September 25, 2024 • 8 mins
King Charles' goddaughter India Hicks joins Jonesy & Amanda for an incredible chat!
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
And Amanda gam Nation.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Well, our next guest is my absolute idol. She is
the god daughter of King Charles. She served as bridesmaid
the Princess Diana. But India Hicks's links to role to
you go much further back than that. Her mother, Lady Pamela,
played a pivotal role in the royal family. She was
Queen Elizabeth's lady in waiting. In fact, she was by
her side for some of the biggest moments in history,
including the day the queen became a monarch. It's an
(00:25):
extraordinary life and it's been captured in a new book
by India called Lady Pamela India Hello.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
She is, Hello, Hello. It's so lovely to be with you.
Both so nice.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
I'd say both because the last time I said, oh, Amanda,
that Jones got a bit jealous.
Speaker 4 (00:41):
Well, I know that you have a BFF thing going on,
but I want to be a part of this triumvant.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
Yeah, sure, we along.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
We're letting you in just for a few minutes. Only
your mother's life. Lady Pamela's Hicks's life is quite extraordinary.
She was by Princess Zabeth's side in Africa pretty much
in a Treehouse when Princess Elizabeth learnt that her father,
the King, had died and years before it was expected
she was to become queen. What extraordinary memories your mum
must have of that.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
Well, it's funny because the book is called Lady Pandler
and it's called My Mother's Extraordinary Years as daughter of
the Viceroy of India, Lady Waiting to the Queen and
wife of David Hicks, So that she's lived in the
shadow of all of these people. And I actually felt
it was time to tell her story because she was
there at these pivotal historical moments. I mean, she saw
(01:34):
at the birth of a nation when she was out
in India. She was, as you say that with the
Queen that moment she was up the tree with the Queen.
She went up as Princess Elizabeth comes down with the Queen,
and there were only two other people there apart from
Prince Philip, my mother and Martin Sharp was the private secretary.
My mother is really the only person alive today who
was there, probably the only person alive today. I would
(01:57):
hazard a guest who has sat next to my up
mcgandhi at a prayer Meetingum and literally right next to him.
She said, it was extraordinary when you hear talk about it.
How you know there were eight hundred thousand people that
would come and gather to listen to him, and how
he controlled that crowd just with his voice.
Speaker 3 (02:14):
Amazing things.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
And she's seen things that really is a disappearing world
that we'll never see again.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
How is she She's in her mid nineties now. Her
memory seems incredible.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
Incredible, and I think that's because she's an avid reader.
So she's always exercising that muscle, and I'm exercising the
wrong muscles, not exercising that reading muscle enough.
Speaker 3 (02:37):
But she's got an amazing.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
Memory, She's got a brilliant a brilliant wit about her,
and she tells a story absolutely perfect. Her comedic timing
is so professional. I literally on my Instagram just now,
I've just posted a beautiful picture of the house that
we grew up in, and I said that I'd taken
my mom to the pub weekend, and she leant across
(03:02):
the table to me. And bear in mind she's lived
in the same village for sixty four years and she
lent across them and she said, I've seen many changes
to this pub. It first began as a brothel.
Speaker 3 (03:13):
As a brothel.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
Fantastic, she'd it as brothels. We were having fish and chips.
Speaker 3 (03:17):
There we go.
Speaker 4 (03:20):
That was one of the spacials bag in the brothel.
Speaker 3 (03:23):
The brothel.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
Yeah, so go on Instagram into textile and you'll see
you'll see that really funny moment of her telling me that.
Speaker 4 (03:29):
But you were Princess Diana's bridesmaid. How old were you
when you were Princess Diana's bridesmaid?
