The Queen has given the green light for her trusted aide to reveal her lockdown secrets in a book that will go head-to-head with Prince Harry’s tell-all memoir this summer.
Angela Kelly, the monarch’s dresser and trusted advisor, has been given special permission to update her 2019 book, adding chapters about how the Royal Family coped through the Covid-19 pandemic and Prince Philip’s death.
Ms Kelly, who has worked for the monarch for 28 years, was part of the team that isolated with the head of state for much of the pandemic in the safety of Windsor Castle, or as they nicknamed it, “HMS Bubble”.
Katya Shipster, Harper Non-Fiction publishing director, said about the book, updated to mark the jubilee: “It tells the story of the royal bubble as well as the lengths Angela and the royal household went to, to ensure the safety of the monarch.”
Queen Elizabeth II during a video link call and virtual visit to the Royal London Hospital on Wednesday
Buckingham Palace
Harry and Meghan the Duke and Duchess of Sussex
Earl Gibson III/NAACP
Her revised book, The Other Side Of The Coin: The Queen, The Dresser And The Wardrobe is being updated to mark the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations in June.
It is reported to include chapters that reveal how at the height of the pandemic she became the monarch's personal hairdresser.
It comes as the Royal Family and their aides are braced for new revelations, with Harry preparing to publish his tell-all memoir later in 2022.
The Duke of Sussex said his book will be written “not as the prince I was born but as the man I have become” and as an “accurate and wholly truthful” account of his life.
It will cover his time in the public eye from childhood to the present day.
There are fears Harry will delve further into his troubled relationship with his father Prince Charles, write about his rift with brother Prince William, or even name the royal accused of making racist remarks.
The publisher, Penguin Random House, has yet to confirm the exact release date, but said it is “tentatively scheduled for late 2022”.
In Ms Kelly’s previously published books, she’s revealed some of the behind-the-scenes tricks used for the monarch’s attire.
She sews in extra layers of lining to cushion the impact of beading and crystals on the Queen’s back when events require glamorous gowns.
Tiny weights are also put into day-wear hemlines in case of windy weather and fabrics that crumple or could potentially develop messy loose strands are avoided.
Ms Kelly – who has the same size feet as the Queen – wears in the monarch’s handmade new shoes to ensure they are comfortable when first used.
Ms Kelly rarely gives interviews but she once disclosed: “We are two typical women. We discuss clothes, make-up, jewellery.”
