Archbishop: The day Queen told me she could never retire
The late Queen told George Carey “I can’t resign” when the then-Archbishop of Canterbury announced he was stepping down, a new documentary reveals.
Lord Carey recounted his conversation with the monarch in The Real Crown: Inside the House of Windsor, a five-part ITV series.
āShe would never go anyway,ā he said.
He also describes how before Charles and Camilla married he arranged a secret meeting with the now Queen Consort in his sonās southeast London flat to get to know the future royal.
The series chronicles the royal family throughout the Queenās reign and her successor the King, featuring interviews with contemporary figures.
āI remember going to see the Queen once to hand in my resignation and said āYour Majesty, the time has come,ā Lord Carey tells the final episode of the five-part series.
āAnd she looked at me, more or less she said: āYou people come and go. I canāt resign. I canāt surrender ā Iāve got to keep going.ā
āAnd I said āwell, the Lord tells me at the age of 70 Iāve got to goā.ā
Lord Carey served as Archbishop of Canterbury from 1991-2002.
He took part in the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales in 1997 and became the first Archbishop to ordain women to the priesthood.
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Lord Carey also reveals how the Queen Consort talked about the earliest days of her relationship with the King during their secret meeting in Peckham.
āShe walked through the front door. We met and had coffee together and I was really struck by her,ā he said.
āVery nice looking lady, very presentable, very intelligent. We had a really animated conversation and we talked about her relationship with Charles, going way back to when they were teenagers and so on.
āAnd after she left, I said āwell, thereās no way I could ever treat her as other than a really nice human being whoās deeply in love with Charlesā.
āAnd that affected me in talking to other people behind the scenes and I hoped it had a way forward. I think it did.ā
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