A grandmother’s pride: Aide reveals the Queen was ‘so nervous’ about Zara Phillip competing at London 2012, she organised a picnic instead of watching – but ‘danced around’ upon hearing she’d won a silver medal

• Former royal protection officer Richard Griffin shared sweet anecdote of Queen
• Said the Monarch danced when granddaughter Zara Tindall won Olympic medal 
• Zara, now 40, won silver at London Olympics in 2012 as part of Eventing team
• Full coverage: Click here to see all our coverage of the Queen’s passing

The Queen’s former protection officer has revealed how the Queen celebrated when she heard that her granddaughter Zara Tindall won an Olympic medal – but had been ‘too nervous’ to watch the event itself.  

Former royal protection officer Richard Griffin reminisced about his time with the late Monarch on Sky News this morning. 

Speaking of the sovereign’s love of horse riding, he revealed the Queen had been too jittery to watch her granddaughter competing in the Eventing team at the 2012 Olympic Games. 

Instead, she took Griffin on a picnic, but eventually asked him to check how Princess Anne’s daughter had got on, and ‘danced around in circles’ when she heard that she had come an impressive second. 

Zara won the silver medal as part of the team event during the competition, the single Olympic title of her career. 

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Speaking of the late sovereign’s love of horse riding, a former protection officer, revealed the Queen was ‘too nervous’ to go watch her granddaughter competing in the Eventing team at the 2012 Olympic Games (pictured with King Charles III at the Braemar Gathering in 2012)

Zara won the silver medal as part of the team event during the competition, the single Olympic title of her career

Former royal protection officer Richard Griffin reminisced about his time with the Monarch on Sky News this morning

‘I remember once when I was up at Balmoral with her [the Queen] and Zara was competing in the Olympic Games and looked like she was going to win a medal,’ Griffin told Sky. 

‘And I thought I would be flying down to Greenwich to watch her get on, but the Queen said to me ”I’m just so nervous, I can’t face up to it. Let’s just go out for a picnic”,’ he added. 

‘So we drove up to one of the mountainsides, one of the cabins and we had a little private picnic just the two of us,’ the former protection officer went on. 

However, the late Monarch couldn’t bear not knowing any longer, and eventually asked Griffin to radio his team to find out how Zara had done. 

The Queen couldn’t ‘face up’ to watching Zara, pictured, compete live, and had a picnic at Balmoral instead 

Eventually, the Queen ‘danced in circles’ with her protection officer when she learned her granddaughter’s team had won 

‘So I radioed them, found out she’s won the silver medal and I remember the Queen jut grabbed me and we were dancing around in circles on this hill in Scotland,’ Griffin said with a chuckle. 

‘That’s a memory that will stay with me for evermore,’ he added. 

Griffin shared another story about the late Monarch on Saturday which has since gone viral. 

He told how Queen Elizabeth handled an encounter with American hikers who had no idea who she was. 

Zara celebrating her Eventing win with Tom Daley smile at the London 2012 Victory Parade

The monarch was out in the hills near her Scottish castle at Balmoral when two U.S. tourists on a walking holiday approached them and engaged in conversation.

‘There were two hikers coming towards us – and the Queen would always stop and say hello. And it was two Americans on a walking holiday,’ Griffin told Sky News during celebrations of Elizabeth’s 70 years on the throne earlier this year.

‘It was clear from the moment that we stopped that they hadn’t recognised the Queen – which is fine.

The American gent was telling the Queen where they came from, where they were going to next, and where they’d been to in Britain.

‘I could see it coming and sure enough, he said to Her Majesty ‘and where do you live?’ And she said ‘well I live in London but I have got a holiday home just the other side of the hills.’

She did not say she was referring to Balmoral.

The monarch was out in the hills near her Scottish castle at Balmoral when two American tourists on a walking holiday approached them and engaged in conversation – but they did not know she was the Monarch

Griffin left Sky News reporters in giggles at his anecdote which saw the Queen manage to dodge being recognised by two hikers  

Aware that the castle was in the vicinity, the hiker then asked her if she had ever met the queen, Mr Griffin said.

‘Quick as a flash she said: ‘I haven’t, but Dick here meets her regularly”.

The hiker than asked Griffin what the monarch was like in person.

‘Because I was with her a long time and I knew I could pull her leg, I said: “Oh, she can be very cantankerous at times, but she’s got a lovely sense of humour,”’ Mr Griffin said.

Delighted, the hiker then put his arm around the officer’s shoulder and asked if he could have a picture of the two of them together.

‘Before I could see what was happening, he gets his camera and gives it to the queen and says “‘can you take a picture of us?”’

The queen obliged, and then Griffin took the camera and took a picture of her with the pair of hikers.

Later, Mr Griffin said the queen told him: ‘I’d love to be a fly on the wall when he shows those photographs to friends in America and hopefully someone tells him who I am.’

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