Princess Diana's former butler reveals Queen’s surprising hobbies
Queen ‘can do what she wants’ jokes royal expert
Paul Burrell recently shared a glimpse into royal life on his Instagram. The footman for Princess Diana served inside Buckingham Palace for 10 years, up to her tragic death in 1997.
It’s no secret that the Queen loves her corgis, and post by Mr Burrell on Instagram showed as much.
Along with a series of images, Mr Burrell wrote: “The Queen’s love for animals is well known and I witnessed this at first hand.
“It is a little known fact that she had an aviary of green and blue budgerigars at Windsor Castle.
“This love of animals was instilled in Prince William and Prince Harry by both Prince Charles and Princess Diana.
“As the Queen once said to me , about her Corgis ‘……they give me unconditional love.’”
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In a video posted to instagram, Burrell continued: “We had a saying at Buckingham palace "horses dogs husbands and kids", and in my time we had nine corgis and a labrador living with us at the apartments.
“At the weekend Princess Diana would travel from Kensington Palace to Highgrove with Princes William and Harry, with a hamster in a cage and two goldfish in a bowl squashed between them on the back seat.
“William and Harry were eager to play with Tigger and Roo, the Prince of Wales' two Jack Russells and to ride their pony Smokey.
“Princess Diana had lots of pets as a child, and in the last summer of her life Princess Diana had made plans to buy a golden Labrador, but that was not to be.”
In addition to her dogs, Her Majesty has a deep and public love for horses: Just before Royal Ascot, she shared a list of her favourite horses.
Terry Pendry, the Queen’s stud groom and manager at Windsor Castle, said of Her Majesty: "Her knowledge and expertise is well known.
“She names all of her horses and ponies herself and can remember the parentage of every single one.
"She still rides to this very day, and it is an important part of her life.
"Her Majesty has a fountain of knowledge in all things equine, you might say a living encyclopaedia."
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One of her favourite horses was called Sanction, a brown riding horse.
Mr Pendry said: "Sanction was almost telepathic and had a very strong bond with Her Majesty...
“Sanction was the last home-bred horse that Her Majesty rode before making the decision to start riding native ponies.
“A little closer to the ground, so to speak.”
Corgis are a major love of Her Majesty, but other surprising hobbies of the Queen include football.
Former Arsenal midfielder Cesc Fabregas revealed the Queen supports the gunners.
He disclosed this surprising fact at a reception at Buckingham Palace.