Was QE2 an alcoholic?

Love that dress

Don't know about the Queen, but her mother and sister were total lushes.

Her diapers were probably soaked, 24/7.

Her alcohol seems really front-loaded. I do think that's a lot to drink, every day. But the buzz probably helped her deal with people throughout the day.

IMO, she was also quite a bit overweight, except at the end when she dropped 20-40 pounds.

Well, if you lived with that family, you'd be one two. If not a crack head.

"Dubonnet with a slice of lemon and a “lot of ice.”

Where the hell did she get ice in GB? Who did she think she was? 😠

Honestly, how else could anyone deal it all? I'm pretty sure that if every adult drank this each day the world would be a better place.

It is likely she was Depends how you define Alcoholic though. In my opinion the British Isles seems to usher most citizens into being massive drinkers. Brits don't even realize they are alcoholics. They just call alcoholism being English and being alive. I go visit my family there and they think your ill if you don't drink heavily and consistently daily and whenever possible. Relatives come to visit me in the states and between the house house and the airport we have to stop and pick up a case of wine and or beer just to keep the dragon at bay till they figure out how to get something to drink. Without Alcohol i think the British would go extinct because they won't have sex sober.

If she hadn't been a lush, she wouldn't have died so young...

R3 I don’t think 🤔 Mum was a supersoaker

Her doctor cut her off near the end. I only hope she had good pills to make up for it.

These are the habits of her age, upbringing, and station in life. And it probably was not every day..

I hesitate to call her an alcoholic!

R12 Why hesitate.

old drunk bitch probably drowned in her own vomit.

That is a lot to drink every day. Then again, she lasted until she was 96, so what does it matter?

She drank like a person from a different age, which she was. Take a look at Mad Men, they had bars in their offices. Everyone used to drink a lot more than people do now.

They were so spaced out throughout the course of the day. If she was an alcoholic, the wine at the end of lunch would turn into finishing the bottle and not getting anything done for the rest of the day.

People binge drink a lot more now than before.

I doubt that was every day, she was out at engagements most days except for long summer holidays, so she wasn't home to drink, look at her list of appearances from the last few years pre-Covid. This is probably her routine on days "off".

I think a better definition of problematic drinking is when you can't stop til you pass out or it interferes with being able to lead daily life. She worked up to 2 days before she died!

She may have been served the drinks as the articles indicate, but they don't actually mention that she finished each one she was presented.

I've been at numerous luncheons and dinners where many have a sip or two, then left the remainder. Good alcoholics finish the damn drinks 🍸 and marvel at those who don't.

I agree, R8 - my parents and extended family, all English, drink every single day - several drinks, either at the pub or at home. It’s just what they [italic]do[/italic]. None of them would consider themselves alcoholics, and they’re not binge-drinking, either. That’s just the way it is.

That amount of alcohol per day on her little trans would give her the DTs if she were nil by mouth and in hospital for a few days. It happens quite often to patients who aren’t officially alcoholic but drink multiple serves daily.

Compared to the average Brit I'd say no.

Queen Vic was a druggie. Cocaine, opium, marijuana.

People are so judgemental and uptight about alcohol these days. A drink during lunch used to be normal.

@r24, "Queen Vic was a druggie. Cocaine, opium, marijuana."

If she were taking that combination she would have been a far more pleasant person 🤪

[quote] They were so spaced out throughout the course of the day.

That's true. She could probably metabolize the alcohol better, compared to pounding 4 drinks at the end of the work day.

Yes, she finished each drink.

Curious to try 👑 Es favorite dubbonet cocktail, its very old school.

Dubonnet is, basically, a vermouth. If you have vermouth, you could try it. Looks like QE used red vermouth. Martinis use white vermouth.

I'm not as old as the Queen was but I'm pretty fucking old. I've been a QEII watcher for decades. No slurring of speech, no wobblies, no missing engagements (until the very end when her doctor cut her off from booze anyway), no inappropriate or destructive behavior.

HMTQ was not a drunk, she simply drank socially and enjoyed it.

Shounds rerfectly peasonable to me.

I predict a run on Dubonnet.

If its on a menu, I will order that cocktail and pour some out for Queen E. It's very old school and not widely served these days.

Is Dubonnet sweet? I've wanted to try a Campari on the rocks .with a twist ever since Bette ordered one in Big Business.

The red Dubonnet is sweet, IIRC.

I just watched a documentary on Princess Margaret on PBS. It’s really good! Called the Rebel Princess.

Several people are interviewed including DL fave Lady Glenconner. She said at the end of Margaret’s life when the doctors said no more booze, her friends would sneak it in for her. “What was the point in denying her? She was dying. Ridiculous!”

