"She's extremely gracious, that's not surprising, but we had a great talk," added the President.
In 1982, when Joe Biden was preparing himself to meet the Queen as a young senator, the only piece of advice his mother gave him was: "Don't you bow down to her," according to CNN. Years later, on Sunday, June 13, 2021, President Joe Biden and First Lady, Dr. Jill Biden held a private audience with Queen Elizabeth at Windsor Castle while he was in town for the G-7 Summit, reports PEOPLE. He didn't bow to the Queen this time, either, but said she did remind him of his mother.
"I don't think she’d be insulted but she reminded me of my mother, the look of her and just the generosity," Biden, 78, told reporters shortly before departing London, per Reuters. "She's extremely gracious, that's not surprising, but we had a great talk. She wanted to know what the two leaders that I -- the one I'm about to meet with, Mr. Putin, and she wanted to know about Xi Jinping, and we had a long talk."
The Queen, in a pink, floral outfit, welcomed the Bidens in the Quadrangle of the castle. BBC reported that a Guard of Honour formed of the Queen's Company First Battalion Grenadier Guards gave a Royal Salute, and the US national anthem was played. President Biden then went on to inspect the Honour Guard before returning to the dais. The Bidens were then introduced to the Queen's lady-in-waiting, Dame Annabel Whitehead, before enjoying tea in the castle's Oak Room.
According to the palace, the Bidents only spent about 40 minutes inside the Castle. "I said I wish we could stay longer, maybe we could hold the cars up a minute, and stuff. Anyway, she was very gracious," said the president who confirmed he had invited the monarch to the White House, adding, "She said, 'What's it like in the White House?' I said, 'Well it's magnificent but it's a lot of people."
It was the 95-year-old Queen Elizabeth's first one-on-one interaction with a world leader since the pandemic, and one among her first public engagements since her husband, Prince Philip, died at 99 earlier this year.
According to NBC News, Biden is the 13th serving president to meet the monarch. As queen, she has met every serving president since Dwight D. Eisenhower — except Lyndon B. Johnson, who did not travel to Britain while he was in office. When she met President Harry S. Truman and his family in Washington, she was just a 25-year-old princess in 1951.
References:
https://people.com/royals/joe-biden-queen-elizabeth-meeting-g7-summit-visit/
https://edition.cnn.com/2021/06/13/politics/president-biden-g7-day-3/index.html
https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/bidens-have-tea-with-queen-elizabeth-g7-ends-2021-06-13/
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/queen-elizabeth-ii-hosts-bidens-windsor-castle-n1270601
Cover Image Source: Photo by Arthur Edwards - WPA Pool/Getty Images
