Queen Elizabeth Said She Hated One Thing About Meeting "Tourists"

Queen Elizabeth saw some huge changes in society and technology during her 70 years on the throne, but one thing that remained constant was the public's desire to catch a glimpse of The Queen. In his new book, Q: A Voyage Around The Queen, author Craig Brown recalled one story about royal meet-and-greets that showed Her Majesty's thoughts on smartphones.

While musing about the days of "women with floral hats" waving "hankies" at the royals, Brown wondered, "when did crowds stop waving their handkerchiefs?" This led him to recall a story that Tatler first published in a 2014 interview with U.S. ambassador Matthew Barzun.

"There have always been tourists and they always used to have regular cameras," The Queen said. "They'd put them up, take a picture and then put them down."

With the invention of smartphones, Her Majesty was faced with a sea of hands up to capture the perfect social media post. "Now they put these things up and they never take them down. And I miss seeing their eyes," she told the ambassador.

Brown wrote that handkerchief waving was "altogether friendlier than our contemporary practice of shielding our faces with iPhones."

Despite her reservations about smartphones, Queen Elizabeth II did adapt to changing times. She approved the Royal Family's presence on social media platforms and supported the modernization of royal communications, even making her first Instagram post in 2019.

The Queen did have her own phone—"a Samsung model outfitted with anti-hacker encryption by MI6," per commentator Jonathan Sacerdoti—but would only answer the phone for two people. One was Princess Anne, and the other was her racing manager, John Warren (rather fitting for the famed horse lover).

If John was on the line, "she answers," per Sacerdoti.

However, The Queen was said to favor landline calls or personal conversations, preferring to do things the old-fashioned way—just like visits with the public.