Mary Reynolds who is famous for looking uncannily similar to Britain's Queen Elizabeth II, has said that she will give up the job after 34 years, “out of respect” for the late monarch who passed away on September 8.
Speaking to the PA news agency, Reynolds said she felt "lucky" to look like the Queen. "It's been a great privilege to look like her because I think she's so incredible," she said.
She adds, "I mean, it’s a change of an era now, it’s all going to be very weird. I was watching the television the day before and felt that there was going to be some bad news, which of course eventually came and it makes you feel very, very, very sad."
“And then you do sort of realise that will be the end as far as I’m concerned… out of respect, I don’t think one should do anything.”
Mary 89, who lives in Epping, Essex, reportedly first became a lookalike in 1988, but she was first told she looked like the Queen when she was 17.
She has acted in both, television and films, including the 1990 film Bullseye. She has also appeared in an episode in the 25th anniversary series of Doctor Who, back in 1988.
Reynolds also reportedly revealed that a Russian television company approached her after the Queen's death asking her to don her impersonator outfit.
"There was something about a Russian television company wanting to do something with me and they wanted to see me dressed up and I said, the only way I would dress up as the Queen would be in a black dress," she states.
Reynolds notes that she will probably keep her outfits of the Queen though as "they've been part of my life for so long." However, the decision to leave her role as a lookalike has made Reynolds “very sad.”
“I’ve just moved home… and I’ve got two boxes full of hats and I’ve just found somewhere to put them and I thought: I’m not really going to need them anymore,” she said.
She also reportedly mentioned that she had two separate wardrobes for her normal and royal outfits, but would choose "the Queen's" only for "somewhere special."
Despite never having met the Queen, Reynolds is reported to have said that she was present at several of the Queen’s most important milestones.
She is quoted as saying, “I was in the Mall when she got married and I was just off of the Mall for her coronation.”
“I slept overnight in the road with my boyfriend, in tents. We got very wet and we got very lucky because one of the buildings there had a radio so we actually heard the whole of the service.
“And as they put the crown on her head, the heavens opened.”
She adds, “She was a person who was so much light and she was a very well-loved person and friends with everybody.”
“She just felt like part of the family, almost.
“I’ve had all these years of doing the work and it has helped me earn some money, but at the same time it was a pleasure for people to see you and say: ‘It’s the Queen.’
“Wherever you went in the world, it was the Queen – not Queen Elizabeth, not the Queen of England, it was the Queen. There will never be anyone like her,” she concludes.
