Though her official title was Her Majesty’s personal assistant, adviser, and curator (jewelry, insignias, and wardrobe), Angela Kelly was much more than a servant to Queen Elizabeth, her boss of almost 30 years. She was also a confidant and friend—one of the few people who really knew the woman behind the crown.
“The queen was committed to doing her duty to the very end. Her Majesty never let anyone down. Even when she felt unwell, Her Majesty would not want anyone to know,” says Kelly in an emotional and rare interview. “As I worked alongside the queen, year after year we were getting older, but we were both young at heart, the queen still had a twinkle in her eye. The banter and mischief continued until Balmoral. When the queen passed away she was surrounded by her family. It was a shock to the nation, to everyone. It was very sad, but it was an honor to serve the queen until the very end.”
It was the unlikeliest of friendships: the working-class daughter of a Liverpool docker and a seamstress, and the most powerful woman in the world, born into her position and into a life of unimaginable privilege. But despite their vastly different worlds and backgrounds, the two women had key things in common: an interest in fashion, a dry sense of humor, and the willingness to put duty before all else, including, sometimes, family.
Kelly first met Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip in Germany in 1992 while working as a housekeeper for the then British ambassador Sir Christopher Mallaby. The queen took a liking to Kelly, who was invited to apply for an in-house position as assistant dresser at Buckingham Palace. At the time, she couldn’t afford a new outfit for the job interview and sold her washing machine to buy one. She was offered the position and left her family home in Sheffield to join the Royal Household in 1994 where she worked alongside Peggy Hoath, then senior dresser to the queen, who was approaching retirement after a 34-year tenure.
As she rose through the ranks, Kelly was credited for giving the queen’s wardrobe an update, turning her from frumpy to fabulous by convincing the monarch to swap her ankle-grazing skirts for colorful, eye-catching dresses that made her stand out. “I told her, ‘Your Majesty, you have good legs. Let’s show them off’,” Kelly jokes. “Needless to say the hems on the clothes were raised.”
