PAUL O’Grady has opened up about his friendship with Queen Consort Camilla and gets on “really well” with King Charles’ wife.
The 67-year-old entertainer, who found fame as wild Drag Queen Lily Savage has teamed up with the Queen Consort, 75, for an festive special of his hit ITV family show ‘For the Love of Dogs’ and described the royal as “dog mad” and “really funny.”
He said: “She’s really funny, we get on really well. You don’t feel like you’re on ceremony with her. I always get a big hug and kiss from her, which always shocks everybody! Camilla is dog mad-she’s got Battersea dogs of her own already, she’s got two Jack Russells. She’s genuinely interested in what’s going on at Battersea and genuinely concerned. We were talking about how busy it is there now.”
‘For the Love of Dogs: A Royal Special’ will see Camilla host a garden party at Clarence House to mark the 160th birthday of Battersea Dogs Home and former drag queen Paul went on to tease that one of the special guests ended up adopting a pooch at the celebration.
Paul told Politicalite: “It was a beautiful day, one of those red-hot days in the summer when we had the heatwave. So we were all togged up in suits, boiling hot looking for places to go in the shade! We took some of the dogs from Battersea to the garden party with us and I won’t give too much away but one of the guests ended up taking one of the dogs, which is what we’d hoped for!
“With Camilla we looked after a lovely Westie called George. He’d been attacked by another dog. which had completely destroyed his confidence. He was terrified of his own shadow. He was good with humans but not very good with other dogs, and I remember we spent a lot of time with George in a shed at Battersea’s Brands Hatch site.”
‘Paul O’Grady: For the Love of Dogs – A Royal Special’ will air on Monday 19 December on ITV1 – and will be available to stream live, or watch on catch up on ITVX (ITV Hub)
