In late July, Fagan's mother said, "He thinks so much of the Queen. Thousands of people walk the halls of the royal residence every year for state events, receptions, and tours, not to mention the veritable army of staff that keeps the palace running and, of course, the royal family themselves. Shes destroying the country, he says of Thatcher. In 1972 he married wife Christine, with whom he had four children. Technically, this was the second time Fagan successfully scaled the fortified wallsbut the first time he managed to accomplish his goal of speaking to the Queen. "I was thinking what to say and she said 'Get out, get out' and she jumped out of bed," Fagan told the BBC. Michael Fagan twice entered Buckingham Palace by scaling the fence. He also spoke of entering the post room. "Its a complete fiction, the bit about me and the Palace. [1] Fagan wandered the corridors for several minutes before reaching the royal apartments. ", In the same interview (via The Independent), he said of the first break-in: "It was harder to get out than get in. Tracy Chapman On . To revist this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories. 'It surprised me how shoddy it was. Did Michael Fagan really sit on the Queen's bed? Fagan's. According to. He married his wife Christine in 1972, and the pair had four children together. Fagan made an appearance in Channel 4's The Antics Roadshow,[13] an hour-long 2011 TV documentary directed by the artist Banksy and Jaimie D'Cruz charting the history of people behaving oddly in public. Michael Fagan, an unemployed house painter, broke into the royal residence and entered the Queen's bedroom, where he is said to have exchanged a few quick words with Her Majesty before security arrived. Vogue may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. The investigation resulted in the suspension of one security officer, the removal from duty of two others, and a significant reinvestment in palace security. Buckingham Palace Intruder Michael Fagan: What Happened - HistoryExtra "I was under a lot of stress and just wanted to talk to the Queen about what I was going through," Fagan explained later, per Penny Juror's book The Firm: The Troubled Life of the House of Windsor. Fagan singing at a nightclub in Leicester Square. Despite the lengthy exchanged depicted in The Crown, the real conversation between Fagan and the Queen was reportedly much shorter. And Michael Fagan said he thinks that Charles will be a good King who could heal the rift between rich and poor in this country. Before entering the Queen's bedroom, Fagan smashed a glass ashtray in the anteroom. She then picked up the telephone by her bedside, asking the palace switchboard operator to send the police to her chambers, but after six minutes without rescue, she phoned again. Michael T. Fagan, 71, of Meadowlakes died July 28, 2015 The Break In According to the police, shortly before 7 a.m. on the morning of July 9, 1982, Fagan scaled. The pair discuss the state of the building, with Fagan calling it 'rundown', before the conversation turns to politics. According to a story from The Guardian following the incident, he initially told the police that he broke in to see the Queen because he was in love with her, but on other occasions he has suggested that he thought the Queen might be able to help him in some way, per The Sun, or, as he told the Independent, that the decision was fueled by a prolonged reaction to taking hallucinogenic mushrooms several months before. It was a fiction, I wouldn't have a go at the Queen. The real thing was almost certainly less heartbreaking. Over the years, Fagan has been charged with theft, assaulting a police officer, indecent exposure, and dealing drugs. including a jail term in 1997 when he was charged alongside his wife and 20-year-old son for conspiring to supply heroin. He then entered the palace through an unlocked window on the roof, and wandered around for the next 30 minutes while eating cheddar cheese and crackers. He had two younger sisters, Marjorie and Elizabeth. Michael Fagan does claim to have broken into Buckingham Palace twice, as shown on The Crown. An out-of-work painter and decorator with convictions for heroin dealing and a number of petty crimes, Fagan was struggling after the breakdown of his marriage - his wife, Christine, had left. It was cheap Californian.. [11] In 1983, Fagan recorded a cover version of the Sex Pistols song "God Save the Queen" with punk band the Bollock Brothers. Wybrew said in a statement at the time, according to The Guardian. Merely a month after his acquittal, Fagan appeared in court again on charges of vehicle theft; he was then committed to a maximum security mental institution in Liverpool for three months. [4], A subsequent police report was critical of the competence of officers on duty, as well as a system of confused and divided command. She went past me and ran out of the room; her little bare feet running across the floor.". What transpired between the Queen and Fagan has since gone down in history as one of the most dramatic royal security breaches on record.