Anne Hegerty is a distant relative of The Queen.
Anne Hegerty discovers she's related to The Queen
The 63-year-old brainbox - who is best known as The Governess on 'The Chase' and 'Beat The Chasers' - took part in an episode of ITV's ‘DNA Journey’, which aired on Tuesday (05.04.22), on which it was revealed she comes from royal lineage.
Anne was told her 20 times great-grandfather was King of Scots Robert the Bruce, making Queen Elizabeth II her 19th cousin removed.
The revelation isn’t new to Anne, who was once told this piece of information by her grandmother, however, the quizzer was skeptical and she used to take everything she said with a pinch of salt.
Anne said: “My aunt said she was a romancer and she’d embroider life a bit, so I always felt that anything from my grandmother had to be taken with a pinch of salt.”
The royal link can be traced back to her mother’s side all the way back to 1370, when one of her ancestors had married Robert the Bruce’s daughter Princess Elizabeth. But fearing she would turn into a snob, she refused to indulge discussions with her daughter about her royal heritage.
She added: “My mother was always deeply disapproving of the idea of anyone knowing about their ancestors. She’d say, ‘it doesn’t prove a thing, dear’.
“As a child I was always curious about this stuff and my mother was always very repressive.
“I think it was because on my mother's mother's side there's quite a bit of posh, and my mum thought I'd grow up to be a terrible snob. But I've already grown up to be a terrible snob, so really there's nothing to hide.”
Anne's 'Chase' co-star, Shaun Wallace, aka The Dark Destroyer, joked he wouldn’t be referring to Anne as her royal highness.
He quipped: “You're a closet royal! Don't be lording it over me now.
“I'm not calling you Queen Anne on The Chase — I refuse.”
Tagged in Queen Elizabeth II