1 00:00:01,360 --> 00:00:03,320 Speaker 1: And Amanda gam Nation. 2 00:00:03,680 --> 00:00:06,440 Speaker 2: Well, our next guest is my absolute idol. She is 3 00:00:06,480 --> 00:00:09,440 Speaker 2: the god daughter of King Charles. She served as bridesmaid 4 00:00:09,480 --> 00:00:12,680 Speaker 2: the Princess Diana. But India Hicks's links to role to 5 00:00:12,760 --> 00:00:15,600 Speaker 2: you go much further back than that. Her mother, Lady Pamela, 6 00:00:15,640 --> 00:00:17,800 Speaker 2: played a pivotal role in the royal family. She was 7 00:00:17,880 --> 00:00:20,239 Speaker 2: Queen Elizabeth's lady in waiting. In fact, she was by 8 00:00:20,280 --> 00:00:22,280 Speaker 2: her side for some of the biggest moments in history, 9 00:00:22,480 --> 00:00:25,320 Speaker 2: including the day the queen became a monarch. It's an 10 00:00:25,360 --> 00:00:27,720 Speaker 2: extraordinary life and it's been captured in a new book 11 00:00:27,800 --> 00:00:31,160 Speaker 2: by India called Lady Pamela India Hello. 12 00:00:30,680 --> 00:00:34,320 Speaker 3: She is, Hello, Hello. It's so lovely to be with you. 13 00:00:34,360 --> 00:00:35,240 Speaker 3: Both so nice. 14 00:00:36,200 --> 00:00:39,200 Speaker 1: I'd say both because the last time I said, oh, Amanda, 15 00:00:39,800 --> 00:00:41,880 Speaker 1: that Jones got a bit jealous. 16 00:00:41,960 --> 00:00:45,400 Speaker 4: Well, I know that you have a BFF thing going on, 17 00:00:45,479 --> 00:00:48,160 Speaker 4: but I want to be a part of this triumvant. 18 00:00:48,280 --> 00:00:49,600 Speaker 3: Yeah, sure, we along. 19 00:00:50,640 --> 00:00:52,320 Speaker 2: We're letting you in just for a few minutes. Only 20 00:00:53,000 --> 00:00:57,760 Speaker 2: your mother's life. Lady Pamela's Hicks's life is quite extraordinary. 21 00:00:58,600 --> 00:01:01,600 Speaker 2: She was by Princess Zabeth's side in Africa pretty much 22 00:01:01,600 --> 00:01:04,720 Speaker 2: in a Treehouse when Princess Elizabeth learnt that her father, 23 00:01:04,800 --> 00:01:07,119 Speaker 2: the King, had died and years before it was expected 24 00:01:07,240 --> 00:01:10,520 Speaker 2: she was to become queen. What extraordinary memories your mum 25 00:01:10,600 --> 00:01:11,160 Speaker 2: must have of that. 26 00:01:13,280 --> 00:01:15,600 Speaker 1: Well, it's funny because the book is called Lady Pandler 27 00:01:15,600 --> 00:01:18,280 Speaker 1: and it's called My Mother's Extraordinary Years as daughter of 28 00:01:18,280 --> 00:01:19,920 Speaker 1: the Viceroy of India, Lady Waiting to the Queen and 29 00:01:20,000 --> 00:01:24,000 Speaker 1: wife of David Hicks, So that she's lived in the 30 00:01:24,040 --> 00:01:27,200 Speaker 1: shadow of all of these people. And I actually felt 31 00:01:27,240 --> 00:01:30,400 Speaker 1: it was time to tell her story because she was 32 00:01:30,840 --> 00:01:34,360 Speaker 1: there at these pivotal historical moments. I mean, she saw 33 00:01:34,400 --> 00:01:36,560 Speaker 1: at the birth of a nation when she was out 34 00:01:36,600 --> 00:01:39,120 Speaker 1: in India. She was, as you say that with the 35 00:01:39,200 --> 00:01:42,040 Speaker 1: Queen that moment she was up the tree with the Queen. 