How Queen Elizabeth Used Hatwear To Fool Everyone
Lifestyle - News
By KRISTIN CONARD
Queen Elizabeth II was known for her matching brightly-colored ensembles, always topped off with an eye-catching hat. Elizabeth was also incredibly skilled at cashing on the hype behind the royal family, so when UK citizens started betting on what kind of hat the queen would wear to public events, she wasn't about to let anything ruin the fun.
Sports bets have been around as long as sports themselves, and when the queen shows up at an event, it adds a whole new layer of speculation and excitement. Elizabeth wore colorful outfits to stand out in a crowd, as Sophie, Countess of Wessex explained: "someone [in a crowd] wants to be able to say they saw a bit of the queen's hat as she went past."
Eventually, the public began drawing up bets on which color hat the queen would wear to events, such as the Royal Ascot horse race. However, one year, someone ruined the fun and leaked Elizabeth's hat color for the race, and the queen's longtime best friend and dresser Angela Kelly found a solution to prevent it from happening again.
Kelly and the queen began putting out "decoy" hats leading up to the big event, in order to fool any potential leakers. In 2021, the last ascot that the queen attended, the crowd's betting odds prior to her arrival stood at 3-1 blue, 5-1 green, and 6-1 yellow, white, or purple, according to The Sun. Elizabeth showed up wearing mint green.