Queen Elizabeth II still fascinates Arthur Edwards despite being by his side for decades as he photographed the British royal family for The Sun for the past 45 years.
On the eve of the queen’s platinum jubilee, on the occasion of her 70th birthday, Edwards expected the British monarchy to witness a “difficult transition” in power.
How would you describe the character of Queen Elizabeth?
“Nothing ever pisses her off. She has always been very respectful and of all the royal family, I am very nervous about her because she has such a dazzling appearance.
She has never spoken to the media, so no one knows what she thinks. But one can get limited information by talking to people like her dresser.
Every year she takes a vacation at Balmoral Palace in Scotland, where she stays for three months. I asked her one day: + Why don’t you go somewhere else? +. She answered: +Where shall I go? +I told her +You are the queen, you can go wherever you want.+ But she told me she likes Balmoral. Her assistant laughed and told me that the queen liked Balmoral because people ignored her for the three months she was there.
She walks around the area around the palace, and the staff is busy. If the queen wants to talk to them, they stop and talk to her, but never look at her on their own. As for the police, they are not visible, so they are not visible. In these three months, you become a completely normal person.
The reason she loves dogs and horses is because they don’t know she’s a queen.
What will happen in the coming months?
“It will be a difficult transition. It won’t be easy because everyone knows the queen. It is on every banknote, every coin, every stamp, in every mailbox. The Queen is part of our culture and our life. The Prince of Wales is doing an amazing job and I know that because I have worked very closely with him and his wife.
He has spoken for the Queen several times lately, and he does it without difficulty, and people will see that he is honest, and I think they will accept him, but it will not be easy. He succeeded a queen, one of the most eminent among those who have taken the throne in this country.
I served during the war. (…]Her three sons’ marriage fell apart and now we’re in trouble with Harry and she’s doing everything so brilliantly. When things get complicated, she appears on TV and addresses the nation, like when Diana dies or during the Covid pandemic. She is a woman who has the right to vote.
How are you today?
I took a picture of her last October, she was skinny but she looked cool, she was gorgeous. She was with Boris Johnson and met John Kerry and Bill Gates…she was fine. I remained standing for an hour, but the next day I was admitted to the hospital. (…)
Over the past six months, she has become very weak, she has lost a lot of weight. She had changes in her clothes, and sometimes the dresses looked loose.
She follows her doctor’s advice. The problem is that she can stand and can’t walk when she wants to. I wrote an article encouraging her to use a wheelchair (…). It’s not a flaw, but it won’t be. (…)
If we don’t see the Queen at the anniversary celebrations, millions of people will be disappointed. They will come to London to see the concert and the show, but what they really want is to see the Queen.
