Clinton turned down Queen because he wanted a curry

And other stories from the stranger side of life

Bill and Hillary Clinton
(Image credit: Getty Images)

Bill Clinton turned down tea with the Queen in 1997 because he wanted to go for a curry, formerly classified documents have revealed. Buckingham Palace contacted Downing Street to say “HM the Queen would be very pleased” to invite the Clintons to tea on their one-day detour from summits in Paris and The Hague. However, the Clintons replied that they while “very grateful for HM the Queen’s invitation”, they would “wish to decline politely”. A briefing note said Bill had expressed an interest “in trying Indian food” instead.

World’s oldest tennis player wants to take on Federer

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

  Chas Newkey-Burden has been part of The Week Digital team for more than a decade and a journalist for 25 years, starting out on the irreverent football weekly 90 Minutes, before moving to lifestyle magazines Loaded and Attitude. He was a columnist for The Big Issue and landed a world exclusive with David Beckham that became the weekly magazine’s bestselling issue. He now writes regularly for The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Independent, Metro, FourFourTwo and the i new site. He is also the author of a number of non-fiction books.