Former health minister Alan Johnson accidentally ate dog biscuits meant for the Queen's corgis during a lunch at Windsor Castle, a book revealed. While sitting next to Her Majesty, Mr Johnson happily tucked into cheese on "unusual dark biscuits" before his colleague Paul Murphy informed him the Queen had laid them out for her dogs.
Royal biographer Robert Hardman recalled the anecdote in his book Queen of Our Times, where he shares life stories of the Queen prior to her death on Thursday, September 8. Despite visiting Windsor Castle in 2008, Mr Johnson, a Labour MP from 1997 to 2017, kept quiet about his dog biscuit blunder for 14 long years until he appeared on Channel 4 daytime show Steph's Packed Lunch earlier this year.
During the show, Steph asked: "You have eaten will all kinds of dignities and leaders and that in your time. And you've eaten with the Queen as well, haven't you?"
Mr Johnson replied: "I did make a faux pas. She was there. There were cheese and biscuits. Her Majesty was tossing some biscuits to the dogs, to the corgis.
"I didn't see that, and I took one of those biscuits and put some cheese on it and ate it and was told, 'I hate to tell you, but they are for the dogs'."
It has been confirmed Prince Andrew and Princess Beatrice will take in the Queen's two Welsh corgis, Muick and Sandy, following her death.
Andrew, Beatrice and her sister Eugenie are said to have gifted Muick to the Queen to keep her company when Prince Philip was in hospital, while the Prince of York gave her Sandy in June on what would have been Prince Philip's 100th birthday.
It is thought the royal corgis will be moved out of Buckingham Palace to make room for King Charles' two Jack Russells, Bluebell and Beth, and will move in with Prince Andrew at his £30 million regal residence, Royal Lodge in Windsor.
The Grade-II listed residence has belonged to Andrew since the Queen Mother's death in 2002. Within its 30 rooms, the royal home boosts grand living rooms, a conservatory and, reportedly, an indoor swimming pool.
Seven years ago, the Queen expressed her decision to no longer breed corgis - so she wouldn't "leave any young dog behind".
Royal aide Monty Roberts, who advises the Queen on her horses, told Vanity Fair magazine in 2015: "She didn't want to have any more young dogs. She didn't want to leave any young dog behind. She wanted to put an end to it."
"I have no right to try to force her into continuing to bring on puppies if she doesn't want to."
However, the Queen could not turn down Muick and Sandy as well as an award-winning cocker spaniel, named Lissy, when they were brought into her life as gifts.
There is still speculation over where Lissy will live when she returns to the family following her training. The four-year-old dog said to be living with her trainer, Ian Openshaw, at this time.
The Queen also left behind an elderly dorgi, named Candy, who will either live alongside her siblings at Royal Lodge or will be taken in by a member of the Queen's staff.
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