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Queen Elizabeth didn't like her hands, according to royal photographer Rankin.
The 56-year-old celebrity photographer – who has photographed the likes of David Bowie, Kate Moss and Madonna, to name a few – revealed the late monarch's insecurity and how she used it as a “get out” when he tried to get an image of her holding a sword for the Golden Jubilee in 2002.
Speaking on the ‘Tea With Twiggy' podcast, he spilled: “I was like, ‘I really want to photograph you holding the sword,' and she said, ‘I don't like my hands.' [I thought] that's the best ‘get out' for holding the sword.
“I'm probably not supposed to say that [she disliked her hands], but what I loved about her is she's so smart and everything in response that she was saying had this amazing twist to it.”
Rankin – whose real name is John Rankin Waddell – said his brief time with the royal was “really, really brilliant”.
He told former supermodel Twiggy: “It was just really, really brilliant. I loved it — I spent five minutes with her, so I don't know her intimately.”
Rankin shared how when Elizabeth – who was 96 when she died peacefully of old age on September 8 – entered the room “this wave of empowerment washes over you.”
He said: “I've never felt that aura and she was just so funny from the minute she walked in.
The photographer insisted he has proof his image of the late sovereign was regarded as one of Buckingham Palace's “favourites”.
He said: “I got a really amazing note where the curator said my photograph of her is one of their favourites – which I think means the Palace's favourite – because she's really laughing in my picture.”
