What to Know
Attending an event with the British monarchy isn’t like rolling up to a regular dinner party — royal etiquette must be followed, and things can quickly become awkward if one of their guests is out of the loop. Unfortunately, it sounds like that’s exactly what happened when Elisabeth Hasselback and Queen Elizabeth came face to face years ago, and the story she told about their encounter is a bit cringe.
Elisabeth admitted she was nervous to meet the queen.
While hosting The Weekend View on Saturday morning, Elisabeth told a story that goes all the way back to the George W. Bush administration, when she was invited to attend a state dinner with the queen. She admitted that she was very “nervous” going into the event with husband Tim Hasselbeck and wasn’t sure what to expect, so she was caught off guard when her warm greeting for the queen was rejected.
“I had no idea what to do when I got there. Like, I didn’t know [you couldn’t touch her],” she admitted on the show, via People. “I went in for a hug. It didn’t go well. It was very awkward.”
Yikes!
Dinner was awkward for her, too.
When it was time to sit down for a meal, Elisabeth was overwhelmed by the amount of forks in front of her and assumed that the little bowl of water that was there to clean her fingers was actually for her to drink… until the then-president’s brother helped her out a little.
“I remember this, like, chalice of something, and I didn’t … grow up with many courses. I’m literally [pretends to bring a bowl to her lips], mid-sip, and Jeb Bush leans over, Condoleezza Rice is [on] my other side, and he’s like, ‘You might not want to drink that. That’s for your hands,’” she said.
Great save on Jeb’s part, honestly.
When it comes to the royals, hugs are basically off the table.
Hopefully, Elisabeth didn’t take the queen’s rejection of her hug personally — it’s actually a pretty big rule that the royals shouldn’t be touched by members of the public, especially when it came to Elizabeth before her death in 2022.
According to what etiquette expert Lucy Hume once told Reuters, this is a very big no no.
“Best not to initiate personal physical contact with a member of the royal family,” she said. “Again, it may be that they offered to give you a hug or to put their arm around you, but usually wait and see what’s expected or what’s appropriate for the event.”
