Ex-TVNZ journalist reflects on offending the Queen and patting her corgis

“She was incredibly strong, a real career woman who was in control of things happening around her.”

Those are broadcaster Ian Sinclair’s lasting memories of Queen Elizabeth II.

Since Friday’s news, Sinclair has found himself reflecting on a time when he embarrassed himself in front of Her Majesty, twice, only to win her over with an anecdote about sleeping pills.

As it turns out, representing Aotearoa to the most powerful woman on the planet, wasn’t easy.

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Sinclair was an award-winning investigative journalist when he was offered the chance to become TVNZ’s UK correspondent.

“I wanted to do the job so I could be closer to Spain, actually,” he jokes, before acknowledging the gig was one of the best a journalist could have.

It wasn’t long before he’d wooed the Queen’s press secretary, Simon Walker – who initially slipped him stories about the monarch, before offering the opportunity to attend a press reception where he’d meet the Queen in person.

It was early 2002, Queen Elizabeth had just returned from her royal tour of New Zealand and, according to Sinclair, had “no idea” New Zealand press were stationed in London.

When his time came to ask a question, Sinclair was made to wish he’d brushed up on his royal protocol –which, unsurprisingly, was a big deal to Her Majesty.

“I asked a question and she asked, ‘who are you with?’,”

Sinclair responded by saying “ma’am” – while unwittingly mispronouncing the address (it’s supposed to be pronounced with a short ‘a’, as in ‘mam’, but Sinclair pronounced it with a long ‘a’, as in ‘marm’).

“She made this face, horrified – I was like ‘what did I do?’,”

The Queen asked if he was based in England or New Zealand. Sinclair said he was based locally, while once again mispronouncing ma’am.

“I thought what am I doing wrong? I discovered I didn’t ask Simon [Walker] the obvious question of how do you address the Queen, that’s what irritated her.”

As it turned out, the Queen’s irritation of Sinclair’s royal blunder was short-lived, and the pair quickly got talking about her recent trip to New Zealand.

“She was concerned about the distance of New Zealand, that it was such a long way.”

However, Sinclair turned the tide when he made a joke about the travel distance, telling her he usually used sleeping pills.

“She went, ‘so do I’ and she started to laugh.”

The Queen told Sinclair New Zealand was “lovely” and she “really enjoyed her time there”.

“I got the impression from her that she wasn’t planning on going back there again – by then she was pretty old, I had a sense she wasn’t entirely happy with the reception there.”

The interaction got Sinclair a foot in the door of Buckingham Palace, where the Queen ended up meeting the All Blacks during their 2002 tour of Europe.

“I was told Princess Anne would be receiving the All Blacks, then the Queen found out and said ‘no, I want to meet them!’,”

Sinclair was invited to film the exchange between the All Blacks and the royals. Sinclair said he was waiting in the Queen’s Bow Room when he heard the sound of barking.

“Out of the lift comes the Queen and she has these corgis with her, she was of course pleased to see Jonah [Lomu] but the dogs came straight for me,” Sinclair said.

He said the exchange was hilarious and getting to pat the dogs was “weirdly incredible”.

Twenty years later, Sinclair has returned and is enjoying retirement in his home in Grey Lynn, Auckland. His memories of Queen Elizabeth II live on, a woman of “living history”.

King Charles III will now take to the throne, a man whom Sinclair never got the chance to meet. His tribute to the woman he did, however, is sweet and sincere.

“It was like being in the presence of leadership, the presence of history,” he said.