When Queen Elizabeth met Marilyn Monroe: the Hollywood icon and British monarch were the same age when they met in 1956, but the actress’ dream of having tea at the Buckingham Palace never came true
The queen and Hollywood’s historical actress met on October 26, 1956, at the Royal Film Premiere of The Battle of the River Plate in London, per Elle.
According to various media outlets, Monroe was spending four months in the UK filming her movie The Prince and the Showgirl when she got the chance to meet the queen at the Empire Theatre in London’s Leicester Square along with a few of the most famous movie stars of that era.
Here’s what happened during that iconic night when a true monarch of the country met the “queen” of Hollywood.
Rebellious glamour
In the 2022 book called When Marilyn Met the Queen, writer Michelle Morgan gave a detailed insight into the event. While the two icons exchanging a brief conversation was a moment that went down in history, Monroe’s dress also made its own statements.
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The book detailed that, ahead of the event, organisers had asked the female artists to adhere to the royal dress code, which is to wear gowns that aren’t low cut or show too much cleavage.
But Monroe had none of that. Breaking protocol, she showed up looking ever-so-glamorous with a gold lamé gown that was very low-cut, tight to the body and with spaghetti straps.
The dress reached the floor and shone in all its metallic glory. Monroe completed the look with a matching bag and cape and even in the black and white photographs of that day, her dress glittered with every bit of its rule-breaking beauty.
Monroe was extremely nervous
Though Monroe was a huge star that all corners of the world knew, she was reportedly nervous to meet Queen Elizabeth. The scenario panicked her because she hadn’t attended rehearsals for meeting the queen, hence didn’t know what to do, per British media.
Anthony Quayle also spoke about Monroe’s worries in his 1990 autobiography A Time to Speak. He claimed that Monroe became so flustered that despite others telling her what to do, she still didn’t know how to follow through.
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The Economic Times mentioned that while Monroe waited for the queen to make her way towards her, she kept licking her lips out of nervousness and ended up removing her lipstick. Author Morgan seemed to have backed up this claim when she wrote in her book that the queen noticed Monroe’s nervousness and the fact that she licked all of her lipstick off.
They were neighbours
The book also stated that Monroe dreamed about having tea at the Buckingham Palace and her publicist, Alan Arnold, found the request on his daily to-do list. Though her dream of having tea at the palace never came true, she was at least able to meet the ruler of that very palace.
Both were the same age
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While both of them sharing a photograph and a video together is deemed to be extraordinary, what makes the moment even more iconic is that both women, who were ever-so-different in terms of life and job, shared the same worldwide fame – and the same age.
Both inspirational women were born in 1926, with the queen being born in April and Monroe two months after in June. They were both 30 when they shook hands and if Monroe was alive today, she would have also turned 96 – the same age as the queen who passed away this month at Balmoral Castle in Scotland.
- If she were alive today, Monroe would have been the same age as the late monarch was upon her death this month in Balmoral, Scotland; the two were both 30 during their iconic meeting
- The actress broke royal protocol with her low-cut dress, reportedly dreamed of having tea at Buckingham Palace, and chatted with the queen about staying at Enfield Green, near Windsor Castle