Photo: AP
“It was thrilling. it’s an amazing experience to be part of history and a rare honor,” Anderson tells PEOPLE. “There’s been a lot of calm excitement in the palace all day since the announcement that she was in hospital and people were just waiting for the good news.”
Cindy Eve, 58, of Richmond, said she led the cheer because she is delighted forPrince William. “I get emotional,” she said in a choked voice. “Because of losing his mum, but now he has his own little family.”
“I just want a cup of tea now,” says Anderson “in my ‘It’s a boy’ mug.”
A Popular but Feisty Official
Anderson, a tall, slender mother-of-two (she’s married to a former naval officer who now works in London’s financial district), is one of three key women around the Queen. Along with assistant private secretary Samantha Cohen and dressmaker Angela Kelly, she is part of the 87-year-old monarch’s team advising her every day.
Anderson joined the palace, as an assistant press secretary, in 2001 coming from a public relations post in the U.K. government where she worked in the Cabinet Office, aiding Margaret Beckett, a senior member of the then-Labour administration, and was made press secretary to the Queen when Cohen was promoted in 2007.
“She is a smart woman – smart and sassy,” says experienced royals correspondent Judy Wade.
A popular, but feisty official, Anderson’s happy to mix with those in the mainstream media who cover the royal family. “Ailsa’s not one of those press officers who remains aloof,” Wade adds.
Living in the home counties just northwest of London, she likes to shop for clothes at the designer outlet stores at Bicester Villlage (whereKatehas been known to visit) and has a nose for a good deal. “She’s great at sussing out the good bargains in sales,” says a friend.
When she got her first post in the press office at Buckingham Palace, Anderson said it was a “dream job come true.”
Now, she’s living it every day.
source: people.com
