Barack and Michelle Obama took a trip to the UK during their first months in office, in 2009. The trip was notable for many reasons – it solidified Michelle as one of her husband’s most powerful and amazing surrogates, it was a moment for the US & the UK’s special relationship to be re-solidified after the Bush years, and there was also a “royal scandal.” At a cocktail-party event at Buckingham Palace, Michelle Obama “broke protocol” and touched the Queen. The thing was, people examined the video, and it really looked like the Queen broke protocol first when she gently put her hand on Michelle’s back, and Michelle responded by putting her arm around the Queen’s shoulders. It was a lovely, affectionate moment between two women, but it got blown up into a huge thing at the time. Here’s the video:

Well, Michelle took a moment to write about that moment in her memoir, Becoming.

“I couldn’t have known it in the moment, but I was committing what would be deemed an epic faux pas,” she writes. “I’d touched the Queen of England, which I’d soon learn was apparently not done.”

Obama feared that the criticism was distracting from the purpose of her visit with husband, Barack Obama, yet she doesn’t feel she insulted the royal with her warm gesture.

“If I hadn’t done the proper thing at Buckingham Palace, I had at least done the human thing,” she shares. “I daresay that the Queen was okay with it, too, because when I touched her, she only pulled closer, resting a gloved hand lightly on the small of my back.”

The moment stemmed from a simple bond between the first lady and the Queen: their uncomfortable shoes.

“At some point toward the end of the party, I turned my head to find that Queen Elizabeth had surfaced at my elbow, the two of us suddenly alone together in the otherwise crowded room,” Obama writes. “She was wearing a pair of pristine white gloves and appeared just as fresh as she’d been hours earlier when we first met. She smiled up at me.”

Obama recalled that Queen Elizabeth commented on her height, and the first lady responded by joking her Jimmy Choo heels helped give her an extra few inches.

“‘These shoes are unpleasant, are they not?’ [the Queen] said. She gestured with some frustration at her own black pumps. I confessed then to the Queen that my feet were hurting. She confessed that hers hurt, too,” according to Obama. “We looked at each other then with identical expressions, like, ‘When is all this standing around with world leaders going to finally wrap up? And with this, she busted out with a fully charming laugh. Forget that she sometimes wore a diamond crown and that I’d flown to London on the presidential jet; we were just two tired ladies oppressed by our shoes. I then did what’s instinctive to me anytime I feel connected to a new person, which is to express my feelings outwardly.”

[From People]

I believe Michelle. I think we knew at the time that the whole thing started because the Queen said something to Michelle about her height, and it was almost like the Queen put her hand on Michelle’s waist to get a better look at Michelle’s tallness. And I honestly don’t believe the Queen minded about all of the protocol nonsense. I still believe that out of all the American presidents and FLOTUSes the Queen has met, the Obamas probably rank as two of her favorites. She reportedly liked Ronald Reagan a lot too? Also: People points out that on the eve of Donald Trump’s sad, low-energy visit to the UK a few months ago, the Queen made a point of wearing the small moss agate brooch given to her as a personal gift by the Obamas.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.