Speaker 1 (03:36):
I was twelve, I was I was little, little enough,
but old enough to take the job seriously. And I
had this beautiful waistlength hair all my life and just
feel like when they had decided to chop it off
and look like a boy, really true, the worst hair
dyet of my life. And there were probably what a
billion people watching that terrible.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
Not all the family memories have been so joyous. Your grandfather,
Lord mount Betten, was assessinated by the IRA. You lost
your cousin in that event as well, So there's some
really traumatic moments too.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
Well, you know, it's definitely worth mentioning that. And in fact,
I really deliberated about putting that chapter in this book
because Essentially, this book is a beautiful, illustrated biography. And
once I began to dig in the archives, I came
across all these amazing photographs, press cuttings, beautiful invitations, programs,
royal letters from the Queen, all sorts of things, and
(04:30):
I felt needed to come out because this is history
that we're seeing. But I also wanted people to understand that, yes,
of course my mother has lived a very privileged life indeed,
but it has been tainted with great tragedy, and the
murder of my grandfather in nineteen seventy nine, by the IRA,
was an extraordinarily difficult moment for my mother to overcome,
(04:52):
so much so that I actually should developed breast cancer
a number of years later. Of course, when I talked
to her about that period and I said, but you know,
mom my god, you have breast cancer. She so didn't
want to be an inconvenience to anyone. She got the
gardener to drive her to the hospital. Because that is
the generation that we're talking about. That is the upbringing
of that extraordinary generation who went for a war and
(05:12):
they realized it was not about them. We were to
look out and not in so in the book, even
though It is a beautifully illustrated two hundred and fifty
two pages of delightful images. There are some lessons to
be learnt from the ninety five years, and yes, that
enormous tragedy definitely needed to be talked about, because I
(05:32):
think in it there is this extraordinary lesson about understanding
and coping with grief. And one of my mother's great
quotes that she loves to say that she didn't she
didn't come up with, but she always lost to say
is turn your face to the sun and the shadows
will fall behind you. And that was absolutely how we
were brought up after that. You know, I was eleven
years old. I'd never heard of a political assassination. We
(05:54):
were there altogether on holiday in Ireland before you know,
really this rible, terrible thing happened. But as a family,
we were told we will hold my bitterness, we will
not regret this, we will just move forward. And I
think that that's an extraordinary lesson that so many of
us could benefit from today.
Speaker 4 (06:12):
But a King Charles is your godfather. Do you do
you talk to him regularly? Does he send your cards
and things like that?
Speaker 3 (06:19):
I don't talk to him regularly.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
He's quite a busy man, and he though is my godfather,
and he is an incredibly loyal, dedicated, extraordinary man. And
he's a really wonderful godfather. And yes, he never forgets
a birthday or Christmas, that's for sure. When I was younger,
he would fastidiously send a gift a birthday present. I've
(06:43):
got other godparents who are utterly useless. He is quite big.
Speaker 3 (06:46):
Did you know?
Speaker 1 (06:48):
He is an amazing, amazing man. I think you know,
we all watched as a chapter closed when the late
Queen Elizabeth died and when he ascended to the throne,
and I think we've seen with great reassurance and encouragement
and comfort that he and Camilla and Kate and William
(07:08):
are this extraordinary four that are very very solid, and
they are modernizing monarchy in a way that I think
it's needed.
Speaker 3 (07:16):
But more than that, you know, he's.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
A man who so so long before any of us
understood about sustainability or thinking in a green way, he
was hunting trees and running his car and yoga and
we were like, poose this crazy man, and now are like,
thank goodness, he's our king.
Speaker 4 (07:34):
Could Harry come back into the fall? Do you think
he wished Harry happy birthday recently. Could that Can you
see a softening?
Speaker 1 (07:40):
I would have absolutely no comment. I wouldn't have any
understanding of that relationship at all.
Speaker 2 (07:46):
I want to hear more about yoga driven car.
Speaker 4 (07:48):
Where where's these yoga driven cars coming from?
Speaker 1 (07:51):
I think men have exaggerated slightly, but I think that
there is a poet involved.
Speaker 3 (07:55):
No, no, I think that top up on you.
Speaker 4 (07:56):
You play well India. It's great to talk to you
can get your hands on Lady Pamela. Now the book.
That's the book, by the way.
Speaker 1 (08:04):
Don't get your hands on Lady Pamela. She would be
she's ninety five and playing Canaster quality in England. But
the book book took me two years and it's really
my letter of love to my mum who has seen
this incredible unfolding of history in the ninety five years
that she's led. And it is absolutely in Australia ready
to be shocked and read extraordinary.
Speaker 4 (08:23):
Thank you for joining us, India, look after yourself.
Speaker 3 (08:26):
Thank you very much, both of you. Both of you. Jenvie,
thank you for having you.
Speaker 4 (08:30):
I'm a part of the gang.
