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Cape Town – Queen Elizabeth and Michael Owen walk into a lift – but this isn't a joke, at least not for the former soccer player.
In his new autobiography Michael Owen: Reboot: My Life, My Time, he details a run-in with the Queen of England that left him "mortified". Some years ago, Michael, with a keen interest in horse racing according to Mail Online, attended Royal Ascot – one of Britain's most well-known week of events hosted by the royal family and attended by the queen.
According to the Royal Household, "This week has become Britain's most popular race meeting, welcoming around 300 000 visitors over five days, all dressed up in their finest clothes and hats."
Michael, we assume, went all out in a suit and top hat – and let's just say, the queen definitely noticed. Michael wrote of his encounter with Her Royal Highness who walked into a lift while he, among others, waited outside:
"'Come on,' she said, 'We can all squeeze in.' I obeyed, taking my hat off as I thought that correct etiquette.
'If you'd put your hat back on,' she said, voice raised, 'we might all fit in!'
I sheepishly put my hat on. I was mortified. To this day I have absolutely no idea if she was joking.
Louise [Michael's wife] was nudging me from the other side, trying not to laugh because I'd been b******ed by the Queen."
HELLO! reports that this isn't the first time Michael met the queen – and at the five-day event he also remembered being so desperate to make the right impression when having a pre-race meal with Her Majesty.
"I was careful to hold my fork in the correct hand and so on," he recalled. "I needn't have worried," he continued though. "The Queen was throwing bits of starter to her corgis!"
Compiled by Bashiera Parker (Sources: Michael Owen: Reboot: My Life, My Time, Mail Online, HELLO!)
