{"id":117156,"date":"2025-11-02T05:14:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-02T05:14:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/117156\/"},"modified":"2025-11-02T05:14:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-02T05:14:08","slug":"paul-ogradys-incredible-secret-friendship-with-queen-elizabeth-revealed-for-first-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/117156\/","title":{"rendered":"Paul O’Grady’s incredible secret friendship with Queen Elizabeth revealed for first time"},"content":{"rendered":"

Amazing details of the late Paul O’Grady’s relationship with Queen Elizabeth are revealed in a fascinating new book by his producer and friend Malcolm Prince\"PaulPaul O’Grady’s secret friendship with the late Queen is revealed(Image: Ken McKay\/REX\/Shutterstock)<\/p>\n

Paul O\u2019Grady arrived at Lady Elizabeth Anson\u2019s house for what he thought was a routine visit to see his long-standing friend who had been unwell. He carried a WH Smith bag, as he often did, and was led into the kitchen, where to his surprise, the Queen was already there, having a cup of tea.<\/p>\n

Paul later admitted he was a little embarrassed by his disheveled \u00adappearance, but he did not let it show. But the encounter marked the beginning of an extraordinary secret friendship between Paul and the late Queen <\/a>that today can be revealed for the first time.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was, I have since learnt, one of many such encounters Paul enjoyed with the Queen,\u201d writes his friend and producer Malcolm Prince, in his new book, Paul O\u2019Grady<\/a> \u2013 Not The Same Without You.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe kept his \u00adassociation relatively quiet, and rarely mentioned it on air or in public. If he did mention the royals, his viewers and listeners would not know if he was joking; after all, would you have believed him if he told you he had had tea with the Queen?\u201d<\/p>\n

On that occasion, Her Majesty thanked Paul for being such a loyal friend to her cousin, and for being a regular visitor to her during her illness. \u201cPaul replied he had been friends with her for many years and his concern was the same he would show to anyone,\u201d Malcolm writes.<\/p>\n

\"MalcolmMalcolm Prince with his friend Paul O’Grady(Image: PA)<\/p>\n

Labour peer and actor Michael Cashman<\/a>, who was close friends with Paul, says the late Queen loved how down to earth he was. \u201cPaul was not impressed by wealth or privilege. He loved truth and he loved honesty, and I think that is why the Queen found him so interesting and why she engaged with him so often as she did,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Malcolm says he often believed Paul was joking when he name-dropped the royals while working alongside Paul for 14 years on his BBC Radio 2<\/a> show. \u201cHe used to say to me, \u2018Well, they are listening\u2019. I asked who and he used to mouth the words, \u2018Royal family<\/a>\u2019. I was thinking, it is another one of his yarns. But he was telling the truth all along.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2015, during the opening of dog kennels at Battersea Dogs and Cats Home<\/a>, Paul encouraged the Queen to adopt a corgi \u2013 though she declined. His royal friendships extended to Queen Camilla<\/a>, who appeared on his popular show For the Love of Dogs<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe would have regular lunches with Camilla at Fortnum and Mason. You could not help but think how far he had come,\u201d Malcolm says of Paul, who was awarded an MBE in 2008. \u201cI think even he was surprised but did not like to boast.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Paul enjoyed these private royal moments, his final years were marked by heartbreak closer to home, at BBC<\/a> Radio 2. Malcolm and Paul worried for the future of their hugely popular show following a change in management. Their fears were realised in the summer of 2021 when Paul\u2019s manager Joan Marshrons was informed by the BBC of their plans.<\/p>\n

\"PaulPaul O’Grady and the late Queen at Battersea (Image: POOL\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

\u201cInstead of a new two-year deal to continue the show, Paul was offered a one-year contract for just 26 programmes in two blocks of 13 each. He would normally present over 40 editions of TeamPOG a year. His manager Joan phoned me. We were flabbergasted. And when Joan broke the news to Paul, he too was shocked.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe phoned me. \u2018F*** \u2019em, Malcolm. We will just do the first thirteen and then we will bugger off.\u2019 I had never known him be so angry \u2013 which was saying something.\u201d<\/p>\n

Malcolm also writes how Radio 2 made the situation worse with the way they mishandled the public messaging. \u201cWhen the BBC\u2019s press office prepared a draft release which announced the comedian Rob Beckett would be joining Radio 2 to \u201csave Sundays\u201d, Paul hit the roof: \u2018\u201cSave\u201d Sundays?!? How dare they say that!\u2019. I could not believe how \u00addisrespectful the messaging and optics were\u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cJoan did inform the BBC that Paul was not happy, and he received an email apologising for the insensitive use of words. A rewritten press release was published.\u201d<\/p>\n

The impact was significant, leaving his friends furious.<\/p>\n

Jayne Tunnicliffe recalls: \u201cI could not believe it when I heard Paul was leaving Radio 2. Asking him to share the Sunday spot with Rob Beckett must have been such a slap in the face\u2026The move by Radio 2 was \u00adunforgivable…<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd it turned into such a disastrous decision because had Paul been allowed to continue the show with Malcolm, he might have still been with us today.\u201d Malcolm says they were supported by fellow Radio 2 star Steve Wright<\/a>, whose own show was ended by BBC bosses. He describes how Steve was also left \u201cbroken\u201d by the decision.<\/p>\n

He writes: \u201cPrivately, the diktat to end the high-profile programme after 23 years broke Steve, and during our call he kept on saying, \u2018I just don\u2019t get it, Malcolm, we haven\u2019t done anything wrong, have we?\u2019. To hear Wrighty sound so despondent saddened me.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was a radio hero of mine. I reminded him his own programmes, and the way he approached and created them, had inspired me in the way I produced. He asked me to send his love to Paul and we bade farewell.\u201d Malcolm says that the bad blood over the way the episode was handled continued until the day of Paul\u2019s death, at the age of 67.<\/p>\n

\"MalcolmMalcolm Prince’s brilliant new book<\/p>\n

Visiting Paul hours before his death at his Kent home on March 28, 2023, he writes: \u201cPaul asked if I had heard from the BBC. \u2018No\u2019, I replied. Publicly, he had not said anything negative about the station since we had left the previous August. But he still found the BBC\u2019s decision \u00adbewildering, believing they did not understand who the real Radio 2 \u00adaudience was.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was clear Paul had not forgiven the Corporation for the way he had been treated…I wonder how long Rob Beckett will last?\u2019 he mused.\u201d Rob left his Sunday afternoon slot in April this year.<\/p>\n

Speaking to this paper, Malcolm says he was not surprised Paul was upset up until his death. Malcolm says: \u201cHe was bruised, but I think really he was embarrassed, because that had never happened to Paul before. He was upset. He was angry about it. His fans deserved to know what really happened. It was a really unhappy situation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Paul O\u2019Grady \u2013 Not The Same Without You by Malcolm Prince (HarperCollins, \u00a322) is out on November 6<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Amazing details of the late Paul O’Grady’s relationship with Queen Elizabeth are revealed in a fascinating new book…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":117157,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[1643,321,93,61,60,70292,70290,4639,70291],"class_list":["post-117156","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-bbc-radio-2","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-michael-cashman","tag-paul-ogrady","tag-royal-family","tag-steve-wright"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117156","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=117156"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117156\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/117157"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}