Sir Jackie Stewart told Hollywood star Tom Cruise he would have to wait when he arrived at his estate by helicopter a few days before this year’s British Grand Prix.
The diminutive A-lister is not used to being kept waiting but the Scottish motor racing legend was in no doubt that he would have to get used to it this time. “I can’t come now,” he told his staff. “I am on the phone to the Queen!”
It was one of the stories that came to mind when the famous sportsman paid tribute to Her Majesty after her passing at the age of 96. He said: “I last saw her at Windsor a few weeks ago and she had a few difficulties walking then. She was using a stick. But she was still as sharp as a needle.”
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Sir Jackie, 83, spoke to the Daily Mail from Clayton House, his home on an old game farm of the Prime Minister’s country retreat Chequers in Buckinghamshire.
He said: “She didn’t much like cars. Horses were her love, as we all know, flat racing not the jumpers like her mother, and she adored spending time at her stables. So ours was an unusual relationship. But I saw her a great deal and funnily enough I was going to visit her in Balmoral in a couple of days to show her a film my son Mark has made about me.”
The Scot also revealed that he invited the Queen as guest of honour at his 80th birthday party in June 2019 at the Royal Automobile Club on Pall Mall in London.
Courtiers at Buckingham Palace politely declined on her behalf without checking with Her Majesty. The topic came up a few weeks later when Sir Jackie was shooting at Sandringham.
“I’m sorry you can’t make my birthday party, Ma’am,” he ventured, only for the Queen to reply: “What party?”
She checked her diary and accepted on the spot. “Her Majesty was the most remarkable woman I have ever met, sensational as a person,” Sir Jackie said.
He got to know Queen Elizabeth through her daughter, Princess Anne, who were both BBC Sports Personality of the Year winners – Sir Jackie as a three-time Formula One world champion and Anne as an Olympic equestrian.
They met many times over the years, with the Scot recalling: “Often she would not have a single member of staff with her. She would make the tea and do the washing up herself.”
A few years ago the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh visited Clayton House, which has statues of stags and a Highland cow and calves in one part of the 140-acre grounds.
Taking in the scene, the Queen mused: “Why don’t we have these things in our garden, Philip?”
To which her famously brusque husband replied: “It looks like a f****** zoo.”
Her Majesty is said to have “raised an eyebrow”.
Sir Jackie said: “I have met presidents of America and they all held the Queen in such high regard. They were heads of state but they were amateur compared to her, with her experience and personal strengths.
“Even when she was greeting the new Prime Minister the other day in Balmoral, she looked radiant. I am told she did not suffer any pain as she passed.
“She was a big Scot and she loved Balmoral more than any of her other houses. So when the time came it was the perfect ending as far as the Queen was concerned.”
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