As celebrations to mark the Platinum Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II, BBC Special Correspondent Katty Kay sits down with award-winning writer and magazine editor Tina Brown, who has spent decades chronicling the British royal family.
The interview, which airs on the BBC World Service and BBC World News, sees Tina Brown discuss the future of the Monarchy without Queen Elizabeth at its helm, and reflect on the Monarch’s 70-year reign.
Speaking to Kay at her New York home, Brown describes the Queen as a “focal point of British identity”, representing “what we consider to be the best of being British, stoic, beautiful, humorous in our own way, unflappable”.
She explains: “There is something reassuring, I think, to most people in Britain to have as a head of state, a non-partisan uniting figure, who is essentially a safe space actually for everyone to relate to.”
Brown, author of the new Sunday Times bestseller The Palace Papers: Inside the House of Windsor, states that the Monarch’s silence on political issues has aided the royals in maintaining an air of mystique.
“I mean Brexit – who knows what she thought? It’s a remarkable strength, the power of the Royal silence”, says Brown.
Although she asserts that the Queen’s non-partisan and stoic approach to her reign is best for the long-term preservation of the Royal Family, Brown suggests that William and Kate are likely to be far more open as monarchs.
She states, “I suspect that William and Kate are going to be much more like the European monarchy. I just also hope though, that they understand the power of the Royal silence, that the Queen really has shown us it works”.
During the illuminating interview, Brown suggests that the scandals surrounding the Royal Family in recent years have been harder for the Queen to withstand than similar scrutiny faced in the nineties following the death of Diana, Princess of Wales.
“It’s been much more damaging this time and the sort of hand grenades that Harry has kept throwing… continue to destabilize.
“Of course the scandals of Andrew have really been tarnishing.”
Regarding the future of the Monarchy, Brown tells Katty Kay that “there is going to be a great identity crisis” for Britons when the Queen passes.
“I think the mourning will be enormous, and I think it’s going to go on for quite a long time”.
When probed, Brown does reveal, however, that she believes the Monarchy will remain a fixture in Britain:
“I think the Monarchy will survive because there’s not much of a movement to get rid of it. Or the British people see the Monarchy as the sort of summation of that history and a way of being patriotic without being Nazi nationalistic, essentially.
“And I think as they know, as we all look around the world and see other systems, you have to ask if the Monarchy went, what else?”
The Interview: Tina Brown airs on BBC World News on Saturday 4th June at 13.30 BST and on the BBC World Service on Sunday 5th June at 10.00 BST.