Henry Winkler Recalls Meeting 'Lovely' Queen Camilla — and Reuniting with Steve Buscemi to Play a Pigeon (Exclusive)

Mar. 15, 2025

Henry Winkler.Photo:Kevin Mazur/Getty

Kevin Mazur/Getty

Henry Winkleris having one royal summer!

In June, theBarrystar toured Ireland, Scotland, and England with his wife,Stacey, while promoting his 2023 memoir,Being Henry— and even had a private chat withQueen Camilla.

“We were invited to Ascot, the royal races. You heard about it inMy Fair Lady, you hear about it all through history, and we were invited,” Winkler, 78, tells PEOPLE, noting that he sourced “a top hat and tails” for the event.

But the experience became all the more memorable with an unexpected request.

“Then all of a sudden, a rumor or a buzz goes through the room. ‘The Queen wants to meet Henry.’ So we walk down onto the paddock onto the green, and all of a sudden these 12 men in forest green cutaways march out," he recalls. “She comes in white in the middle of them and walks up. I tip my hat, and I talk to her like she was my Aunt Liz. There is no disconnect. There’s no royalty. There is just this lovely woman who knows about my children’s books, theDetective Duckseries.”

Henry Winkler and his wife Stacey during day five of Royal Ascot at Ascot Racecourse, Berkshire. Picture date: Saturday June 22, 2024.PA Images / Alamy Stock Photo

PA Images / Alamy Stock Photo

“I stopped in Bristol, went into a cave of a studio, and recorded from there to Los Angeles,” says Winkler.

And Winkler still gets a kick out of voicing the iconic NYC bird.

“People call and say, ‘Are you a pigeon? Did I just hear you as a pigeon?’ It is the first time, and unfortunately from afar, that I get to work with the great Steve Buscemi," he says.

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The spots bring the native New Yorker, who has made Los Angeles his adult home, back to his city days.

“I miss New York,” he says. “You can take the boy out of New York, but you can’t take New York out of the boy. I see myself as a transient now. I’ve been here since ‘73. My wife is Los Angeles; my children, my grandchildren, my dogs, my home, my work. But I’m always thinking, ‘I’m going back.’”

source: people.com