Why Didn’t Queen Elizabeth Take Interviews? Insider Explains

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, HOST: But tell me about that then. About rehearsing these things over the years. I mean, some might think that’s ghoulish. But how did that work? Was the queen involved in rehearsals in, sort of, tweaks?

SALLY OSMAN, FORMER DIRECTOR OF ROYAL COMMUNICATIONS, BUCKINGHAM PALACE: Well, she was involved in the planning.

AMANPOUR: Yes.

OSMAN: Not the rehearsals, necessarily.

AMANPOUR: No.

OSMAN: Because she — and actually, most of the royal family had deeply pragmatic. You know, they want things to work properly which is why she was so involved in the order a service for today at both Westminster Abbey and at St. George’s. And those little personal touches, the fact that she was involved in the design of the state hearse, you know, maximum window so that maximum amount of visibility to the public.

AMANPOUR: And lights from the inside.

OSMAN: Lights from the inside.

AMANPOUR: It’s pretty amazing, yes.

OSMAN: It was. So, all those, sort of, touches. And — I mean, I think one of the most touching things today was that astonishing display of flowers on top of the coffin.

AMANPOUR: Oh, wasn’t it beautiful?

OSMAN: It was so beautiful.

AMANPOUR: Yes, we all commented on that. It’s sort of — like garden flowers. Almost wild flowers, almost.

OSMAN: Well, they were. It was at the king’s requests that flowers from Buckingham Palace has and Highgrove should go into the wreath. And the colors were meant to reflect the royal standard. And it had — let me get this right, rosemary for remembrance, myrtle for happy marriage. And the myrtle actually came from a plant that was a plan that had been planted from a sprig that was in the queen’s original wedding bouquet which is incredible. An English oak for health and steadfastness.

AMANPOUR: So, Sally Osman, you and I met several years ago during your tenure. Because it’s every journalists’ dream to interview the queen. So, somewhat quixotically I came to you and laid out a wonderful rationale why we should do it. And I just want to ask you now in the fullness of time, why does she never sit for an interview? I’m not saying with me, but with anybody. She just didn’t. She had conversations with the likes of David Attenborough, with expert on the crown jewels. I remember those were two, “Interviews” that really weren’t. But why — what was integral to her view of the mystique, maybe, in her not wanting to sit down with any journalist?

OSMAN: Well, I think there’s a humility about the queen. There was a humility. I keep getting my tenses wrong.

AMANPOUR: It’s alright.

OSMAN: There was humility about the queen that she thought why would people necessarily be interested? She would talk about things she knew were important, like the symbolism of the crown jewels, for example.

AMANPOUR: Yes.

OSMAN: Particularly if it was around a particular anniversary of the coronation or something like that. I think the closest she ever actually came to doing an interview was with — there was a BBC documentary some years ago that was shown quite recently called, “Elizabeth R”.

AMANPOUR: Uh-huh.

OSMAN: And it was almost a fly on the wall documentary. And I think that’s almost the closest she’s come to being interviewed. But I’d say — she’d think, well, what can I say? You know, people can see what I do. Why do I need to explain?