36 00:01:42,080 --> 00:01:44,520 Speaker 1: She went up as Princess Elizabeth comes down with the Queen, 37 00:01:44,560 --> 00:01:46,080 Speaker 1: and there were only two other people there apart from 38 00:01:46,160 --> 00:01:49,680 Speaker 1: Prince Philip, my mother and Martin Sharp was the private secretary. 39 00:01:50,120 --> 00:01:53,160 Speaker 1: My mother is really the only person alive today who 40 00:01:53,280 --> 00:01:57,280 Speaker 1: was there, probably the only person alive today. I would 41 00:01:57,280 --> 00:02:00,160 Speaker 1: hazard a guest who has sat next to my up 42 00:02:00,240 --> 00:02:03,120 Speaker 1: mcgandhi at a prayer Meetingum and literally right next to him. 43 00:02:03,400 --> 00:02:06,160 Speaker 1: She said, it was extraordinary when you hear talk about it. 44 00:02:06,200 --> 00:02:08,840 Speaker 1: How you know there were eight hundred thousand people that 45 00:02:08,880 --> 00:02:11,560 Speaker 1: would come and gather to listen to him, and how 46 00:02:11,600 --> 00:02:14,400 Speaker 1: he controlled that crowd just with his voice. 47 00:02:14,800 --> 00:02:15,440 Speaker 3: Amazing things. 48 00:02:15,480 --> 00:02:17,679 Speaker 1: And she's seen things that really is a disappearing world 49 00:02:17,720 --> 00:02:18,840 Speaker 1: that we'll never see again. 50 00:02:19,360 --> 00:02:21,720 Speaker 2: How is she She's in her mid nineties now. Her 51 00:02:21,760 --> 00:02:23,880 Speaker 2: memory seems incredible. 52 00:02:24,560 --> 00:02:27,680 Speaker 1: Incredible, and I think that's because she's an avid reader. 53 00:02:27,760 --> 00:02:31,880 Speaker 1: So she's always exercising that muscle, and I'm exercising the 54 00:02:31,919 --> 00:02:37,200 Speaker 1: wrong muscles, not exercising that reading muscle enough. 55 00:02:37,720 --> 00:02:39,959 Speaker 3: But she's got an amazing. 56 00:02:40,000 --> 00:02:44,000 Speaker 1: Memory, She's got a brilliant a brilliant wit about her, 57 00:02:44,040 --> 00:02:48,200 Speaker 1: and she tells a story absolutely perfect. Her comedic timing 58 00:02:48,320 --> 00:02:53,360 Speaker 1: is so professional. I literally on my Instagram just now, 59 00:02:54,000 --> 00:02:56,320 Speaker 1: I've just posted a beautiful picture of the house that 60 00:02:56,360 --> 00:02:58,360 Speaker 1: we grew up in, and I said that I'd taken 61 00:02:58,400 --> 00:03:02,280 Speaker 1: my mom to the pub weekend, and she leant across 62 00:03:02,320 --> 00:03:04,000 Speaker 1: the table to me. And bear in mind she's lived 63 00:03:04,000 --> 00:03:06,200 Speaker 1: in the same village for sixty four years and she 64 00:03:06,280 --> 00:03:09,560 Speaker 1: lent across them and she said, I've seen many changes 65 00:03:09,600 --> 00:03:13,120 Speaker 1: to this pub. It first began as a brothel. 66 00:03:13,639 --> 00:03:14,320 Speaker 3: As a brothel. 67 00:03:14,760 --> 00:03:17,320 Speaker 1: Fantastic, she'd it as brothels. We were having fish and chips. 68 00:03:17,800 --> 00:03:18,160 Speaker 3: There we go. 69 00:03:20,160 --> 00:03:21,840 Speaker 4: That was one of the spacials bag in the brothel. 70 00:03:23,520 --> 00:03:24,000 Speaker 3: The brothel. 