A 93-year-old guest at the special Coronation garden party at Buckingham Palace revealed to Prince William she watched his grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II, crowned 70 years ago.
Dame Elizabeth Watts, who was dressed to the nines in a green maxi dress with a wild print, told the Prince of Wales, 41, she had slept on the street for three nights in order to catch a glimpse of Her late Majesty Queen Elizabeth before her Coronation ceremony in June 1953.
Dame Elizabeth joined another 93-year-old guest, Aldith Grandison, at the garden party, who shared a cheeky joke with the Princess of Wales as they celebrated the volunteering efforts of the 500 Coronation Champions invited to the event.
The Champions were lucky enough to meet William, as well as Kate, Princess of Wales, Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh and Prince Edward as the foursome hosted the party.
As the Prince of Wales shook Dame Elizabeth’s hand, she revealed she had been alive for three coronations – King George VI, Queen Elizabeth II, and King Charles III, to which William responded: ‘Three coronations, that’s amazing!’
The 93-year-old then revealed: ‘Your grandmother’s – I slept on the pavement for three nights and it poured with rain… it was wonderful.’
As she recalled where she had been the moment William’s great-grandfather King George VI was crowned, she said, ‘I had the measles’ at which point William burst into laughter.
He asked: ‘Did you still go?’ to which the royal fan replied: ‘Oh yes, yes.’
Elsewhere the Princess of Wales chatted to Ms Grandison, who attended the party with her daughter Jay Cee La Bouche, and asked the 93-year-old guest if she had any good jokes.
Kate admitted: ‘I’m terrible with jokes!’ as the guest playfully replied she was the ‘strict one’ – which caused the Princess to burst into laughter.
The mother-of-three joked: ‘How can you tell that?!’
The Prince of Wales chatted to Dame Elizabeth Watts, 93, who revealed she had slept on the pavement for three nights to see Queen Elizabeth II on her coronation day in 1953
The Princess of Wales shared a joke with Aldith Grandison, 93, who laughed that Kate was the ‘strict one’
The Buckingham Palace garden party, held in honour of the Coronation Champions after King Charles and Queen Camilla were officially crowned at Westminster Abbey on Saturday.
The heartwarm,ing interaction took place as the two royal couples launched King Charles’s ‘slimmed down monarchy’ at the garden party.
The Princess of Wales, 41, and Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh, 58, both stunned in blue dresses they had each previously worn to Royal Ascot – with Kate in an Elie Saab number and Sophie in a Suzannah frock.
King Charles reportedly wants to reform the monarchy to a ‘slimmed-down’ operation as royal experts claims his official Coronation portraits showed ‘the people who the King can depend on’.
As Kate began greeting the 500 champions and thanked them for their hard work, she looked regal in the dress and hat combo, which was a slightly more jazzed-up look from her appearance at the Slough Big Help Out on Bank Holiday Monday.
Meanwhile Sophie stunned in a deeper shade of blue with a frilled midi-dress with a full skirt and looked just as regal alongside Prince Edward and the rest of the family.
Yesterday royal expert Richard Fitzwilliam told MailOnline that King Charles had likely chosen very carefully how his coronation portraits were staged, with a very important position for Princess Anne – who was also present at today’s garden party.
Mr Fitzwilliams said: ‘This one is a strong forceful portrait of a monarch who knows his own mind and is very experienced.’
He added the Princess Royal’s proximity to the King in the group portrait ‘is no accident’, adding the fact she is ‘experienced and hard-working’ will have been noticed by Charles.
Noting the family shot included only four people under the age of 70, Mr Fitzwilliams said this will be a ‘challenge’ for the King in the future, who will need to decide ‘how slimmed down he wants the monarchy to be’.
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