- An anonymous source told The Sun that a mouse was recently seen scampering through the kitchens at Buckingham Palace.
- It wouldn’t be the first time rats were reportedly taking up residence at Buckingham Palace.
- Ben Rhodes wrote in his memoir about his time in the Obama administration that a butler at Buckingham Palace once warned then-President Obama about a mouse on the loose there.
- An episode of “The Crown” on Netflix showed a mouse running across the counter in Buckingham Palace.
- The Queen Mother reportedly used the mice as target practice when she was learning to shoot during World War II.
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An anonymous souce told The Sun on Saturday that a mouse was recently seen scampering through the kitchens at Buckingham Palace.
It wouldn’t be the first time rodents were reportedly spotted there.
The palace’s mouse problem seems to date back to King George VI’s reign. An episode of “The Crown” on Netflix shows a mouse running across a counter as the kitchen staff prepares a meal for the king. The series makes a point of showing how the royal family was a family with issues just like any other and how Buckingham Palace wasn’t as lavish up close as it seemed, executive producer Peter Morgan told The Seattle Times.
Read more: THEN AND NOW: How 7 royal residences have changed over the years
Margaret Rhodes, Queen Elizabeth II’s cousin, also told the BBC in an interview for their “Greatest Generation” series that the Queen Mother used the mice in Buckingham Palace for target practice during World War II when she feared being kidnapped by German forces.
When President Barack and first lady Michelle Obama visited Buckingham Palace in 2011, deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes wrote in “The World as It Is: A Memoir of the Obama White House” that a butler warned the president about a mouse on the loose as he was preparing a speech with his aides. Michelle was in another room getting ready for bed.
“Mr. President, pardon me. There’s a mouse,” the butler said, according to Rhodes.
His reply: “Don’t tell the first lady.”
The butler then said “We’ll try to catch it, sir.” According to Rhodes’ book, Obama repeated “Just don’t tell the first lady.”
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