71 00:03:24,080 --> 00:03:26,760 Speaker 1: Yeah, so go on Instagram into textile and you'll see 72 00:03:26,800 --> 00:03:29,000 Speaker 1: you'll see that really funny moment of her telling me that. 73 00:03:29,120 --> 00:03:32,640 Speaker 4: But you were Princess Diana's bridesmaid. How old were you 74 00:03:32,720 --> 00:03:34,920 Speaker 4: when you were Princess Diana's bridesmaid? 75 00:03:36,480 --> 00:03:41,200 Speaker 1: I was twelve, I was I was little, little enough, 76 00:03:41,280 --> 00:03:45,280 Speaker 1: but old enough to take the job seriously. And I 77 00:03:45,280 --> 00:03:48,800 Speaker 1: had this beautiful waistlength hair all my life and just 78 00:03:48,800 --> 00:03:50,400 Speaker 1: feel like when they had decided to chop it off 79 00:03:50,400 --> 00:03:53,119 Speaker 1: and look like a boy, really true, the worst hair 80 00:03:53,240 --> 00:03:54,960 Speaker 1: dyet of my life. And there were probably what a 81 00:03:54,960 --> 00:03:56,760 Speaker 1: billion people watching that terrible. 82 00:03:57,400 --> 00:04:01,200 Speaker 2: Not all the family memories have been so joyous. Your grandfather, 83 00:04:01,240 --> 00:04:03,560 Speaker 2: Lord mount Betten, was assessinated by the IRA. You lost 84 00:04:03,560 --> 00:04:06,280 Speaker 2: your cousin in that event as well, So there's some 85 00:04:06,960 --> 00:04:08,600 Speaker 2: really traumatic moments too. 86 00:04:10,640 --> 00:04:14,720 Speaker 1: Well, you know, it's definitely worth mentioning that. And in fact, 87 00:04:14,960 --> 00:04:17,839 Speaker 1: I really deliberated about putting that chapter in this book 88 00:04:17,839 --> 00:04:21,680 Speaker 1: because Essentially, this book is a beautiful, illustrated biography. And 89 00:04:21,720 --> 00:04:23,360 Speaker 1: once I began to dig in the archives, I came 90 00:04:23,400 --> 00:04:28,400 Speaker 1: across all these amazing photographs, press cuttings, beautiful invitations, programs, 91 00:04:28,480 --> 00:04:30,880 Speaker 1: royal letters from the Queen, all sorts of things, and 92 00:04:30,920 --> 00:04:33,720 Speaker 1: I felt needed to come out because this is history 93 00:04:33,760 --> 00:04:38,040 Speaker 1: that we're seeing. But I also wanted people to understand that, yes, 94 00:04:38,120 --> 00:04:41,680 Speaker 1: of course my mother has lived a very privileged life indeed, 95 00:04:42,240 --> 00:04:45,560 Speaker 1: but it has been tainted with great tragedy, and the 96 00:04:45,640 --> 00:04:48,200 Speaker 1: murder of my grandfather in nineteen seventy nine, by the IRA, 97 00:04:48,839 --> 00:04:52,200 Speaker 1: was an extraordinarily difficult moment for my mother to overcome, 98 00:04:52,240 --> 00:04:54,080 Speaker 1: so much so that I actually should developed breast cancer 99 00:04:54,120 --> 00:04:56,880 Speaker 1: a number of years later. Of course, when I talked 100 00:04:56,880 --> 00:04:58,800 Speaker 1: to her about that period and I said, but you know, 101 00:04:58,920 --> 00:05:02,000 Speaker 1: mom my god, you have breast cancer. She so didn't 102 00:05:02,040 --> 00:05:03,919 Speaker 1: want to be an inconvenience to anyone. She got the 103 00:05:03,960 --> 00:05:06,800 Speaker 1: gardener to drive her to the hospital. Because that is 104 00:05:06,839 --> 00:05:09,880 Speaker 1: the generation that we're talking about. That is the