I thought that was quite sensible.

But could she cook??

This was in one of Tina Brown’s books: a palace staffer said that the Queen was always a moderate drinker. No one ever saw her drunk….except for around the time all her children were divorcing. All of a sudden her complaints changed from “there’s too much alcohol in this drink” to “not strong enough.” And she was spotted more than once weaving down a hallway.

So Camilla got the sideways 1-2–3 from Mum

Queens flask found In Megans purse,,,, if only.

Pppffftttt. Homegirl was an amateur.

NOW a warning?

She was not an alcoholic.

Most of you are just teetotalers.

Or dry drunks, angry because she can drink and you can't.

Bottom line? She lived to be 96 and was in good health for most of her life.

You should be so lucky to live that long.

So go shove your "she's an alcoholic" up your arse.

The Queen has a message for you judgmental pricks.

Good for her.

Fortified herbal wine cocktail served with lots of ice and a glass or two good champagne does not sound like alcoholism.

Queen E kept her rigorous schedule until the end, drunks can't do this.

When it was announced by one of the "royal reporters" that HM was told by her doctors no more tipple for her, I got a bad fucking feeling. (Mary!) Sure enough, dead within a year. She should have kept at it, she'd still be around.

Stupid fucking doctors.

Gin is the base of that cocktail. I’m not saying she was an alcoholic, but it wasn’t an “herbal wine”-based cocktail.

Oi! Only four drinks?! Bloody amateur.

Cruel to deny someone their pleasures when they are on the way out

Yeah at her age I couldn't figure out why the doctors would deny her what was clearly a great pleasure in her life. The alcohol probably helped sustain her.

Not a drunk. Not an alcoholic. Charles perhaps is.

She performed miraculously for 70 years. Alcoholics do not.

English culture drinks more

Who cares? She lived to 96, always had her shit together, and was very well-liked in the position she held. Whatever she was drinking was a recipe for success.

Probably the highest functioning alcoholic any of us will live to see. I wonder if this was a part of the combination to her proverbial lock, as someone you could tell anything to and not worry about it traveling.

I would have loved to have had cocktails with her. I wonder if she ever smoked weed. I’m sure Margaret did.

But did she freebase ?

My bf’s mother is 95, in decent health for her age and her physician told her to give up her nightly glass of red wine because she is a fall risk. She told the doc, “Over my dead body!”

I think #14 is right. She had a drunken fall, coma, brain death.

Maybe that's what made her a funny old lady. She was cute, leave her alone.

During the dinner, Tom Hanks said a “gloved hand” placed “a tumbler of clear liquid” between him and the Queen. “But it wasn't in a water glass, so I dared to ask the Queen, 'what is Her Majesty's cocktail of choice? ' and she said 'ooh Martini! '” Hanks said.

[quote] Queen Vic was a druggie. Cocaine, opium, marijuana.

Those were the days!

[quote] They were so spaced out throughout the course of the day.

It's called micro-dosing, now.

OP Oh honey, we don't call them that. We call the family.

Very good champagne is tasty stuff, cant resist

She showed exactly zero signs of being an alcoholic. She was up early riding horses at least three times a week until around the time that Philip died, and she worked all day long into the evening most days. She had her red boxes every night, her duties and events every day, AND she grew her stables to world-class levels by micromanaging their breeding and racing stock (which could have been a career in itself).

She was an incredibly busy person, doing things which required attention and concentration all day long, every day, and finishing out her long life having made a minimum of even tiny missteps.

The concept that four drinks spaced out over 12 hours would make her a drunk is preposterous. People in America think it's "alcoholic" because their Rehab industry has successfully widened the American definition of "alcoholic" in order to cast a wider net and make more money.

Cutting off the booze was cause of death.

The rumor is covid finished the Queen off

[quote] Cutting off the booze was cause of death.

Same thing happened to my grandmother.

She lived a long life of 102 years, and used to have a nip every day until the doctor insisted she stop drinking, about a year before her death.

I thought it was ludicrous to tell a 101 year old to stop drinking.

Work is the curse of the drinking class.

^ I hear she died because... SHE WAS 96 FRICKIN' YEARS OLD

LOL.

R8- Perhaps that’s why their food is so HORRIBLE- too much emphasis placed on BOOZE 🥃.

The quality of British food is about ten times better - from the smallest strawberry to the largest artichoke - than anything grown in America.

Your FDA has been attempting to kill you (I can only assume) since they published that lying "Food Pyramid" and made you all incredibly fat in a single generation.

I thought the British were just as fat

One beer with lunch is hardly drinking.

How should I know about her private health issues?

