P.or who would have expected a visit from Queen Elizabeth in these days of sweltering heat in and around London. But the sovereign once again went against the advice of her doctors and she decided to go, accompanied by her daughter Anna, to the Thames Hospice in Maidenhead, not far from Windsor, to inaugurate a new hospice for the terminally ill.
The meeting between Elizabeth II and Graham and Pat White, Maidenhead, July 2022 (Getty Images)
The sovereign interrupted by a cell phone
Before his arrival, as the royal protocol dictates, all those present had received a series of rules to be respected, first of which the order to turn off their mobile phones. But Graham White, the husband of a resident, forgot to do this and as his wife Pat was introduced to the sovereign, her cell phone suddenly started ringing.
A Bouquet of Flowers for the Queen, Maidenhead, July 2022 (Getty Images)
The joke of Queen Elizabeth
His collaborators immediately exchanged looks of horror. The queen, as we know, has a certain dislike for cell phones and she can’t bear to find them in front of her during her visits, especially if they film her. But Elizabeth II did not break down. Indeed, trying to play down, she smiled exclaiming: “Typical, a phone rings right away!”. And she continued to converse with the resident who could not get up from her chair to greet her.
Elizabeth forgives him, his wife does not
The victim apologized immediately, saying that his son was calling him. But when the queen left, her wife Pat – who like her husband worked in her Majesty’s military and in particular in the military academy of Sandhurst, where William and Harry had also trained – he admitted: «I would have killed him… Luckily the queen has an excellent sense of humor!».
Follow us on Twitter Spaces!
Every Monday at 11 on the iO Donna account.
Read the book of iO Woman, Princesses become! From Kate Middleton to Meghan Markle
Buy it online at Prima Edicola for 9.90 euros.

Listen to the free podcast about British royalty
iO Donna © REPRODUCTION RESERVED

