As the Queen prepares to mark her 60th year on the throne, Roz Laws discovers some of the highlights for former Royal correspondent Jennie Bond.
From watching Nelson Mandela do an excited jig to having to break a promise to her daughter, the Royal family has provided Jennie Bond with plenty of memorable moments.
As the BBC’s Royal correspondent, she spent 14 years flying around the world with the Queen and the Royal Family and reporting on their eventful lives.
Now, as she prepares to celebrate 60 years of the Queen’s reign by hosting a Diamond Jubilee concert at Birmingham’s Symphony Hall, Jennie has been remembering some of the key moments of her time with the royals.
“I’ve been lucky enough to have a front row seat at some of the major events of the Queen’s reign,” says Jennie, 61.
“Her visit to South Africa in 1995 was a delightful moment in history. I’ll never forget standing on the quayside in Cape Town on a sunny morning as Britannia sailed into view.
“Nelson Mandela was like a school kid, jigging around in excitement as he waited to welcome the Queen back to South Africa for the first time in almost 50 years. And, at a reception on board the royal yacht the next day, the Queen herself told me how excited she was to see Africa again.”
Not all the stories on which Jennie reported were so happy, though.
“The death of Diana, Princess of Wales, was one of the biggest news stories of the decade,” remembers Jennie, who studied French and European literature at Warwick University.
“When the news broke, in the early hours of August 31, 1997, I was at our holiday home in Devon and had rashly promised our little girl, Emma, that she had her mum for a whole fortnight.
“It was a hard lesson to learn. Never promise your child anything when you are a Royal correspondent, at the beck and call of the office 24/7.
“The 250-mile drive to London was fraught, with news coming in first that the Princess had survived, and then the rumours that she was dead gathered pace. The following week brought something akin to mass hysteria as the crowds mourned the loss of Diana.
“In all my years of royal reporting, nothing could rival the extraordinary events of five years earlier, in 1992. One after another, major stories broke about various members of the Royal family including the announcement that Charles and Diana were separating, as did Sarah Ferguson and Prince Andrew. Windsor Castle was ravaged by fire and the Queen made her poignant ‘annus horribilis’ speech at London’s Guildhall.
“It all added up to a frantic year.”
There were, though, some lighter moments for Jennie, including attending several garden parties at Buckingham Palace.
“There’s nothing quite so elegant or guaranteed to make you feel special than being at one of these events,” she recalls.
“Everything is very well ordered, the rows of tents along one side of the gardens provide a classy buffet – tables laden with tiny cakes, perfectly shaped sandwiches, fine china teacups with the palace’s special brew.
