Queen Elizabeth ‘loved when things went wrong,’ according to longtime aide — here’s why
Even the queen leaned into the royal craziness.
“The queen had no ego, she was so comfortable in herself, yet she loved it when things went wrong,” Samantha Cohen, a former staffer of the late royal, claimed to the Herald Sun.
“If a cake was not cutting, or a plaque didn’t unveil, because everything was so perfectly organized, it spiced her life up when things went wrong.”
Cohen worked for the royal family from 2001 until 2019. Per the Telegraph, some of the “best times” of her job came when Her Majesty toured Australia in 2002 and 2019.
Cohen served as Elizabeth’s assistant private secretary and interacted with the monarch on a daily basis.
“The queen and I used to talk a lot. I miss her, she was a special woman,” Cohen went on, adding that she and her family were often invited by the matriarch to come to Balmoral Castle and Sandringham House to celebrate Christmas with the royals.
“I loved, loved, loved the job as the queen’s assistant private secretary,” she gushed. “They were happy times because the queen was in great form.”
The monarch — who died at 96 in 2022 — once affectionately gave her the name “Samantha Panther” due to her no-nonsense work attitude.
Cohen also recalled how excited the queen was to launch a YouTube channel for her family in 2007.
“We did a mock-up and showed the queen what YouTube was. She said: ‘Fantastic’, she was up for it,” Cohen stated.
According to Cohen, she was later contacted by the Vatican and the White House to set up their own channels with both institutions stating: “The queen had a channel on YouTube before we did.”
Per the queen’s request, Cohen eventually started working for Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan Markle, in 2018.
However, a year later, Cohen resigned from the royal household after being “treated harshly” and comparing the job to “working with teenagers.”
The claims were published in Valentine Low’s book, “Courtiers: The Hidden Power Behind the Crown.”
While Cohen refused to comment on the claims, the Herald Sun reported that Cohen was one of 10 people interviewed by palace officials when the Sussex’s communications secretary, Jason Knauf, raised the issue.
Markle’s legal team has denied any allegations of bullying.
Following her departure, Cohen was hired as the chief executive on the Commonwealth Enterprise and Investment Council and created the queen’s Green Canopy initiative, which planted 3 million trees throughout the UK in the name of the former monarch.
“It was my gift to the queen,” Cohen said. “She loved trees and nature and knew every tree in the Buckingham Palace gardens.”
In 2022, Cohen briefly served under Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
“I was brought in because there had been a lot of change,” she told the Herald Sun.
Cohen later attended the queen’s funeral at St George’s Chapel.
“Windsor was her home, and she loved being there,” she told People. “She died in her favorite place and was laid to rest in her favorite place alongside her husband and other members of her family.”
