There Was Once An Intruder In Queen Elizabeth's Bedroom. Here's What We Know.
To say Queen Elizabeth's life is high pressure would be an understatement. Since her father became king when she was only 10 years old and became heir to the throne, she's spent every day in the public eye.
Shows like "The Crown" and various unauthorized biographies (and maybe Prince Harry's controversial new memoir?) have painstakingly documented just how public her life is.
Unsurprisingly, the royals are known to value their private moments, the few times when they get to stop being figureheads and be normal people, above just about everything. They are notoriously secretive about what goes on behind palace doors and about the inner workings of their family dynamics. We imagine that Queen Elizabeth is probably really grateful for the few moments she gets to just hang out in her bedroom and read a book away from prying eyes.
Sadly even the queen has had what should be the safest part of the palace — her bedroom — subject to public intrusion.
Here's what we know about the incident.
Queen Elizabeth kept her cool
The morning of July 9, 1982, was not a good one for Queen Elizabeth. Things started going downhill around 7 a.m. when a man named Michael Fagan scaled the fence outside of Buckingham Palace and successfully broke into the building. According to reports, an alarm did go off, but police and palace guards assumed it was an accident, so they ignored it, per Town & Country. After wandering around the palace for a while, Fagan eventually found himself in Elizabeth's bedroom.
Though she was likely terrified, she kept her cool. Rather than panicking, Elizabeth calmly reached for her phone and called security. However, security didn't answer, so Elizabeth reportedly jumped out of bed and politely asked Fagan to wait there while she sought out the appropriate people herself, per The Sun. Then, according to Fagan, she dashed out of the room in her nightgown and returned with a footman. The footman offered Fagan a scotch while they waited for the police to arrive, per the Guardian. It goes without saying that palace security protocols were promptly re-examined following the incident.
As for Fagan, he was charged with a civil offense of which nothing ever came because the queen did not personally press charges. He was also taken to court on the charges of drinking a bottle of Prince Charles' wine in 1982. He was acquitted within 14 minutes, per Town & Country.
These days, Fagan is still alive and well living in the UK, having recently survived a stroke and COVID-19, per The Sun.