The Queen has spoken publicly for the first time about being assaulted on a train as a teenager, in an incident that left her “so angry”.
In an interview with BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, she described how she “fought back” and that the experienced had “lurked for many years”.
She said: “Somebody I didn’t know – I was reading my book and this boy, man, attacked me, and I did fight back.
“And I remember getting off the train and my mother looking at me and saying, ‘why is your hair standing on end?’ and ‘why is a button missing from your coat?’
“But I remember anger, and I was so furious about it, and it’s sort of lurked for many years.
“And I think, you know, when all the subject about domestic abuse came up, and suddenly you hear a story like John and Amy’s, it’s something that I feel very strongly about.”
The Queen also used the interview to praise BBC racing commentator John Hunt and his daughter Amy, whose family were murdered at their home last year – and said they would be “so proud of you both”.
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Louise Hunt, 25, her sister Hannah, 28, and their mother Carol, 61, were killed by Louise’s ex-partner Kyle Clifford, 27, in a quiet cul-de-sac in Bushey, Hertfordshire, on 9 July 2024.
Clifford, Louise’s ex-partner, was handed three whole life orders earlier this year.
After hearing the Queen share her story, Amy said: “Thank you for sharing that story first, Your Majesty, because that takes a lot to share these things because every woman has a story.”
A fundraising gala was held this month to launch The Hunt Family Fund.
Mr Hunt and Amy set it up in memory of their loved ones to raise money for charities and causes that help and inspire young women.
In the recording, the Queen said: “I’d just like to say, wherever your family is now, they’d be so proud of you both.
“And they must be from above smiling down on you and thinking, my goodness me, what a wonderful, wonderful father, husband, sister.
“They’d just be so proud of you both.”
The discussion, which was recorded in the Garden Room at Clarence House last month, also included former prime minister Baroness Theresa May and was chaired by BBC broadcaster Emma Barnett.
Mr Hunt said a year on after his family was killed it “remains really difficult on a minute-by-minute basis”, adding “but you have to try and find the strength in our position to arm yourself with as many tools as possible that are going to help you get through that next hour, get through that next day”.
He added: “At the risk of embarrassing Amy, she’s been my best counsel from the word go.
“We talk all the time. I used to say ‘I couldn’t do it without you’, but now I say ‘I can do it with you’.”
Amy said: “I think there’s a huge part of us that’s still in disbelief, in shock. Perhaps we’ll be in that state for the rest of our lives, given the magnitude of our loss.
“We miss them every single minute of the day.”
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The Queen’s incident was first recounted in the book Power And The Palace: The Inside Story Of The Monarchy And 10 Downing Street by Valentine Low, a former royal reporter for The Times newspaper.
In the book, the Queen was said to have told then mayor of London Boris Johnson in 2008 about the historical attack and reportedly stated: “I did what my mother taught me to. I took off my shoe and whacked him in the nuts with the heel.”
The man was said to have been arrested after she sought help at Paddington station.
Queen ‘wants to remove stigma and shame’
The conversation between the Queen and Mr Johnson was revealed to author Mr Low by the ex-mayor’s former communications director, Guto Harri.
Speaking to Sky News on Wednesday, Mr Low said he believes the Queen is telling her story in a bid to “remove some of the stigma that might attach to people who have been the victims of similar assaults”.
He said: “It means that they can tell their story, not publicly obviously in the way that the Queen has done, but to someone who might help, someone in authority.”
Mr Low added: “I think she wants to remove the stigma and the shame, so that people can talk about it and people can do something about it.”
The Queen has visited rape centres in the UK and abroad, hosted receptions for sexual assault and domestic abuse survivors, and spoken out on the issue.
Mr Low said the Queen has been campaigning “for at least a decade” but while her own experience has “informed her approach”, it’s instead the stories from other survivors that have “fuelled her anger”.
The author agreed that the Queen’s story “speaks to the modern monarchy” that we are now seeing played out.
He said: “Very much so. I mean, one can’t imagine the late Queen, who broke all sorts of barriers herself, but she would never have spoken in these terms.”
Mr Low said the modern monarchy is “much more personal”, with the royals prepared to talk about what goes on in their own lives.
He added: “You just have to see the way the King was prepared to reveal the details of his cancer diagnosis and the fact that he’s undergoing treatment and how he’s felt about all that.
“That’s really significant. His mother would never have done anything like that.”