upbringing 105 00:05:09,920 --> 00:05:12,600 Speaker 1: of that extraordinary generation who went for a war and 106 00:05:12,640 --> 00:05:15,400 Speaker 1: they realized it was not about them. We were to 107 00:05:15,480 --> 00:05:18,840 Speaker 1: look out and not in so in the book, even 108 00:05:18,839 --> 00:05:21,320 Speaker 1: though It is a beautifully illustrated two hundred and fifty 109 00:05:21,320 --> 00:05:24,479 Speaker 1: two pages of delightful images. There are some lessons to 110 00:05:24,480 --> 00:05:27,359 Speaker 1: be learnt from the ninety five years, and yes, that 111 00:05:27,680 --> 00:05:32,680 Speaker 1: enormous tragedy definitely needed to be talked about, because I 112 00:05:32,720 --> 00:05:36,560 Speaker 1: think in it there is this extraordinary lesson about understanding 113 00:05:36,800 --> 00:05:40,400 Speaker 1: and coping with grief. And one of my mother's great 114 00:05:40,480 --> 00:05:42,840 Speaker 1: quotes that she loves to say that she didn't she 115 00:05:42,839 --> 00:05:44,560 Speaker 1: didn't come up with, but she always lost to say 116 00:05:44,640 --> 00:05:47,080 Speaker 1: is turn your face to the sun and the shadows 117 00:05:47,080 --> 00:05:50,200 Speaker 1: will fall behind you. And that was absolutely how we 118 00:05:50,200 --> 00:05:52,000 Speaker 1: were brought up after that. You know, I was eleven 119 00:05:52,040 --> 00:05:54,400 Speaker 1: years old. I'd never heard of a political assassination. We 120 00:05:54,400 --> 00:05:57,880 Speaker 1: were there altogether on holiday in Ireland before you know, 121 00:05:58,240 --> 00:06:03,360 Speaker 1: really this rible, terrible thing happened. But as a family, 122 00:06:03,440 --> 00:06:06,080 Speaker 1: we were told we will hold my bitterness, we will 123 00:06:06,080 --> 00:06:08,560 Speaker 1: not regret this, we will just move forward. And I 124 00:06:08,560 --> 00:06:10,680 Speaker 1: think that that's an extraordinary lesson that so many of 125 00:06:10,720 --> 00:06:12,000 Speaker 1: us could benefit from today. 126 00:06:12,200 --> 00:06:15,080 Speaker 4: But a King Charles is your godfather. Do you do 127 00:06:15,120 --> 00:06:17,400 Speaker 4: you talk to him regularly? Does he send your cards 128 00:06:17,440 --> 00:06:18,120 Speaker 4: and things like that? 129 00:06:19,520 --> 00:06:20,680 Speaker 3: I don't talk to him regularly. 130 00:06:20,760 --> 00:06:25,719 Speaker 1: He's quite a busy man, and he though is my godfather, 131 00:06:25,839 --> 00:06:32,320 Speaker 1: and he is an incredibly loyal, dedicated, extraordinary man. And 132 00:06:32,360 --> 00:06:36,600 Speaker 1: he's a really wonderful godfather. And yes, he never forgets 133 00:06:36,600 --> 00:06:39,039 Speaker 1: a birthday or Christmas, that's for sure. When I was younger, 134 00:06:39,760 --> 00:06:43,200 Speaker 1: he would fastidiously send a gift a birthday present. I've 135 00:06:43,240 --> 00:06:45,920 Speaker 1: got other godparents who are utterly useless. He is quite big. 136 00:06:46,960 --> 00:06:47,839 Speaker 3: Did you know? 137 00:06:48,440 --> 00:06:50,800 Speaker 1: He is an amazing, amazing man. I think you know, 138 00:06:50,960 --> 00:06:55,560 Speaker 1: we all watched as a chapter closed when the