Queen Elizabeth II was a lot of things. She was strong and fierce, and she worked tirelessly, practically until her dying day. But she was also something else that the people who got to meet her knew — she was deeply funny.
The Queen never lost her wit, either. She didn't grow dull as she aged. She knew she was an icon and leaned into it, occasionally appearing in comedy sketches and other routines. She didn't appear to take herself too seriously, even as Britain's longest-reigning monarch.
She joked with everyone from world leaders to Daniel Craig and Paddington Bear, as well as a couple of clueless American hikers.
The Queen's former protection officer Richard Griffin shared a story about what happened when they were out walking and encountered the hikers near her Balmoral estate in the Scottish Highlands. They didn't recognize the Queen at all, asking her where she lived and how long she'd been hiking around the area.
"I saw it coming," Griffin recalled of knowing they were about to ask if she had ever met the Queen, and they did.
“I haven’t,” the monarch replied. Then she pointed to Griffin and said that he “meets her regularly.”
The hikers, still oblivious, asked Griffin about the Queen's personality. “Oh, she can be very cantankerous at times, but she’s got a lovely sense of humor,” he told them, still playing along. When the hikers asked for a photo with Griffin and handed the camera to the monarch, she gladly obliged, further displaying her lightheartedness.
Watch the clip to hear Queen Elizabeth's former bodyguard tell the full story.
