A former aide to Queen Elizabeth has shared new insights into who the Queen really was behind the scenes.

In a new interview with The Sunday Times, published Saturday, October 12, Samantha Cohen, a former aide to the late Queen Elizabeth who also served as the queen's assistant private secretary for 18 years, said Queen Elizabeth was a “shy person” who valued privacy.

“In the world of celebrity, where all kinds of celebrities come to the palace, I always thought the queen was the opposite of celebrity,” she told this publication at the time. [She was] a maestro. She understood that this was her role. She took it very seriously and did it perfectly,” Cohen added. But she knew it was someone else than herself. She was never intoxicated by glamour, she never showed off, and she never pretended to be something she wasn't. Because she had no ego.

In the same interview, Cohen said that despite her innate shyness, Queen Elizabeth was “playful” and did not take things too seriously, despite the assumption by many that she did.

“On this particular day, she said, ‘Oh, wait a minute, I have butterflies, I have to get them out,’” the former aid said, recalling one of her favorite memories and moments with the late Queen Elizabeth.

“This beautiful butterfly was sitting on a book. She got up, picked it up, and flew away. Then I caught it and it flew away from my hand. Then she caught it,” she continued. 'Eventually she caught it, and we opened the window and let the butterfly go. She was very playful. She was so playful.

Perhaps not surprisingly, Cohen describes the late queen as a fiercely domestic woman, devoted to her children and grandchildren.

“It was important to her,” Cohen said, referring to Queen Elizabeth as someone who “wanted to be a family woman.”

“She liked to entertain everyone during the summer, assigning rooms and checking them herself. In the mornings, as I was preparing the breakfast cereal, the children would say, 'Mom! The queen just rode past on her horse.' I also used to hit the queen with my bicycle. The queen loved to have a good time with her family and to hear what everyone was doing.”