Henry Winkler got the royal treatment during a recent trip to the UK.
The “Barry” actor, 78, attended this year’s Royal Ascot in England and had a private chat with none other than Queen Camilla, 77.
“We were invited to Ascot, the royal races,” Winkler told People of his royal run-in. “You heard about [Ascot] in ‘My Fair Lady,’ you hear about it all through history, and we were invited.”
The “Happy Days” legend said that he purchased “a top hat and tails” for the occasion, required for guests in Ascot’s “Royal Enclosure.”
The monarch and other royals attend the special week of races at England’s Ascot racecourse in June each year. Winkler recalled King Charles III and his consort, Queen Camilla’s grand entrance to the event on the fifth day of this year’s races on June 22, arriving “in an open carriage pulled by these incredible horses.”
But that was just the beginning of The Fonz’s grand affair as he later had a “three-course lunch” and a surprise from Queen Camilla.
“Then all of a sudden, a rumor or a buzz goes through the room,” Winkler said. “‘The Queen wants to meet Henry,’” he remembered hearing.
“So we walk down onto the paddock, onto the green, and all of a sudden these 12 men in forest green cutaways march out,” he said. “She comes in white in the middle of them and walks up. I tip my hat, and I talk to her like she was my Aunt Liz.”
Royal Ascot 2024. Action Images via Reuters
Speaking of the meeting, he added, “There is no disconnect. There’s no royalty. There is just this lovely woman who knows about my children’s books, the ‘Detective Duck’ series.”
Winker penned the first of his two “Detective Duck” books in 2023. The stories follow Willow Feathers McBeaver, aka Detective Duck, a crime-solving (and very precocious) little duck who investigates mysteries arising from human-caused disruptions in nature, such as water pollution, garbage, warming climate, and human encroachment.
Winkler was in England at the time of Royal Ascot while promoting his 2023 memoir, “Being Henry.”
The Queen’s appreciation of Winkler’s work as a children’s book author fits with her M.O. Described on The Royal Family’s website as “an avid reader,” Queen Camilla has a history of literacy advocacy. She is the patron of several organizations in the UK that promote and support literacy, including the National Literacy Trust, Book Trust, First Story, the Wicked Young Writer Awards and Beanstalk.
The Queen also created a community space/quasi-book club called “The Queen’s Reading Room” (originally “The Duchess of Cornwall’s Reading Room,” as she started it before Queen Elizabeth II died and thus used her previous royal title).
