In some forgotten storage cupboard in a dark corner of a publisher’s warehouse in London there could be some truly explosive negatives: The only proof history that Queen Elizabeth once did the Nutbush.
The scene of this shocking incident (Zapruder meets zig-a-zig-ah)? The 2008 wedding reception of Her late Majesty’s eldest grandchild Peter Phillips 2008 wedding to Canadian Autumn Kelly.
This weekend, Peter will marry again, adding public health nurse Harriet Sperling to the cast list of the wider royal family in a shower of biodegradable confetti and en famille bonhomie. However this second wedding will be a far cry from 2008 when a highly controversial $941,000 payment rocked the royal family and exposed the Windsors to a degree that has never been seen again since.
Come Saturday, when Peter and Harriet say ‘I do’ in front of every HRH not currently being investigated by the police or residing in California, it will be a strictly private affair, with us, the gawping public, forced to make do with a few formal, front-of-church shots and maybe a sweet Instagram post if we say pretty please.
However, this likely scandal-free showing could not be further from what played out back in 2008 when Peter and Autumn reportedly failed to mention to any of his royal relatives, as they cut a rug and worked their way through the free bar, that the group of photographers in their midst were from Hello.
The ensuing 59-page photo spread revealing the very private face of the royal family at play, including showing the now-Princess of Wales boogeying away and Prince Harry’s then girlfriend Chelsy Davy toting an enormous glass of champagne reportedly left Harry “furious” and was seen as as something of a ‘betrayal’.
Sigh. And this love story had all started so sweetly with a meet-cute at the 2003 Canadian grand prix where local gal Autumn had met Nice British Boy Peter who was working for Jaguar racing. Thunderbolts struck and they began quietly dating with her only finding out her new paramour as part of the world’s most famous family after she saw him while watching a documentary about Prince William.
Richard Curtis couldn’t come up with better stuff.
Fast forward five years and Peter was getting down on one knee, thus firing the starting gun on the younger generation of royals’ weddings. Princess Anne’s Festoon tiara was fetched for the bride and Queen Elizabeth offered the happy couple the use of Frogmore House for their reception. (Ten years later, Harry and another North American bride, Meghan Markle, would be cutting their wedding cake there too.)
Peter and Autumn’s wedding could not have arrived at a handier moment for Buckingham palace, the perfect PR channel change, happening only weeks after the end of the British inquest into the death of Diana, Princess of Wales.
(There had also been some decidedly bad press after Prince William, then training with the airforce, had borrowed a $20 million RAF Chinook helicopter to fly to Peter’s three day Isle of Wight stag do, collecting Harry along the way, the flight costing taxpayers more $16,000.)
And so the big day rolls around, but the course of true love and moneymaking never does run smooth because the soon-to-be newlyweds had decided to also use the occasion to fatten their bank account. Let the sound of cash registers ring out!
What would only come out after their wedding and amidst a publicity storm was that Peter and Autumn had inked a nearly $1 million deal (£500,000) to allow Hello into the event, representing a breach of the royal family’s private lives that have never before – and never seen since – been seen by the public.
The storm broke three days after the wedding when Hello hit the newsstands, absolutely stuffed with hundreds of highly personal photos of not only Peter and Autumn but also Queen Elizabeth, The Duke of Edinburgh, the then Prince Charles, and royal girlfriends Kate and Chelsy.
The images, which you can still see online here, offer a glimpse of the Windsors unlike any other: There are Harry and Chelsy getting handsy; there he is looking like he’s gagging for a quick ciggie out the back by the bins; and there’s Kate cutting shapes on the dancefloor.
“Harry was said to be absolutely furious”, Tom Sykes, the host of the Royalist podcast and The Daily Beast’s European editor-at-large said this week.
According to Sykes’ guest, the Daily Mail’s Alison Boshoff, the royal family understood that some shots would end up in the pages of the celebrity mag but most likely thought they would be the “boring wedding album” and the formally posed group shots.
“That would have been fine,” she said, but “they went way, way further than that.
“You’d feel so betrayed.”
Making the royal family splashed all over Hello an even bigger story was the appearance of Kate in the shots, the wedding being the first major royal family event she had ever attended and marking her official introduction to the late Queen. The year before, in 2007, she and William had broken up and suddenly Kate being included on the wedding guest list confirmed that she and the prince were back on and ratcheting up the speculation that they were next to get hitched.
With Hello selling like hotcakes, the Palace wasted no time briefing that Queen Elizabeth had known nothing about her grandson going the full Posh and Becks and selling private family photos. A senior royal source (possibly Philip putting a hanky over the receiver), made clear to the Telegraph, “It will never ever happen again. In hindsight it should never have happened in the first place.”
Politicians soon took up the cudgel. As Ian Gibson, a Labour MP, said: “The British public would expect the Queen to rise above being pictured in the pages of Hello! She is the Queen, not a footballer’s wife.”
Sadly for Hello’s sales, this Saturday when Peter and Harriet marry it will be an entirely private affair, with King Charles and Queen Camilla and William and Kate and their kids, all set to attend.
As the Telegraph’s royal editor Hannah Furness put it of the happy couple, “they’ve probably learned their lesson on that front. Hopefully.”
So, we will have to remain totally in the dark as to whether the Princess of Wales is still such a demon on the dance floor. Let’s all assume yes, shall we?
Daniela Elser is an editor and commentator with more than 15 years’ experience working with a number of Australia’s leading media titles.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.news.com.au ’
