Her Majesty’s personal assistant and dresser, Angela Kelly, will stay living at Windsor thanks to a kind gesture from the Queen before her death.
Initially taking on a role as Assistant Dresser in the Royal Household, Angela soon became one of the Queen’s most trusted staff. She moved into Windsor Castle to assist the Queen with her mobility issues in her final months, where the duo often caught up on the latest television together.
After the Queen’s death, she was allowed to stay at Windsor thanks to Her Majesty herself. Typically, staff of a royal are given a months notice at the end of their reign to find another job - or in some cases are redeployed to another Royal Household, reports the Mirror.
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The Mail on Sunday reported that the Queen signed off for Angela to stay in her grace-and-favour home. An insider said: “The Queen was very clear that she was close to Angela and wanted to look after her people.”
Angela, 69, is the daughter of a crane driver and nurse - and grew up in a council house in Liverpool. She eventually became Her Majesty’s Personal Advisor and Curator - running the Queen’s jewellery, insignias and wardrobe.
In 2007, Angela told the Telegraph: “We are two typical women. We discuss clothes, make-up, jewellery.
“We say ‘Would this piece of jewellery look nice with that outfit?’, and things like that. I do worry about her and care about her. But we also have a lot of fun together.
“The Queen has a wicked sense of humour and is a great mimic. She can do all accents - including mine.
“I don’t know why the Queen seems fond of me - because I don’t give her an easy time. I do think she values my opinion, but she is the one who is in control, she always makes the final decision.”
Bethan Holt, author of The Queen: 70 Years of Majestic Style, said of the pairing: “Angela doesn’t suffer fools, and part of her appeal for the Queen is that she isn’t afraid of her.
“She’s very honest about things and that takes a lot of guts. The Queen appreciates that.”
Over time, Angela took on more of a lady-in-waiting type role helping with Her Majesty’s day-to-day life and even offering advice on the monarch.
In 2006, on a Royal Tour in Australia, Angela famously pranked the Queen. Her Majesty had been desperate to see a kookaburra on the trip, so the staff member bought a toy one and tricked her into thinking it was real - then telling her it was dead.
Angela recalled: “She had only two words for me: ‘You’re sacked’. I was laughing uncontrollably.”
The favoured staff member wrote a book titled The Other Side of The Coin: The Queen, the Dresser and the Wardrobe, in which she recalled being part of HMS Bubble during the lockdown. She told of the Bubble Olympics, where everyone got together for a series of activities including rounders and a sprint relay.
After the death of Prince Philip, the pair grew closer - with Angela one of the first to be informed about his death after the immediate family.
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