The Queen Reportedly Had a Very Chill Response to Finding a Royal Staffer Passed Out Drunk in the Palace

One of the perks for the royal staff is access to a special, subsidized bar and the Queen had a chill response to a staffer who overdid it at work.

  • One of the job perks of working for the royal family is access to a subsidized staff bar with cheap gin and tonics and other drinks available daily.
  • In his new book Long Live the Queen! 13 Rules for Living from Britain's Longest Reigning Monarch, royal author Bryan Kozlowski explains that the Queen is known for being very cool about her staff drinking—even if they sometimes overdo it.
  • Once, the Queen reportedly came across a staffer who was passed out drunk at the bottom of a staircase and didn't get upset at all.

Working for the royal family comes with a lot of perks. There are the obvious ones, like, you know, close access to the royal family and the fact that, much like working for Miranda Priestly, having a stint at the Palace on your résumé means you can get a job pretty much anywhere. But then there are lesser known job benefits too—like cheap booze, courtesy of the royals themselves.

According to royal author Bryan Kozlowski in his new book Long Live the Queen! 13 Rules for Living from Britain's Longest Reigning Monarch, members of the royal staff have access to a "subsidized staff bar at the Palace with dirt-cheap gin and tonics and other bevys daily up for grabs."

No, seriously.

"By decree of the boss lady at the top, kicking back with a well-deserved tipple is practically a human right," Kozlowski writes.

If cheap liquor at work seems like a recipe for trouble, well, sometimes it is. There have, apparently, been royal staffers who have overdone it, even on the clock. Luckily for them, the Queen is reportedly super chill (like next-level Lebowski chill) about the occasional drunken display at the Palace.

"The Queen is said to turn a relaxed eye away from members of her household who occasionally overdo it on the sherry and shenanigans themselves," Kozlowski writes. "Like the time Elizabeth supposedly found a drunk servant sprawled at the bottom of a staircase. Without putting a pearl out of place, she merely requested to anyone within earshot, "Would someone please come and pick Frank up, I think he's a little under the weather."

Can we get a yass, Queen to that?

RELATED STORIES
Contributing Editor at Marie Claire

Kayleigh Roberts is a freelance writer and editor with over 10 years of professional experience covering entertainment of all genres, from new movie and TV releases to nostalgia, and celebrity news. Her byline has appeared in Marie Claire, Cosmopolitan, ELLE, Harper’s Bazaar, The Atlantic, Allure, Entertainment Weekly, MTV, Bustle, Refinery29, Girls’ Life Magazine, Just Jared, and Tiger Beat, among other publications. She's a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.