Rolf Harris treated Queen Elizabeth II “in the same way he would an eight year old child” while painting her famous royal portrait, according to a new documentary.
The unsettling moment features in Rolf Harris: Primetime Predator, which revisits the disgraced entertainer’s visit to Buckingham Palace after the BBC commissioned him to paint the late monarch to mark her 80th birthday.
Years later, Harris was jailed after being convicted of a string of sex offences.
The documentary has also prompted fresh questions over what happened to the famous portrait after his downfall.
Rolf Harris paints Queen portrait in new documentary
Rolf Harris travels to Buckingham Palace to meet Queen Elizabeth II in Rolf Harris: Primetime Predator, which dropped on Prime Video this week.
The footage comes from the 2006 BBC documentary The Queen by Rolf Harris.
“I can hardly believe it,” Rolf says as he sits in the back of a black cab. “Up there, in the palace, the Queen of England is expecting me.”
After arriving at Buckingham Palace, Queen Elizabeth, dressed in a turquoise frock, greets him with: “Oh, good afternoon.” Rolf bows before shaking her hand.
He then begins painting her portrait as the Queen sits for him.
Rolf tells her: “I was forever saying to my father, ‘Don’t move, don’t move, I’m going to catch you just like that’.”
He also makes the Queen laugh with a story about a prank his father used to play. Rolf explains he would pretend to bite his finger as he traced light around his head.
“I would jump every time!” he tells her.
Investigative journalist Meirion Jones says: “Rolf Harris is treating the Queen in the same way he would an eight year old child.”
Rolf completed the portrait back home in his art studio in Bray, Berkshire.
The following year, the Queen awarded him Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire.
What happened to Rolf’s portrait of the Queen
Rolf’s portrait of the Queen went on public display in the Queen’s Gallery at Buckingham Palace between 2005 and 2006.
It later appeared at an exhibition in Liverpool before reportedly being handed to Whitewall Galleries, which had a commercial deal with Rolf.
In 2014, Harris was convicted of multiple sexual assaults against young girls and sentenced to five years in prison. He was later stripped of his CBE and the portrait disappeared from public view.
At the time of his conviction, the BBC confirmed it did not have the painting.
A spokesperson said: “We’ve been asked about this before and the position hasn’t changed. The BBC does not have this painting in its collection.”
Rolf’s publicist, who represented him during his trial, was unable to confirm whether it was still in the disgraced entertainer’s possession.
Rolf died from neck cancer in May 2023, four years after his release from prison. His wife, Alwen, died 15 months later following a stroke.
The portrait is most likely to have ended up with Rolf’s daughter Bindi, now known as Ava Reeves, who was the main beneficiary of her parents’ estate.
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