A video has gone viral showing Queen Elizabeth II’s reaction to what Turkey’s former first lady had on when she arrived to Buckingham Palace.
One of the things Queen Elizabeth II was known for throughout her reign was being stoic. The late monarch seemed to always keep her emotions in check and therefore, it was hard for anyone to gauge what she was thinking.
However, there were a few rare occasions when cameras would capture a reaction from the queen that no one was expecting. One of those times was when she welcomed Turkey’s former president, Dr. Abdullah Gul, and his wife, Hayrunnisa Gul, to Buckingham Palace for a state visit.
Now, a video has gone viral of Queen Elizabeth’s surprised reaction when she saw what Hayrunnisa was wearing on her feet when they greeted one another.
Video shows the queen reacting to the shoes Turkey’s former first lady wore
Queen Elizabeth II standing next to former Turkish President Abdullah Gul’s wife Hayrunnisa Gul during an official welcoming ceremony in London | Adrian Dennis – WPA Pool/Getty Images
The video clip uploaded to TikTok is from 2011 and shows the Guls arriving at the Palace where Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip are standing waiting to meet them. Right away, the queen appears distracted as she stares down at Hayrunnisa’s silver super-high heels. The late monarch did not look pleased and a little perplexed by the former first lady’s shoes.
The nine-second clip has been viewed more than 15 million times with over 870,000 likes and thousands of comments about Queen Elizabeth’s reaction.
“The look she gave was … is this for real?” one person wrote.
Hayrunnisa Gul at Buckingham Palace in London | Chris Jackson/AFP via Getty Images
“Her reaction ‘WHAT ARE THOOOOOSSSSEEEE!!???!!!!!,’” another posted, while a third believed the queen must have been thinking, “Goodness gracious me” and “Are u kidding?”
A fourth added: “Come on like you weren’t thinking it too.”
Others were impressed that Hayrunnisa could even walk in the heels.
“Imagine a few hours walking in those my feet would be killing me,” one user said and another chimed in: “I’d honestly look at the heels with shock, ik id fall in a second wearing those.”
Former first lady compared to a celebrity the queen met who also wears heels like that
Queen Elizabeth II meets Lady Gaga following the Royal Variety Performance | Anwar Hussein/Getty Images
Some other commenters said that Gul’s sky-high heels reminded them of the shoes we usually see Lady Gaga wearing.
The queen did meet Lady Gaga in 2009 at the Royal Variety Performance when the event was held in Blackpool. The “Bad Romance” singer donned a red latex Atsuko Kudo dress with puffy sleeves, a high neck, and pointed-toe high heels. However, the monarch didn’t react to the singer’s shoes since Gaga’s floor-length gown concealed the height of her heels.
The photo of the two women is one of the star’s most iconic looks. When speaking about her outfit that evening, Gaga told Vogue: “Oh, I love this one! This is when I was in England and I was meeting the queen. I wanted to dress like a queen in a British fashion and I also wanted to do it in my way. We thought that we would give this look of a queen a modern twist by making it in latex.”
