Prince William Said The Queen Mother Wanted College Party Invites

Queen Mum Elizabeth surrounded by great-grandsons Prince Henry (L) and Prince William (2R) and grandson Prince Charles at her 99th birthday celebration at Clarence House.

(Image credit: Photo by Ken Goff / Getty)

After Elizabeth the Queen Mother died in 2002, her great-grandsons Princes William and Harry gave a memorable interview.

In it, William recalled an amazing request Elizabeth made to him before he started university at the prestigious St. Andrews in Scotland, when she had hosted a farewell lunch for him.

"As she said goodbye, she said: 'Any good parties, invite me down,'" William said (via the Guardian). "But there was no way. I knew full well that if I invited her down, she would dance me under the table."

Although it's more than likely that he didn't want to invite her because it's not typically the done thing to bring your centenarian great-grandma to college parties, I'm pretty sure he wasn't lying about Elizabeth's capacity to dance him "under the table."

There are two reasons for this—the first being that for all his wonderful qualities, William is not known for his dance skills. He has even managed to embarrass his younger brother with them at times.

The second reason is that Elizabeth sounded like a total hoot, per revelations the two young princes made about her in that same interview.

William said, "Anything that was meant to be formal and went wrong, she enjoyed. She laughed herself stupid about it. It kept us all sane."

The prince also recalled the elder royal's brave forays into technology. "She loved seeing what we got for Christmas and asking what was the latest trendy thing," he said. "I was given a mobile phone and showed it to her. I invited her to press a few buttons and it kept blinking and flashing at her."

Been there, done that.

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Iris Goldsztajn is a London-based journalist, editor and author. She is the morning editor at Marie Claire, and her work has appeared in the likes of British Vogue, InStyle, Cosmopolitan, Refinery29 and SELF. Iris writes about everything from celebrity news and relationship advice to the pitfalls of diet culture and the joys of exercise. She has many opinions on Harry Styles, and can typically be found eating her body weight in cheap chocolate.