Our guest on episode 231, Royal Commentator Victoria Arbiter lived her late teens in Kensington Palace and brings to her role a wealth of insider knowledge and expert analysis on the British Royal Family gained from a career that spans both sides of the Atlantic.

She’s provided commentary to CNN, ABC and CBS. She covered William & Catherine and Harry & Meghan’s weddings, The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, and has contributed to Entertainment Tonight, Inside Edition, The Today Show, CTV (Canada), Channel 7 (Australia), and ITV (UK).

Victoria writes a weekly royal column for 9 Honey, the digital arm of Channel 9 in Australia, and has been featured in numerous international publications and documentaries.

Her book on Queen Elizabeth II for the Pocket Giants Series was published by the History Press in February 2016.

Victoria shared in our last conversation that her one way ticket was to Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe!

Since we’re marking our show’s 10^th anniversary, and since it co-insides with the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, we’re combining the two occasions and having Victoria return to the podcast to answer 10 questions about HM the Queen.

Those questions are:

1. What is the Queen’s constitutional role?
2. How is Her Majesty’s closet organized and what happens to her old clothes?
3. Describe the relationship she had with her younger sister, Princess Margaret, and what did she make of her joie de vivre?
4. Who are the Queen’s friends and what are those relationships like?
5. What upsets the Queen and how if at all would she show her displeasure?
6. Is there anything the Queen never travels without?
7. What does the Queen keep in her handbag (apart from a marmalade sandwich which we saw in her teatime exchange with Paddington Bear)?
8. What do you think goes through Her Majesty’s mind when her children “make headlines”?
9. What are the biggest lessons we can learn from her life?
10. If I gave the Queen a one way ticket – past, present, future, real, imaginary or state of mind, where do you think she’d like to go?

Plus, I asked Victoria one bonus question for good luck: Why do we have such an enduring fascination with the Queen?

LINKS:

victoriaarbiter.com

Victoria Arbiter on Twitter

Victoria’s Weekly Royal Column for 9 Honey

Queen Elizabeth II (Pocket Giants)

Victoria Falls

The book I referenced in the conversation was: Daughter of Empire: My Life as a Mountbatten by Lady Pamela Hicks

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