Sir Ian McKellen has faced calls to return his knighthood over comments he made where he called the late Queen “rude” and “quite mad.”
The legendary actor recently gave an newspaper interview where he made the controversial comments. He said: “The Queen, I’m sure she was quite mad at the end. And on the few occasions I met her she was quite rude.” Now royal experts believe he has gone too far in his criticism of the late monarch and that he should return his knighthood over the comments.
He was given the honour in 1991 for his services to performing arts, then 17 years later in 2008 he was also appointed a Companion of Honour by the Queen for his services to drama and equality. Speaking to The Daily Express, Royal biographer Margaret Holder said: “Perhaps if Sir Ian feels so slighted by the Queen he could consider returning his knighthood, although he may regret that in the future.”
The Queen’s official spokesman Dickie Arbiter, who worked for the monarch between 1988 and 2000, confidants, questioned pondered why Sir Ian had even accepted the award. The Lord Of The Rings star recalled his encounter with the Queen saying that she said: “You’ve been doing this for an awfully long time,” to which he responded: “Well not as long as you.”
He continued: “I got a royal smile for that, but then she said, ‘Does anyone still actually go to the theatre?'” Sir Ian then admitted finding the conversation “bloody rude,” claiming that in his view It meant “‘Does anyone care a f*** about you because I don’t. Now off you go!”’
Meanwhile, royal biographer Christopher Wilson has challenged Sir Ian’s claims as he questioned if there were in fact any recorded instances of the Queen being rude to anyone casting doubt on the actor’s recollection of the exchange. Sir Ian claimed that he had almost turned down the Knighthood but decided that he would in fact accept it after his fellow actor Michael Cashman pointed out to him that it would help to open doors for him.
Sharing his insight into the reason Sir said “look at Sir Keir Starmer,” adding that a big part of his success was that “the BBC had to keep calling him “Sir Keir,” and that it made him “sound terribly respectable.” He added that “poor old Boris Johnson doesn’t even have an MBE.”
Source: mirror.co.uk