Andrew Lloyd Webber has shared a story about when the Queen visited his family home as he paid his respects to the late monarch.
During an appearance on Saturday’s edition of BBC Breakfast, Lloyd Webber revealed that he and his family went to Buckingham Palace to lay flowers following the announcement on Thursday that the Queen had died.
“It was only a few weeks before that I was standing on the stage outside the railings of Buckingham Palace for the jubilee concert,” he recalled.
“Having had the luck and joy and privilege of knowing Her Majesty a little over the last 20 to 30 years, I thought it was the least I could do… she was the most extraordinary person and we will never see the like again.”
The musical theatre giant continued: “I am just so lucky to have met her just a very few times… Particularly when I was lucky enough to see her off duty, she was so warm and so wonderful.
“She came round once to our house and you know what the children did – it was so naughty of them, and they were old enough to know better, but they put football shirts outside the windows as she was coming past. And the Queen said, ‘Do you normally put your washing outside of the window?’.
“She had this extraordinary way of putting people at ease.”
Following the announcement of Queen Elizabeth II’s death on Thursday evening, tributes immediately began pouring in from world leaders and key figures from the world of British entertainment.
Among those to have since paid their respect include David and Victoria Beckham Sir Paul McCartney, Dame Helen Mirren, who famously won an Oscar for her performance in the film The Queen, and Sir David Attenborough.
The Queen’s eldest son Charles, who became King upon the death of his mother, also said during a national address on Friday: “To my darling Mama, as you begin your last great journey to join my dear late Papa, I want simply to say this: thank you.
“Thank you for your love and devotion to our family and to the family of nations you have served so diligently all these years. May ‘flights of Angels sing thee to thy rest’.”