Alcoholism isn't a crime or sin, you know. It has been long held to be a mental disease by the medical community.

So, it's none of my business.

I hope she didn't suffer with it.

my 97 year old mother-in-law for decades has had a glass B&B every day at 5 and a glass and a half of wine with dinner. no heart, lung , diabetes or other health issues and lives independently, only started using a walker or cane at 95

It's actually very easy to be thin: Just reverse the American Food Pyramid.

The American FDA is nothing more than a criminal organisation. They are corrupt and have lied to you for (largely Chinese) money.

Like mother, like daughter, glug, glug 🥴

Admittedly a slightly earlier era of drunk British aristocracy but I found a video of 2 people who tried to live like Winston Churchill for a day and apparently the morning and early afternoon is great and then you just feel like shit.

R68 I've heard from sources very close to the Royal Family and very much in the know that QE2 passed away from bone cancer.

If one looks at the trajectory of her physical decline I have no reason to disbelieve that.

Gayle King swears it was SIDS

Well, Gayle would know, wouldn't she?

My 85-year old grandmother for whom I am a part-time carer knocks back a glass or two of red nightly (and heckles me for not partaking).

She's an awful person, but she'd be even worse and more unpleasant without the plonk to ameliorate her foulness. WIne gives her an hour or two of feeling warm and happy, numbs some of her walking depression, and gets her to sleep quicker, so I'll happily keep her restocked until she takes ill or dies.

If only she'd blaze up, too. Perhaps she's actually likeable and decent and a smidge maternal when she's hitting the good kush.

[quote]She lived a long life of 102 years, and used to have a nip every day until the doctor insisted she stop drinking, about a year before her death.

I don’t know why a 102 year old would listen to anything a doctor told her. Obviously whatever she’s been doing for 102 years has worked out just fine. She should have “insisted” that the doctor fuck off.

As if any of you queens wouldn't have to be completely shit faced to deal with a dickhead husband, 4 demon seed kids and a bunch of ungrateful twit grandkids, much less run a fucking god damned empire.

Drinks everyday and first drink everyday is before lunch? Sure sounds like an alcoholic to me.

This woman lived a life of unimaginable pampering and privilege. All the posts saying she "needed" to get drunk daily to "deal with it" are a bit absurd.

Let's just agree that embalming was not needed in her case.

What does it matter? Alcoholism affects health and it affects the ability to live a productive life and maintain relationships. She a healthy life to age 96. Her only job was reading speeches and waving. Both of her sons are freaky and no sane person would want to be close to them. Drinking didn't affect her life adversely.

R89. Yeah. having to represent an entire nation and a thousand-year-old institution is pretty stress-free life. Speaking in front of millions is a walk in the park for most of us. So is having to appear in public and conduct public functions hours after your father has died. Getting shot at in public and having your cousin blown to bits are pretty fun too. I think I would like having little private life, having the whole world scrutinise everything I do and having no prospect of retirement also.

Clearly I am a poor.

How do you drink one glass of champagne, is it from a tiny bottle? The rest of the bottle goes flat? The servants get the rest?

I need to understand this.

Amateur.

Yes, she was pampered and I’m not feeling sorry at all for her having to deal with people all day. But after seeing Charles get cunty over pens, it does make you realize that you have to hold back and be diplomatic when in public.

[quote] Both of her sons are freaky and no sane person would want to be close to them.

Poor Edward, forgotten again.

R96 dear Eddie is counted as a daughter, no?

I wonder how the new PM feels being the last PM to have met the Queen during her long reign.

Do you suppose she was white knuckling it wondering whether she would get the chance? I wonder whether she had ever met the Queen. Frankly, I think we'd all have rather been presented to and met the Queen, rather than Charles.

Her casket is made from reclaimed wood from a Kentucky whiskey distillery.

I think the stopping her drink was to try and somehow preserve her for the jubilee. I just hope that she started drinking again the minute it was all over.

R4, that may be but the weight looked good on her. She had a nice full face as a result.

I mean, her elevenses tipple was essentially tonic water with a teensy splash of gin. Hardly going to have an effect.

I imagine her crystal wine glasses and tumblers were 19th century in size, so small servings...not like a Riedel 12oz pour.

R78 I don't know what B&B is.

Cognac.

Bénédictine D.O.M. and brandy

[quote] During the dinner, Tom Hanks said a “gloved hand” placed “a tumbler of clear liquid” between him and the Queen. “But it wasn't in a water glass, so I dared to ask the Queen, 'what is Her Majesty's cocktail of choice? ' and she said 'ooh Martini! '” Hanks said.

Who drinks a Martini out of a tumbler if they're not an alcoholic?