Queen Elizabeth’s ‘typically thoughtful’ act of generosity which helped heal Hollywood star

The late Queen Elizabeth II enjoyed an unprecedented 70-year reign, making her the longest-serving monarch in British history. So, it’s fair to say, Her Majesty was full of wisdom and lessons that others should have happily heeded.

And one such Hollywood star did just that – taking an unusual health tip from Her Majesty after being involved in a life-threatening car crash which left her in pain.

Sophie Winkleman, star of the latest box office hit Wonka and set to take part in an upcoming new series from Downton Abbey’s creator, Julian Fellowes, was in a horrific car accident in 2017 which saw the rising star suffer from a broken spine.

While she, fortunately, made a recovery, in a new interview for the February issue of Tatler, Sophie has revealed for the first time that it was acts of generosity from the late Queen – plus other members of the Royal Family – that helped her recover.

Sophie, who is married to Lord Frederick Windsor, a son of the late Queen’s cousin and currently 53rd in the line of succession to the throne, told the publication that Queen Elizabeth let her use the private pool at Buckingham Palace to aid in her recovery.

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Lady Frederick Windsor told Tatler, “[The Queen] asked how I was and she said, ‘We can’t have that. You have to go in the water.’ She told us that when horses had broken backs, they swam, and so she let me use her pool at Buckingham Palace.”

While it might seem strange comparing the medical advice for a horse to a human, Her Majesty was clearly on the money, as Sophie added “That’s the reason I got better. It was so typically thoughtful.”

The swimming pool at Buckingham Palace is reportedly where Prince William and Prince George learnt to swim, and it actually holds an emotional history to the late Queen.

King George VI commissioned the construction of the pool in 1938 as he was adjusting his family to its public role. “While they were still living at Piccadilly, the Princesses had been enjoying swimming lessons at the Bath Club and no one had taken much notice of the two little girls in their regulation swimming costumes,” Edna Healey writes in The Queen’s House: A Secret History of Buckingham Palace.

“But now that Princess Elizabeth was heir to the throne they attracted too much attention. So in summer 1938 it was decided to build ‘a swimming bath and squash court on the north side of the Palace in one of Nash’s conservatories.’”

It wasn’t just the late Queen opening her pool which Sophie recalls, however.

She tells the magazine she also received help from other senior members of the Royal family. 

The then Prince Charles - who she calls a "dear friend" and reveals his night-time routine in the interview - asked his cook at Clarence House to send over two meals a day for months, Prince William, an air ambulance pilot, was said to have told his colleagues to “take good care of her” and Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh paid her special visits in hospital.

So, Lord Frederick’s royal relatives proved how welcoming they can be to new members – and it must be particularly touching for Sophie to talk about at this time of the year, because she met Lord Frederick on New Year’s Eve.

Sophie married Lord Frederick Windsor in 2009 after first meeting him while hailing the same taxi on New Year’s Eve in Soho.

Describing the wedding, over which she relinquished full control to Princess Michael of Kent, Sophie said, “I didn’t know anyone at my wedding. I had my best pals there, but basically it was full of faces I’d never seen before. My mother-in-law, Princess Michael of Kent, took full personal charge of it all and did it brilliantly, including what dress I was wearing.”