Thierry Henry has described the passing of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II as difficult as the former Arsenal captain paid tribute to the monarch. The former Arsenal winger lived in London for years and described himself as a Londoner, recognising the significance of such an occasion.
Buckingham Palace confirmed the death of Her Majesty The Queen on Thursday, September 8 aged 96. Queen Elizabeth II was the longest-reigning monarch in British history and the world's oldest head of state. She reigned for over 70 years and celebrated her Platinum Jubilee this year.
On her death, the Queen's eldest son and heir, Charles, the former Prince of Wales, has become King of the United Kingdom and 14 Commonwealth realms, while the funeral is planned for Monday, September 19. In wake of the tragic loss, tributes have been flooding in with plenty of touching stories during her life.
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Henry was one of those to add his own experience to the list from when he had to introduce the whole Arsenal team to Her Majesty at Buckingham Palace after being invited for afternoon tea in 2007. Speaking on CBS Sports about the occasion, he said: "I had the opportunity to meet the Queen and I was nervous, as hell,' Henry said. 'I remember thinking "I am about to play a game or something".
"When you are at Buckingham Palace and you are meeting the Queen - I looked at Julio Baptista and forgot his name! I was like "who is that?". It was my duty to introduce everybody [as Arsenal captain].
"When you are nervous you want to go back into your own language. I don't think that if I had spoken French it would have worked!
"It is very difficult to talk about her in the past tense. I am French, I am proud to be French., but I am a Londoner. I tend to understand what the royal family was, what she did represent and I have only respect for her."
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