The Queen is used to being the focus of attention on engagements, but she was upstaged by the cheekiest of little chaps during a trip to Northern Ireland.
Dressed in a miniature tuxedo and bow tie and flashing a cute grin, 23-month-old Fitzwilliam Corrie-Salmon stole the spotlight as he posed for cameras while his father chatted to their royal guest in the background.
However, Her Majesty looked only too happy to be upstaged by Fitz. “We have a natural for the cameras,” she announced, smiling broadly as she watched the toddler, who is the son of William Corrie, the co-owner of Knotts Bakery in Belfast, and his former Blue Peter presenter wife Zoe Salmon.
A SOLO ADVENTURE
“She was a lovely lady. Genuinely interested in the products,” said William of the Queen, adding: “We did joke that Fitz stole her thunder for a minute.”
The visit to Northern Ireland was due to be a major trip for the King and Queen, but amid the monarch’s ongoing treatment for cancer and doctors’ advice to postpone publicfacing engagements, Her Majesty, 76, was flying solo. And she held the royal fort with ease, looking elegant and serene as she carried out her engagements and paying tribute to her host country in a bottle-green wool crepe dress and coat by Bruce Oldfield, worn with Elizabeth II’s three-leaf clover diamond brooch.
To celebrate the very best of Northern Ireland’s artisan and family producers, the Queen met owners and staff from Coffey’s Butchers, Knotts Bakery and Arcadia delicatessen on the bustling Lisburn Road. She didn’t come away empty-handed; after meeting William and Fitz, Her Majesty was given a fruit loaf and iced madeira, which she joked she couldn’t promise to take home to the King.
It was at Arcadia that she opened up about her 75-year-old husband’s health, saying he was “doing very well”. Accepting a get-well card from shop assistant Brenda Robb and thanking her for her well-wishes, she added: “He was very disappointed he couldn’t come.”
She also replied to a quip about men “not being the best patie
