Buckingham Palace is perhaps one of the most protected buildings in the world. In 1982, however, Queen Elizabeth II suffered a rude awakening when a man broke into her bedroom late at night.
Michael Fagan, 32, “scaled the barbed-wire-topped, 14ft wall of Buckingham Palace and shinned up a drainpipe,” according to the Independent, and then made his way to the monarch’s boudoir.
As if that wasn’t bizarre enough, Fagan jokingly recounted what must have been a weird and frightening night for the queen.
“She was sleeping in there on her own,” Fagan told the outlet about the night in question.
“Her nightie was one of those Liberty prints and it was down to her ankles,” he allegedly said, smiling.
“She went past me and ran out of the room; her little bare feet running across the floor,” the intruder claims the queen asked what he was doing there before immediately fleeing:
“She went past me and ran out of the room; her little bare feet running across the floor.”
But that’s not all: while walking around the palace, Fagan allegedly triggered two separate alarms before being in the queen’s bedroom.
The royal security staff, on the other hand, seemed to assume that the warnings were simply device flaws.
Fortunately, Fagan proved to have no malice against Queen Elizabeth. “I don’t know why I did it, something really got into my head,” he told the Independent in 2020.
Who Was Michael Fagan, the Man Who Broke Into Queen Elizabeth’s Bedroom?
Michael Fagan is not a name you’d expect to find in royal history books, yet he’s the unlikely figure behind one of the most astonishing breaches of royal security in modern British history.
In 1982, Fagan managed to do the unthinkable—twice entering Buckingham Palace and, on the second occasion, making his way into the Queen’s bedroom while she slept. His actions shocked a nation, exposed serious flaws in royal security, and remain one of the most bizarre royal incidents ever recorded.
The Intruder
Born in 1950 in Clerkenwell, London, Michael Fagan was the eldest of three children. He left school at 16 and worked various jobs as a painter and decorator. In 1972, he married Christine, and the couple had four children together.
But it was not his humble beginnings or working-class life that made headlines—it was his extraordinary, unlawful visit to Buckingham Palace.
The Break-In
On the morning of July 9, 1982, after a night of drinking, the 32-year-old Fagan scaled the fence surrounding Buckingham Palace.
He then climbed a drainpipe barefoot, removed a sock to wrap around his hand, and slipped in through an unlocked window.
According to later interviews, he had even left his shoes and socks on the palace roof—where they were reportedly returned to him two years later by palace staff.
Inside the palace, Fagan wandered undisturbed for several minutes. During his exploration, he tripped an alarm—twice. Both times, security dismissed the alerts as false and turned them off.
In an eerie twist, he broke an ashtray to obtain a shard of glass to cut through the pigeon netting on the roof in preparation for his exit—accidentally cutting himself in the process. Bloodstains were later found around the palace.
Face to Face With the Queen
Fagan eventually made his way into the Queen’s private apartments. He pulled back the bed curtains and found Queen Elizabeth II asleep. The Queen awoke to a stranger standing over her, bleeding and clutching a piece of broken glass.
“They say she must have been frightened. I didn’t frighten her too much but I was quite shocked,” Fagan later told The Sun. “She used a phone on the bedside table to call security but when nobody came, she got out of bed.”
He continued, “Her nightie was one of those Liberty prints, and it was down to her knees. She said, ‘Just one minute, I’ll get someone,’ and ran out of the room.”
Eventually, footman Paul Wybrew arrived and calmly offered Fagan a drink. “Would you like a drink?” he asked. Fagan reportedly replied, “Yes please, I’ll have a scotch.” He was arrested shortly after, still in the palace.
Not His First Time
Even more startling—this was not Fagan’s first break-in. Just weeks earlier, he had entered Buckingham Palace using a similar method.
On that occasion, he slipped through an open window into a housemaid’s room. Though the maid reported the incident, security dismissed it, assuming she had imagined the intruder.
“I walked straight in. I was surprised I wasn’t captured straight away,” Fagan said in court. “I could have been a rapist or something. I knew I could break the security system because it was so weak.”
He even admitted to sitting on thrones and wandering the halls before eventually climbing out and strolling down The Mall.
Aftermath and Legal Consequences
Surprisingly, Fagan wasn’t charged for the break-in that brought him face-to-face with the Queen. At the time, trespassing in the royal residence was considered a civil offense, not a criminal one—meaning it required the Queen herself to press charges, which she did not.
However, he was charged for burglary in connection with the earlier break-in, during which he allegedly drank a bottle of Prince Charles’s wine from a collection of public gifts meant for the upcoming birth of Prince William.
“I was waiting to be captured. I drank it because I was waiting for someone to come,” he said during the trial.
Why Did He Do It?
Fagan has offered multiple explanations over the years. In early interviews, he claimed he was “in love” with the Queen.
At other times, he suggested he was hoping she could help him with personal problems, or that the entire event was the result of a months-long reaction to psychedelic mushrooms.
Whatever his true motive, his actions triggered intense scrutiny of palace security. Home Secretary William Whitelaw even offered his resignation following the scandal—but the Queen declined.
Legacy
Michael Fagan’s story has become part of British cultural lore. His break-in has been referenced in books, documentaries, and was famously dramatized in The Crown on Netflix.
While the event was alarming at the time, many now view it as a strange, almost surreal moment in royal history—one that forced sweeping changes in royal security, but also revealed the vulnerability of even the most protected figures.
Today, Fagan remains one of the few people in modern history to have shared a private moment with the Queen—albeit under the most unusual of circumstances.
