Queen Elizabeth seems to be one of the few members of the royal family who doesn’t make headlines for her behavior behind the scenes. However, a recently resurfaced clip of the queen at a photoshoot appears to show her storming out after disagreeing with the photographer. What’s the real story?
Did Queen Elizabeth Really Storm Out Of A Photoshoot?
In 2007, famous photographer Annie Leibovitz got to do a photoshoot with Queen Elizabeth. The set-up for the portrait was the queen, decked out in her royal robes and tiara, sitting in front of a window in the White Drawing Room at Buckingham Palace.
The photoshoot was also captured on film by a BBC camera crew, who were creating a documentary series, called A Year with the Queen. In the video of the photoshoot, we hear Leibovitz asking the queen to take her tiara off for some of the pictures.
“I think it will look better without the crown,” the photographer said. “Can we try it without the crown? I think it will look better and less dressy.” Queen Elizabeth responded, “Less dressy? What do you think this is?” She was referring to her elaborate ceremonial robes. Leibovitz continued to talk about her taking the crown off, while Queen Elizabeth and others off-camera laugh at the idea of a “less dressy” photo of her in the robes.
The video then immediately cuts to a clip of the queen walking down a hallway with aides, saying, “I’m not changing anything. I’ve done enough, dressing like this, thank you very much.” The video was used as a promotional tool for the release of the docu-series, with BBC1’s channel controller, Peter Fincham, describing the clip: “Annie Leibovitz gets it slightly wrong and the Queen walks out in a huff.”
BBC’s Apology For The Out-Of-Context Clips
The footage quickly went viral, with many surprised to see the usually-unflappable queen appearing to throw a fit. However, it soon emerged that the clips were taken out of context and spliced together to make it look like Queen Elizabeth had stormed out of the shoot. In actuality, the clip of the queen walking down the hallway was filmed on her way to the shoot.
In a joint statement, the BBC and RDF Television said, “The BBC and RDF Television, the producers of the BBC1 series A Year with the Queen, would like to clarify that the clips shown in a promotional trailer on July 11 were not intended to provide a full picture of what actually happened or of what will be shown in the final program. This was an important photoshoot prior to the Queen’s visit to the United States. In this trailer there is a sequence that implies that the Queen left a sitting prematurely.”
“This was not the case and the actual sequence of events was misrepresented,” the statement continued. “The BBC would like to apologize to both the Queen and Annie Leibovitz for any upset this may have caused.”
It’s unknown whether or not the apology was prompted by a complaint from Buckingham Palace, but fans of the queen were happy to know that the ever-polite monarch isn’t a nightmare behind the scenes.
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