Late Queen ‘loved when things went wrong’, former aide claims

Her Majesty is said to have enjoyed a ‘cake that wouldn’t cut’ – Oli Scarff/PA

The late Queen “loved it” when things went wrong because it “spiced her life up”, one of her closest aides has claimed.

Samantha Cohen, who served Queen Elizabeth II for 17 years as her press secretary, and then as her assistant private secretary, spoke fondly of her relationship with the monarch in an interview with an Australian newspaper.

She told the Herald Sun: “The Queen had no ego, she was so comfortable in herself, yet she loved it when things went wrong. If a cake was not cutting, or a plaque didn’t unveil, because everything was so perfectly organised, it spiced her life up when things went wrong.”

Ms Cohen, who stopped working for the Royal household in 2019, said the “best times” were her two royal tours accompanying her majesty to Australia.

The Queen and Prince Philip visited South Australia and Queensland in 2002, and returned to Australia in 2011 for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Perth.

The late Queen meets Aboriginal dancers in Adelaide in 2002 – Tony Lewis/Getty

Ms Cohen saw the Queen almost daily and, for nearly a decade, had her own bedroom at Windsor Castle, she said.

Recalling how she was invited to bring her family to Balmoral and also to Sandringham at Christmas, she said: “The Queen and I used to talk a lot. I miss her, she was a special woman.”

The former aide said the Queen nicknamed her “Samantha Panther” for her no-nonsense work attitude, and was enthusiastic about the royal family launching a YouTube account when it was suggested.

She said: “We did a mock up and showed the Queen what YouTube was. She said: ‘Fantastic’, she was up for it.”

Ms Cohen, who now works as chief of staff for the global chief executive of the mining giant Rio Tinto, revealed she later received calls from The Vatican and White House saying: “The Queen had a channel on YouTube before we did.”

Ms Cohen was invited to the Vatican to help Pope Benedict XVI start his own channel, she said.

Ms Cohen was nicknamed ‘Samantha Panther’ by the late Queen, she says – Michael Dunlea/Barcroft Media

The former royal aide, who was raised in Brisbane, Australia, started her career as a journalist on the Sunshine Coast Daily in Queensland, before working for the Australian government.

She moved to England and joined the Buckingham Palace press office after responding to an advert in PR Week magazine, according to reports.

In 2018, she worked as private secretary to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex on the personal request of the Queen. However, she resigned in October 2019 after being “treated harshly” and likening the job to “working with teenagers”, it was claimed in Valentine Low’s book, Courtiers: The Hidden Power Behind the Crown.

Ms Cohen would not comment on the claims, according to the Herald Sun. However, the newspaper reported that she confirmed that she was one of ten aides reportedly interviewed by the palace after a bullying complaint was raised by the couple’s communications secretary Jason Knauf.

The Duchess of Sussex’s legal team strenuously denied the bullying allegation.

Samantha Cohen is seen here in the background, between the late Queen and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex – Danny Lawson/PA

After leaving the royal family, Ms Cohen was appointed chief executive of the Commonwealth Enterprise and Investment Council, where she established The Queen’s Green Canopy, a UK-wide tree planting initiative created to mark Her Majesty’s Platinum Jubilee in 2022.

The project saw more than three million trees planted throughout the UK in honour of the Queen.

“It was my gift to the Queen,” Ms Cohen said. “She loved trees and nature and knew every tree in the Buckingham Palace gardens.”

In 2022, Ms Cohen served as director of office for Boris Johnson, then prime minister, amid the Covid “partygate” scandal.

“I was brought in because there had been a lot of change,” she told the Herald Sun.

Her favourite job to date remains working for the Queen, she said.

“I loved, loved, loved the job as the Queen’s assistant private secretary. They were happy times because the Queen was in great form,” she said.

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