The Queen has been ‘ordered to quit drinking by royal doctors,’ according to a magazine quoting a family friend.
Her Majesty, who is in good physical health and has been seen using a walking stick during recent engagements in Wales ‘for comfort’ rather than any medical reason, has allegedly been advised to forgo alcohol except for special occasions.
According to two sources close to the monarch, doctors have also given the advice ahead of the monarch’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations next June.
‘The Queen has been told to give up her evening drink which is usually a martini,’ a family friend is said to have told Vanity Fair’s Katie Nicholl. ‘It’s not really a big deal for her, she is not a big drinker but it seems a trifle unfair that at this stage in her life she’s having to give up one of very few pleasures.’
Queen Elizabeth II at a State Banquet at Blackheads House British Royal visit to Tallinn, Estonia on 19 October 2006
Her Majesty attends the opening ceremony of the sixth session of the Senedd at The Senedd on October 14, 2021 in Cardiff, Wales
The monarch is rarely seen drinking in public but according to palace sources, just like her son Prince Charles, her alcoholic beverage of choice is often a dry martini.
The 95-year year-old is also believed to enjoy a glass of sweet wine with dinner, while her late cousin Margaret Rhodes once reported she was known to drink a glass of champagne before bed.
‘The alcohol has gone, her doctors want to make sure she is as fit and healthy as possible,’ a second source was quoted as saying by the magazine.
Dubonnet and gin – the Queen Mother’s favourite tipple – is also believed to be a choice often requested by Her Majesty.
The mother of the Queen, who died in 2002 at the age of 101, kicked off her daily libations with a glass of Dubonnet and gin before lunch, according to Adrian Tinniswood’s Behind the Throne: A Domestic History of the Royal Household.
It cites Margaret Rhodes, the niece, confidante, and one-time lady of the bedchamber to the Queen Mother, as saying the royal’s pattern – gin and Dubonnet before lunch, wine with the meal, a martini before dinner then a glass of champagne – ‘never varied’.
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Queen Elizabeth takes a sip of wine with Chateau Barrosa’s Managing Director Hermann Thumm during a wine country tour in Barossa Valley near Adelaide in Australia on February 28, 2002
But according to the account of Major Colin Burgess, who was equerry to the Queen Mother and the man responsible for mixing those martinis, it could be rather more flexible – incorporating a post-lunch glass of port, up to two martinis before dinner, and Veuve Clicquot champagne with the meal.
Major Burgess – who himself published a book about his years with the Queen Mother – referred to her as a ‘devoted drinker’, and recalled ensuring a bottle of Dubonnet was brought along to official engagements, just in case.
In February it was revealed that Hillsborough Castle and Gardens, the Queen’s Northern Ireland residence, was launching its own variety of the gin, made using rose petals from the gardens and blended with apples and pears from the castle’s Walled Garden.
The Northern Ireland residence, which is 20 minutes away from Belfast, teamed up with local distillery Rademon Estate, Northern Ireland’s first craft gin distillery.
It comes after the official Buckingham Palace gin launched by the Royal Collection Trust in July 2020 sold out online within eight hours.
The Granville Rose Garden was created by Lady Rose Bowes-Lyon, the Queen Mother’s eldest sister in the 1940s and 1950s, with the Queen and her sister Margaret enjoying the spectacular grounds when visiting their aunt and uncle as young princesses.
In November last year, the royal launched a new gin made with plants grown in her Sandringham estate.
The batch of Sandringham Celebration Gin is priced at £50 for a 50cl bottle and was made in a distillery on the estate in north Norfolk.
It was the third brand of gin to be marketed by the Royal family, cashing in on the popularity of the drink.
Prince Charles recently launched his own organic Highgrove gin just months after the Royal Collection Trust started selling a Buckingham Palace variety.
But the Sandringham gin is the one most closely linked to the Queen because the 20,000 acre estate is her private property.
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