late 139 00:06:55,640 --> 00:06:59,760 Speaker 1: Queen Elizabeth died and when he ascended to the throne, 140 00:06:59,760 --> 00:07:04,320 Speaker 1: and I think we've seen with great reassurance and encouragement 141 00:07:04,400 --> 00:07:08,800 Speaker 1: and comfort that he and Camilla and Kate and William 142 00:07:08,880 --> 00:07:12,720 Speaker 1: are this extraordinary four that are very very solid, and 143 00:07:12,800 --> 00:07:15,040 Speaker 1: they are modernizing monarchy in a way that I think 144 00:07:15,080 --> 00:07:15,720 Speaker 1: it's needed. 145 00:07:16,640 --> 00:07:18,960 Speaker 3: But more than that, you know, he's. 146 00:07:18,800 --> 00:07:22,360 Speaker 1: A man who so so long before any of us 147 00:07:22,480 --> 00:07:26,160 Speaker 1: understood about sustainability or thinking in a green way, he 148 00:07:26,240 --> 00:07:28,600 Speaker 1: was hunting trees and running his car and yoga and 149 00:07:28,640 --> 00:07:31,200 Speaker 1: we were like, poose this crazy man, and now are like, 150 00:07:31,880 --> 00:07:33,560 Speaker 1: thank goodness, he's our king. 151 00:07:34,000 --> 00:07:35,760 Speaker 4: Could Harry come back into the fall? Do you think 152 00:07:35,800 --> 00:07:39,120 Speaker 4: he wished Harry happy birthday recently. Could that Can you 153 00:07:39,120 --> 00:07:40,120 Speaker 4: see a softening? 154 00:07:40,720 --> 00:07:44,000 Speaker 1: I would have absolutely no comment. I wouldn't have any 155 00:07:44,080 --> 00:07:45,960 Speaker 1: understanding of that relationship at all. 156 00:07:46,120 --> 00:07:47,920 Speaker 2: I want to hear more about yoga driven car. 157 00:07:48,440 --> 00:07:50,760 Speaker 4: Where where's these yoga driven cars coming from? 158 00:07:51,000 --> 00:07:53,440 Speaker 1: I think men have exaggerated slightly, but I think that 159 00:07:53,520 --> 00:07:55,000 Speaker 1: there is a poet involved. 160 00:07:55,120 --> 00:07:56,880 Speaker 3: No, no, I think that top up on you. 161 00:07:56,960 --> 00:07:59,240 Speaker 4: You play well India. It's great to talk to you 162 00:07:59,240 --> 00:08:01,960 Speaker 4: can get your hands on Lady Pamela. Now the book. 163 00:08:02,000 --> 00:08:03,480 Speaker 4: That's the book, by the way. 164 00:08:04,240 --> 00:08:06,200 Speaker 1: Don't get your hands on Lady Pamela. She would be 165 00:08:06,480 --> 00:08:09,280 Speaker 1: she's ninety five and playing Canaster quality in England. But 166 00:08:09,320 --> 00:08:11,920 Speaker 1: the book book took me two years and it's really 167 00:08:12,360 --> 00:08:14,320 Speaker 1: my letter of love to my mum who has seen 168 00:08:14,360 --> 00:08:17,600 Speaker 1: this incredible unfolding of history in the ninety five years 169 00:08:17,600 --> 00:08:20,960 Speaker 1: that she's led. And it is absolutely in Australia ready 170 00:08:20,960 --> 00:08:23,000 Speaker 1: to be shocked and read extraordinary. 171 00:08:23,720 --> 00:08:25,760 Speaker 4: Thank you for joining us, India, look after yourself. 172 00:08:26,480 --> 00:08:29,240 Speaker 3: Thank you very much, both of you. Both of you. Jenvie, 173 00:08:29,360 --> 00:08:30,160 Speaker 3: thank you for having you. 174 00:08:30,400 --> 00:08:31,400 Speaker 4: I'm a part of the gang.