And Amanda gam Nation.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Well, our next guest is my absolute idol. She is
the god daughter of King Charles. She served as bridesmaid
the Princess Diana. But India Hicks's links to role to
you go much further back than that. Her mother, Lady Pamela,
played a pivotal role in the royal family. She was
Queen Elizabeth's lady in waiting. In fact, she was by
her side for some of the biggest moments in history,
including the day the queen became a monarch. It's an
(00:25):
extraordinary life and it's been captured in a new book
by India called Lady Pamela India Hello.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
She is, Hello, Hello. It's so lovely to be with you.
Both so nice.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
I'd say both because the last time I said, oh, Amanda,
that Jones got a bit jealous.
Speaker 4 (00:41):
Well, I know that you have a BFF thing going on,
but I want to be a part of this triumvant.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
Yeah, sure, we along.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
We're letting you in just for a few minutes. Only
your mother's life. Lady Pamela's Hicks's life is quite extraordinary.
She was by Princess Zabeth's side in Africa pretty much
in a Treehouse when Princess Elizabeth learnt that her father,
the King, had died and years before it was expected
she was to become queen. What extraordinary memories your mum
must have of that.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
Well, it's funny because the book is called Lady Pandler
and it's called My Mother's Extraordinary Years as daughter of
the Viceroy of India, Lady Waiting to the Queen and
wife of David Hicks, So that she's lived in the
shadow of all of these people. And I actually felt
it was time to tell her story because she was
there at these pivotal historical moments. I mean, she saw
(01:34):
at the birth of a nation when she was out
in India. She was, as you say that with the
Queen that moment she was up the tree with the Queen.
She went up as Princess Elizabeth comes down with the Queen,
and there were only two other people there apart from
Prince Philip, my mother and Martin Sharp was the private secretary.
My mother is really the only person alive today who
was there, probably the only person alive today. I would
(01:57):
hazard a guest who has sat next to my up
mcgandhi at a prayer Meetingum and literally right next to him.
She said, it was extraordinary when you hear talk about it.
How you know there were eight hundred thousand people that
would come and gather to listen to him, and how
he controlled that crowd just with his voice.
Speaker 3 (02:14):
Amazing things.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
And she's seen things that really is a disappearing world
that we'll never see again.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
How is she She's in her mid nineties now. Her
memory seems incredible.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
Incredible, and I think that's because she's an avid reader.
So she's always exercising that muscle, and I'm exercising the
wrong muscles, not exercising that reading muscle enough.
Speaker 3 (02:37):
But she's got an amazing.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
Memory, She's got a brilliant a brilliant wit about her,
and she tells a story absolutely perfect. Her comedic timing
is so professional. I literally on my Instagram just now,
I've just posted a beautiful picture of the house that
we grew up in, and I said that I'd taken
my mom to the pub weekend, and she leant across
(03:02):
the table to me. And bear in mind she's lived
in the same village for sixty four years and she
lent across them and she said, I've seen many changes
to this pub. It first began as a brothel.
Speaker 3 (03:13):
As a brothel.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
Fantastic, she'd it as brothels. We were having fish and chips.
Speaker 3 (03:17):
There we go.
Speaker 4 (03:20):
That was one of the spacials bag in the brothel.
Speaker 3 (03:23):
The brothel.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
Yeah, so go on Instagram into textile and you'll see
you'll see that really funny moment of her telling me that.
Speaker 4 (03:29):
But you were Princess Diana's bridesmaid. How old were you
when you were Princess Diana's bridesmaid?
