Duchess of York reflects: Queen was the granny of the nation
In an interview on Channel 5 News, Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York, paid a moving tribute to the late Queen, saying she could “only dream to aspire to be the wonderful grandmother” she was to her own daughters. Speaking to 5 News anchor, Dan Walker, she shared her memories of walking the dogs together, praised the Queen's imagination and commitment to the country, and said she still inspires her everyday. Report by Covellm. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn
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00:00As a nation, I think we really miss her and people still talk about her with so much love
00:07because she was there all the time and I don't think many people watching this programme
00:11will have known what life was like without her. On a personal note, what is it like for
00:16you as a family to deal with her not being around anymore?
00:22You've put that photograph up, you've done a lot, whoever did put all these photographs
00:26up, really emotional. Who did that? Was that Bea? Beryl? Meryl?
00:31This is all the team that you've met. She's met everybody today.
00:34I love all the team. But this makes me cry because I'm missing that silent arm of support
00:40behind your back which you've always had, the nation had for 72 years. But it wasn't,
00:45it was just an invisible hand, you always felt it. And it was, you know, the most extraordinary
00:52legend of a lady that you could ever wish to meet.
00:55Well that's a lovely tribute, thank you very much for that.
00:59She's my, what an honour, wasn't she? Just a wonderful lady.
01:04And she had many amazing birthdays and great state occasions. You mentioned it was your...
01:11She still carried on and she just carried on. And she always used to say, even in, she
01:17said, well, off we go, you know, what happened in the, we've been through the Blitz and now
01:22we can go through this, you know. And every single day I walk the dogs, the Corgis, I'm
01:29sure when they bark, they're barking, talking to her. I want them to be barking, talking
01:34to her.
01:35Is that what you feel when you walk the dogs now?
01:37Yes, yes.
01:38So that's quite a night because there's still that connection there even though obviously
01:40she's not here anymore.
01:41No, she is here. She's here. She's extraordinary. Of course she's here. The whole nation is
01:47down to the 72 years of work and commitment that the Queen gave us all. The value system,
01:53the culture, the integrity to do what's right, to hold the line. That's the bottom.
01:59She still inspires you?
02:01Every minute.
02:02Isn't that lovely?
02:03Yeah, yeah.
02:04And I think a lot of people watching that will feel the same way even though, you know,
02:07they don't have that personal relationship that you have, but they felt that she was
02:10always there.
02:11I think also she was the granny of the nation and I could only dream to aspire to be the
02:17wonderful grandmother she was to my girls. And I think that we owe it to HM, I call her
02:25HM, we owe it to HM to keep never forgetting the extraordinary legacy. I mean, I'm just,
02:31it's fantastic.
02:32Yeah.
02:33Yeah.
02:34It's been a real pleasure to talk to you.
02:35And yet, you can still, guess what?
02:36What, what?
02:37Well, when we went to walk the dogs together, I used to say, look, there are fairies down
02:41there. And the Queen would never say, oh, sorry, don't be silly. She'd say, yeah, no,
02:47they are, there are fairies down there. Because she had this incredible imagination. She had
02:52the most incredible ability to dance with all walks of life, including a very funny
02:59daughter-in-law.