Nicola Sturgeon says Queen asked for Alex Salmond sex claim ‘GOSSIP' as she gushes over ‘incredible' late monarch
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THE late Queen asked for 'gossip' about the sexual misconduct scandal engulfing the SNP, Nicola Sturgeon has sensationally claimed.
Details of the conversation with the monarch - which are typically kept private - is revealed in the former first minister's book, Frankly, which hit the shelves in Scotland early on Monday.
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Nicola Sturgeon said the late Queen 'loved a bit of gossip'
Credit: PA:Press Association
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Nicola Sturgeon made the comments in her new memoirs, Frankly, which hit the shelves on Monday
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Nicola Sturgeon pictured with her former mentor, the late Alex Salmond
Credit: PA
The ex-Nats leader said Queen Elizabeth immediately asked for details about the sexual harassment claims against Alex Salmond after they emerged in 2018.
Ms Sturgeon said the Queen 'loved a bit of gossip' and asked about the case at an audience at Balmoral Castle in 2018 which she visited with husband Peter Murrell.
And she wrote: 'She asked me about it almost as soon as I sat down. She wasn't being trivial in any way, she wanted to know more of what was going on. I think she was also trying to put me at ease.'
Mr Salmond had been revealed to be under investigation by cops and the Scottish Government for sexual misconduct while First Minister - probes which sparked a collapse in his relationship with Ms Sturgeon. He was acquitted of sex offence charges in a high profile court case in 2021.
The ex-First Minister said she found the late Monarch as 'utterly fascinating' and an 'incredible woman' in the book.
She added she was 'struck by the aura' the Queen 'exuded as she entered the room' and praised her 'mystique' which she said no other Royal Family member had.
And Ms Sturgeon said her time with the Queen was 'special'.
She added: 'I am not a monarchist by instinct, but the private time I spent with the Queen ranks as one of the great privileges of my life.
'It was clear from our first meeting that she was an extraordinary woman.'
But Ms Sturgeon insisted she was still a republican and found the experience of kneeling and kissing the Queen's hand when she joined the Privy Council as 'strange'.
Nicola Sturgeon reveals her sexuality 'isn't binary' in bombshell new book
And elsewhere in the book she blasts her experience with Prince William - saying she felt 'aggrieved' towards him after a meeting in the summer of 2021.
She said she held a 'cordial' meeting with the future king where politics did not come up, only to learn he had held a private meeting with ex-PM and pro-union campaigner Gordon Brown at Holyrood Palace.
The ex-Labour leader had set up an 'anti-independence think tank' and said the meeting 'inevitably raised questions'.
She added that the defence of the meeting from the prince's office was 'to put it mildly, disingenuous'.
007 gave Sturgeon voice coaching
By Conor Matchett
NICOLA Sturgeon revealed she was trained to speak with more 'authority' by Scottish acting legend Sean Connery.
The James Bond actor gave the ex-Nats leader voice coaching in 2004 around the time she was elected deputy leader of the SNP.
She wrote how the pair met at the glitzy New Club in Edinburgh where he advised her to deepen her speaking voice.
She said: 'There I was, under the instruction of 007 himself, pacing up and down the library of the New Club, with a folded piece of paper between my teeth, repeating sentences chosen, it seemed, for their particular combination of syllables, consonants and vowels."
'My voice slowed and deepened. The trick, in future, he told me, was that whenever I wanted to project authority I had to speak as if I had a piece of paper between my teeth.
The latest revelations come as we told how allies of Alex Salmond last night accused Nicola Sturgeon of 'twisting the knife' into her dead ex-mentor and 'cashing in' on their infamous fall-out to flog her book.
The late indy champion's friends also blamed Ms Sturgeon for cutting short his life by causing him stress ahead of his sudden death from a heart attack aged 69 last October.
And they slammed her for attempts to 'rewrite history' and refusing to let the former SNP and Alba Party leader 'rest in peace' as part of her efforts to promote her new memoir.
Sex beat climbdown after self-ID controversy
By Conor Matchett
THUGS like trans double rapist Isla Bryson should 'probably' not be able to choose their own gender, Nicola Sturgeon admitted.
And the ex-First Minister finally conceded that the beast is a 'biological male' after years of dodging the question.
Bryson — formerly Adam Graham - claimed to be transitioning after attacking two women and was initially sent to a female prison in January 2023.
The move sparked fury while Ms Sturgeon's gender self-ID reforms were blocked in the same month by Westminster.
And yesterday she admitted 'losing the dressing room' in the bid to let people change sex without medical or legal checks.
Asked if Bryson was a woman, she replied: 'Isla Bryson identified as a woman.'
But she added: 'Anybody who commits the most heinous male crime against women probably forfeits the right to be the gender of their choice.'
Slamming her former boss, ex-SNP MSP Joan McAlpine said: 'Nicola couldn't bring herself to call Bryson a man. She needs to look again at photos of him in his pink leggings.'
Scottish Tories leader Russell Findlay piled in: 'Nicola Sturgeon must be delusional if she thinks the women of Scotland will swallow this drivel.'
The backlash came as Ms Sturgeon used an ITV interview promoting her book to claim Mr Salmond hadn't even bothered to read the key independence White Paper as she battled to finish off the crucial document in late 2013.
Further details from her memoir — which hit the shelves three days early yesterday — told how she ultimately 'gave up on' trying to get Mr Salmond to read the full blueprint, claiming he was more bothered about a boozy trip to China.
Ms Sturgeon also accused the political titan of trying to spin oil revenue forecasts central to the independence bid by 'taking them to the outer edges of credibility'.
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