Well, a lot of people might think “that’s jolly nice”. I don’t think so at all. Remember, basically, King Charles and the Queen in her time, were basically shy people.
“They’re not sort of personalities and celebrities in the film star sense at all, so it would have been a jolly difficult job to do. It’s not easy at all.”
Queen Elizabeth II was known for her frugality, famously having her wedding dress made using rationed material.
Owen commented: “Indeed, the Queen was famously very, very, shall we say cautious about the spending of royal money.
“And if you went to, as people like myself were lucky to do, into royal palaces, the lighting was always pretty dim. The throne room was wonderful, but it was scruffy. The place hadn’t been decorated in a very long time. The carpets tended to be quite frayed.
“But it’s so in keeping with the kind of modest real lifestyle of Her Majesty the Queen. That was her way. She was a creature of wartime of course, we have to remember she was brought up in the 20s, the 30s and then the second world war with all the privations that people suffered then, and she reflected that in her own approach to life.”
