'It spiced up her life': Queen Elizabeth 'loved' things going wrong

'It spiced up her life': Queen

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Queen Elizabeth "loved" seeing things go wrong because it "spiced up her life", her former aide has claimed.

The late monarch - who died in September 2022 aged 96 - had "no ego" and Samantha Cohen, who worked for the queen for 17 years as press secretary then assistant private secretary, enjoyed her boss' sense of fun on official engagements.

Samantha told Australia's Herald Sun newspaper: "The Queen had no ego, she was so comfortable in herself, yet she loved it when things went wrong. If a cake was not cutting, or a plaque didn’t unveil, because everything was so perfectly organised, it spiced her life up when things went wrong.”

The ex-aide - was nicknamed 'Samantha Panther' by the queen - recalled how enthusiastic the monarch was about the idea of launching a royal family YouTube account.

She recalled: “We did a mock up and showed the Queen what YouTube was. She said: ‘Fantastic’, she was up for it.”

And she later received calls from The Vatican and White House saying: “The Queen had a channel on YouTube before we did.”

Samantha saw the queen almost daily before she left the royal household in 2019 and even had her own bedroom at Windsor Castle, as well as being invited to take her family to Balmoral and to Sandringham for Christmas.

She added: "The Queen and I used to talk a lot. I miss her, she was a special woman...

“I loved, loved, loved the job as the Queen’s assistant private secretary. They were happy times because the Queen was in great form."

But Samantha's "best times" in her role were two tours accompanying the queen to her native Australia, in 2002 and 2011.

In 2018, on the personal request of the queen, Samantha became private secretary to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, but she declined to comment on reports she resigned in October 2019 after being "treated harshly".

However, the newspaper reported she confirmed she was one of 10 members of staff interviewed by Buckingham Palace following a bullying complaint made by the couple's then-communications secretary, Jason Knauf.