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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
National
Jennifer Newton

Queen's brutally honest verdict on the crown revealed in unearthed clip

Very few people have ever had the privilege of asking the Queen questions about her life.

But an unearthed clip from 1989 shows a group of children who were allowed to ask her anything - and her responses were adorable.

The clip was from part of the Queen's 1989 Christmas message, which was filmed at a Save the Children Fund children's concert at the Royal Albert Hall rather than Buckingham Palace or Windsor Castle.

As well as giving her traditional speech, that year's message also showed the Queen, Princess Anne and a very young Prince William meeting some of the children who had been at the show.

The Queen during her 1989 Christmas message (@The_Cambridgess/Twitter)

The first question she is asked by one of them is: "Do you like being the Queen?"

And she replies: "Yes, it's a very busy life", before a little girl buts in wanting to know: "How big is your palace?"

The Queen says: "My palace is quite large. It has very long corridors to walk down it, especially if one is late!"

The Queen takes questions from children (@The_Cambridgess/Twitter)

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Elsewhere, another youngster asks her: "Do you enjoy your job as the Queen?"

And she answers: "I find it very interesting, yes. I've had lots of opportunities to meet people and visit countries."

Before another chips in: "Is the crown very heavy?"

The Queen says: "It's quite heavy, yes. You don't really want to walk around in it. But it's meant to be heavy."

While in another part of the clip, the Queen talks to a young boy, who tells her he's from Malaysia.

A young Prince William appeared in the clip too (reelsarency/Youtube)

And with an adorable question, he asks: "Do you believe in Father Christmas?"

The Queen replies saying: "I like to believe in Father Christmas, yes.

The footage also shows Princess Anne taking questions from the children, with one asking her if she likes jewellery.

And she says: "Well, it's an optional extra I think.

"I don't think that it matters very much, I think there are priorities in life. Humans are very strange like that.

The Queen at a reception with business leaders last week (POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

"Of course, the animal kingdom is not above having its own methods of dressing up. So I suppose we ought to be like them."

In that year's speech, the Queen talked about the damage that had been inflicted on the environment and urged children to respect and protect their world.

Next week, she had been due to attend the Cop26 climate change summit in Glasgow but pulled out of travelling to the conference after spending a night in hospital last week.

Buckingham Palace said the 95-year-old had “regretfully decided” not to travel to Glasgow and will now stay at Windsor Castle where she will rest on doctors’ orders.

The Queen will now record a video message to be played at a reception for world leaders she was due to host on Monday as part of the world’s largest climate change conference.

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