Jill Biden opens up about having tea with late Queen Elizabeth II

Jill Biden has revealed more details about her tea with the late Queen Elizabeth II.

Prior to the monarch’s death on 8 September 2022, both President Joe Biden and Dr Biden were able to share a cup of tea with the late ruler at Windsor Castle in June 2021, when the couple was on the president’s state visit.

More information about what happened has recently come out in royal biographer Robert Hardman’s new book, The Making of a King: King Charles III and the Modern Monarchy, which was released on Thursday 18 January.

In the book’s excerpt, obtained by People, Dr Biden looked back on the tea party, noting that even the monarch’s pet corgis made an appearance at the time.

“Joe and I just decided to attend,” Dr Jill Biden said. “We all grew up with the Queen. She was such a big part of our lives. She was just always there and felt like she always would be – a really beautiful, spectacular, amazing woman.”

She continued in the book, talking about how “independent” she thought the late Queen was.

“We went up to her apartment. And I loved her sense of independence. She had a big teapot. And Joe said to her: ‘Here, let me help you.’ The Queen had been quite insistent, however. ‘No, no, no. You sit,’ she told the president. ‘I will serve you.’”

Dr Biden continued:  “Here she was with this big teapot pouring tea and we had the best time because she has such a sense of curiosity.”

“She asked all about American politics and what was going on and [the president’s] perceptions of different people and different events. It was, she reflects fondly, every American’s ‘picture’ of a quintessential British tea party, especially when ‘her little dogs came in,’” Hardman wrote.

The first lady also reflected on the meeting in an interview with