Royal guest uncovers Queen Elizabeth's heartwarming gesture

Here’s a rare insider account of what it was like to stay as an outsider to family life at Queen Elizabeth’s Sandringham estate – including how she reached out and saved the day for a nervous teenager. Tanya Rose, founder of luxury travel agency Mason Rose, gave an interview about her 4-day stay at the Norfolk estate – she first travelled there aged 14, after being invited by her schoolmate and the son of The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Edward.

Tanya was one of the only visitors to stay during the break at the estate, and while she said guests were asked to take part in strict dress code that included as many as four outfits a day to accommodate their differing events and timings – from “four long dresses to four outfits for breakfast, four outfits for tea, shooting things, Barbour and wellies” – the estate’s protocol wasn’t so bad after all as the Queen put on the most down to earth behavior to her.

“I didn’t grow up like that, I did not have that wardrobe, so we had to go out and buy everything,” Tanya told Amanda Wakeley in a podcast episode of Style DNA.

“I had to have four out fits every single day.” The pair were asked to wear long, formal dresses as well as other “shoots wear”, and were expected to stick to the etiquette of wearing the required items for each situation, the businesswoman explained. But The Queen stepped in during a tense evening and broke her nerves:

“The Queen was so divine because she knew I was nervous, I was absolutely terrified, so she started doing impressions of her groom and just being so sweet to me,” the entrepreneur said. Tanya also suffered a rather embarrassed moment during one meal while she was sat between the Prince of Wales and Duke of Edinburgh, and she’d confused salt with sugar for her coffee:

When Rose was confused as to the purpose of a small tin and accidentally added two spoonful’s of salt instead of sugar to her morning drink.

“The King, who at the time of Rose’s visit was the then Prince of Wales, noticed immediately.

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I’ll never forget him. He says ‘What an amazing thing to do?’ and I realize I’d just salted my coffee.
Prince Charles started roaring.”