Jennie Bond's proudest career moment - and it has nothing to do with the royals
Throughout her storied career as the BBC's royal correspondent, Jennie Bond had some incredible encounters and experienced some of the monarchy's biggest moments first-hand.
Jennie's time in the role lasted from 1989 to 2003 and saw her cover perhaps the most turbulent period of recent royal history - from marriage breakdowns to infamous interviews and from a devastating fire to deaths that rocked the world. And, as she sits down during her exclusive OK! shoot to celebrate her 35th anniversary as a leading royal reporter, Jennie surprises us by revealing that covering all of these landmark royal events is not the proudest moment of her career...
“My most rewarding job over these 35 years was in the jungle in I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here," she laughs. "It is a gig I only got because I was known as the Royal Correspondent and I think the producers thought it would be quite funny having the BBC’s former Royal Correspondent eating bugs in the jungle or being buried in a coffin full of rats.
"In fact, I was told that the Queen had expressed quite a lot of interest that I was buried in a coffin full of rats… something which I think she probably wanted to do to me herself! I was told she was ‘most interested’ that this had happened to me so it gave her a giggle… and it gave me a whole new career and a whole new lease of life.”
Before she headed Down Under for the 2004 show, Jennie’s role had already taken her around the world many times over. It was her trip to Angola with Diana in 1997 that she remembers most poignantly.
“It was so important to highlight the issue of landmines in Angola. It was something that the princess cared deeply about.
"Both she and I pored over the facts before we went and for once, I felt like I was reporting on something really substantive that could begin to bring about change in the suffering of the people of Angola, many of whom had been maimed by landmines. It was a real privilege to accompany the princess on that tour and to watch her in that iconic shot walking through a landmine field.”
But what does Jennie think is the most difficult moment of her career as the BBC's royal correspondent?
“Over the years, there’ve been so many hard tragedies and dramas, so many heart-pounding moments - there was a lot of tension. Probably the most tense was The Queen Mother’s funeral.
"It was something the BBC was going to be judged on, it was something we had rehearsed many times but I felt I had the world - and the rest of the media - breathing down my neck to see what I would say and how I would say it.
"It was a very traumatic and difficult few days and after working on this enormous package that was playing on the one o’clock news, I took my shoes off and pounded through the streets of Westminster to get to my live camera position… my heart was pounding and sweating while I tried to appear absolutely calm.
"At the end of those ten days I just remember finishing the news outside Westminster Abbey in the dark and I sank to my knees and sang Roy Orbison’s “It’s Over, It’s Over, It’s Overrrrrrrr!”