Speaker 1 (03:36):
I was twelve, I was I was little, little enough,
but old enough to take the job seriously. And I
had this beautiful waistlength hair all my life and just
feel like when they had decided to chop it off
and look like a boy, really true, the worst hair
dyet of my life. And there were probably what a
billion people watching that terrible.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
Not all the family memories have been so joyous. Your grandfather,
Lord mount Betten, was assessinated by the IRA. You lost
your cousin in that event as well, So there's some
really traumatic moments too.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
Well, you know, it's definitely worth mentioning that. And in fact,
I really deliberated about putting that chapter in this book
because Essentially, this book is a beautiful, illustrated biography. And
once I began to dig in the archives, I came
across all these amazing photographs, press cuttings, beautiful invitations, programs,
royal letters from the Queen, all sorts of things, and
(04:30):
I felt needed to come out because this is history
that we're seeing. But I also wanted people to understand that, yes,
of course my mother has lived a very privileged life indeed,
but it has been tainted with great tragedy, and the
murder of my grandfather in nineteen seventy nine, by the IRA,
was an extraordinarily difficult moment for my mother to overcome,
(04:52):
so much so that I actually should developed breast cancer
a number of years later. Of course, when I talked
to her about that period and I said, but you know,
mom my god, you have breast cancer. She so didn't
want to be an inconvenience to anyone. She got the
gardener to drive her to the hospital. Because that is
the generation that we're talking about. That is the upbringing
of that extraordinary generation who went for a war and
(05:12):
they realized it was not about them. We were to
look out and not in so in the book, even
though It is a beautifully illustrated two hundred and fifty
two pages of delightful images. There are some lessons to
be learnt from the ninety five years, and yes, that
enormous tragedy definitely needed to be talked about, because I
(05:32):
think in it there is this extraordinary lesson about understanding
and coping with grief. And one of my mother's great
quotes that she loves to say that she didn't she
didn't come up with, but she always lost to say
is turn your face to the sun and the shadows
will fall behind you. And that was absolutely how we
were brought up after that. You know, I was eleven
years old. I'd never heard of a political assassination. We
(05:54):
were there altogether on holiday in Ireland before you know,
really this rible, terrible thing happened. But as a family,
we were told we will hold my bitterness, we will
not regret this, we will just move forward. And I
think that that's an extraordinary lesson that so many of
us could benefit from today.
Speaker 4 (06:12):
But a King Charles is your godfather. Do you do
you talk to him regularly? Does he send your cards
and things like that?
Speaker 3 (06:19):
I don't talk to him regularly.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
He's quite a busy man, and he though is my godfather,
and he is an incredibly loyal, dedicated, extraordinary man. And
he's a really wonderful godfather. And yes, he never forgets
a birthday or Christmas, that's for sure. When I was younger,
he would fastidiously send a gift a birthday present. I've
(06:43):
got other godparents who are utterly useless. He is quite big.
Speaker 3 (06:46):
Did you know?
Speaker 1 (06:48):
He is an amazing, amazing man. I think you know,
we all watched as a chapter closed when the late
Queen Elizabeth died and when he ascended to the throne,
and I think we've seen with great reassurance and encouragement
and comfort that he and Camilla and Kate and William
(07:08):
are this extraordinary four that are very very solid, and
they are modernizing monarchy in a way that I think
it's needed.
Speaker 3 (07:16):
But more than that, you know, he's.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
A man who so so long before any of us
understood about sustainability or thinking in a green way, he
was hunting trees and running his car and yoga and
we were like, poose this crazy man, and now are like,
thank goodness, he's our king.
Speaker 4 (07:34):
Could Harry come back into the fall? Do you think
he wished Harry happy birthday recently. Could that Can you
see a softening?
Speaker 1 (07:40):
I would have absolutely no comment. I wouldn't have any
understanding of that relationship at all.
Speaker 2 (07:46):
I want to hear more about yoga driven car.
Speaker 4 (07:48):
Where where's these yoga driven cars coming from?
Speaker 1 (07:51):
I think men have exaggerated slightly, but I think that
there is a poet involved.
Speaker 3 (07:55):
No, no, I think that top up on you.
Speaker 4 (07:56):
You play well India. It's great to talk to you
can get your hands on Lady Pamela. Now the book.
That's the book, by the way.
Speaker 1 (08:04):
Don't get your hands on Lady Pamela. She would be
she's ninety five and playing Canaster quality in England. But
the book book took me two years and it's really
my letter of love to my mum who has seen
this incredible unfolding of history in the ninety five years
that she's led. And it is absolutely in Australia ready
to be shocked and read extraordinary.
Speaker 4 (08:23):
Thank you for joining us, India, look after yourself.
Speaker 3 (08:26):
Thank you very much, both of you. Both of you. Jenvie,
thank you for having you.
Speaker 4 (08:30):
I'm a part of the gang.
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Special Summer Offer: Exclusively on Apple Podcasts, try our Dateline Premium subscription completely free for one month! With Dateline Premium, you get every episode ad-free plus exclusive bonus content.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.