To most, she was Her Majesty the Queen, but to Sarah Ferguson, Elizabeth II was known by a different name entirely.

The Duchess of York recently appeared at the Henley Literary Festival, where she had been invited to speak about her Mills and Boon book Her Heart for a Compass, which was published in August of 2021.

According to the Telegraph, the Duchess expressed her deep admiration for her late mother-in-law and also revealed that she had gifted her a copy of her book in both English and French.

“It’s been all my life that I’ve known the boss and there’s no one like her,” the Duchess said, referring to none other than the late Queen.

“I wouldn’t do anything unless the boss gave me her blessing though, and still to this day, I think about that.”

She was also asked who her sources of inspiration were for her characters, and she didn’t hesitate to answer.

“There’s no question about it, mine is my mother-in-law,” she revealed. “I’ve been the luckiest person alive. I have, there’s no question.”

She continued: “When we wrote the book, I gave it to the boss and I said, ‘you don’t need to read it.’”

We don’t know if the Queen ended up reading the book or not, but we like to think she did.

Sarah added: “But I think she was so proud that we did it. And that’s just huge for me. She was just very, very special. I gave it to her in French as well.

“And then, when I went to Italy she said, ‘don’t give it to me in Italian because I don’t read Italian.’ But she did read French.”

Sarah and Elizabeth II were reportedly very close even after the former divorced Prince Andrew (with whom she shares daughters Beatrice and Eugenie) in 1996.

At the sad time of the Queen’s death, both women had their home base in Windsor, making it easy for them to spend time together.

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