At times, Queen Elizabeth struggled with what to say to the millions of people she met during royal engagements, but that doesn't mean she didn't have a sharp sense of humor. The late monarch had an innate talent for mimicry, and according to royal sources, could impersonate a range of accents. Throughout her life, Queen Elizabeth was known to entertain friends and family with her spot-on impersonations of everyone from staff members to Melania Trump—and she even poked fun at her own grandchildren.
One such story is shared in Craig Brown's biography, Q: A Voyage Around The Queen. Noting how the late monarch's "accent changed with the times," the author shared that Queen Elizabeth "enjoyed mimicry, and slipped into it with ease."
"Her family were not off-limits," he added, recounting the time when Elizabeth's Olympian granddaughter Zara Tindall (then Zara Phillips) won the BBC Sports Personality of the Year in 2006 for her equestrian accomplishments. Zara had used the word "amazing" rather "liberally" throughout her acceptance speech, and the next day, Queen Elizabeth was speaking to racing trainer Ian Balding on the phone when she slipped into mimic mode. "Before he finished congratulating her, she chipped in: 'Wasn't it amaaaazing, amaaaazing!'" Brown wrote.
The joke would have come as no surprise to her friends and family. According to her beloved dresser, Angela Kelly, Queen Elizabeth had "a wicked sense of humor."
"We have a lot of fun together," she said in a 2007 interview (via The Sun), calling the late Queen "a great mimic." Kelly, who was born in Liverpool and has a strong Scouse accent, added, "She can do all accents—including mine."
Princess Diana's former butler, Paul Burrell—who worked for Queen Elizabeth first—also praised the late monarch's mimicry skills. "She has a great sense of humor and a guttural laugh," he said (via the Express). "When she travels through the country she loves to hear regional accents."
"She will come back and she'll do the accent," Burrell added. "She does a great Scouse accent."
Although Queen Elizabeth died in 2022, her talent seems to live on with Princess Charlotte. In an interview with Hello!, royal author Phil Dampier said, "I'm told Charlotte has also inherited from the late Queen a brilliant ability to mimic prominent figures."
While he didn't elaborate on Charlotte's favorite people to impersonate, Dampier added, "Queen Elizabeth used to have her family in stitches with her impersonations of politicians, including U.S. Presidents and former Russian leader Boris Yeltsin."
