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Witness History

A right royal night out

Witness History

BBC

Society & Culture, Personal Journals, History

4.51.6K Ratings

🗓️ 7 July 2023

⏱️ 9 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The tale of an extraordinary night at a legendary British gay pub.

Princess Diana, disguised as a man, along with star broadcaster Kenny Everett and Queen singer Freddie Mercury enjoyed a drink in London’s Royal Vauxhall Tavern one night at the height of their fame in 1988.

The veracity of the event has been questioned but Cleo Rocos, who co-starred with Kenny in his hit TV show, described the celebrity night out in her in her book The Power of Positive Drinking.

Cleo tells her story to Alex Collins.

(Photo: Kenny Everett and Cleo Rocos. Credit: Tom Wargacki/WireImage via Getty Images)

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Thank you for listening to The Witness History Podcast from the BBC World Service with me, Alex Collins.

0:09.5

This is the story of when the world's most famous woman, Princess Diana,

0:13.5

was supposedly smuggled into a gay nightclub in London by the Queen Singer, Freddie Mercury.

0:19.2

The princess was in disguise as a man.

0:21.7

I've been speaking to Clio Rocos, who was there on the night out in 1988.

0:27.5

Clio and Freddie were part of a starry circle of friends.

0:31.0

That included Kenny Everett, who presented a top TV show, which Clio was on too.

0:36.0

She couldn't believe she was entering the Royal Fox or Tavern,

0:39.0

with the most recognisable woman on the planet.

0:42.0

And no one inside had any idea they were rubbing shoulders with royalty.

0:49.0

The bar was packed with men dressed as cowboys,

0:53.0

and it was all in a fabulous atmosphere.

0:56.5

So we walked in and we were sort of exhilarated and nervous.

1:01.0

We walked in like four school children all in a row together.

1:04.0

Of course they recognised Freddie.

1:06.0

Kenny showed at the time we used to get sort of over 20 million viewers,

1:11.0

so our show was really huge.

1:13.0

So they'd recognise us and they didn't even look at Diana.

1:16.0

They'd thought that she was probably some beautiful young male model

1:20.0

that had come up with Freddie.

1:27.0

That day the fun started when Diana met up with them for a boozy lunch.

1:35.0

We were having lunch at the Bombay Brasery,

...

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