Oh, her majesty! Queen Elizabeth II once had a close call with a guardsman at Buckingham Palace who mistook her for an intruder. The fascinating — and terrifying — incident was revealed by the Times journalist Grant Tucker Wednesday, January 4.
"The Queen is a fan of late-night walks. When she struggles to sleep she will sometimes put on a mac and walk around the palace grounds, an ex-guardsman told me," Tucker wrote for the publication. "On one occasion he was patrolling inside the perimeter of the Palace walls at 3 a.m. when he spotted a figure in the darkness. Thinking that he had come across an intruder, he shouted: 'Who’s that?' To his surprise it was the Queen."
The exchange that followed was unexpected and humorous. The man, who was not identified, said, "Bloody hell" and told the Queen, 90, that he "nearly" shot her.
"Realizing that he had spoken out of turn, he waited for a dressing-down," Tucker wrote. "'That’s quite all right,' HM replied. 'Next time I’ll ring through beforehand so you don’t have to shoot me.'"
As previously reported, Prince William and Harry's grandmother has been sick the past few weeks. She missed church services on Christmas and New Year's Day while recovering from a cold.
"Her Majesty The Queen will not attend Sunday worship at Sandringham today," the Palace said in a statement to Us Weekly on January 1. "The Queen does not yet feel ready to attend church as she is still recuperating from a heavy cold."
