Did V’landys really have the Queen’s mobile number? I am … unconvinced

July 25, 2026 — 5:00am

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Forty-odd years ago, Peter V’landys was just 18 when he started picking up glasses at the Unanderra Hotel, even while studying accountancy at the University of Wollongong.

Determining that this was a young man of unusual ability and confidence, the hotel owner, Duke Taylor, made him manager.

“I thought, ‘This is a bit of a hard job for me at 18’,” V’landys would recount to a Greek-Australian community newsletter on the occasion of being awarded the Order of Australia. “And all the staff agreed. They went on strike.”

V’landys persisted. His reward was a priceless bit of advice from the Duke: “If you can’t dazzle them with brilliance, you baffle them with bullshit”.

“And that’s really been a good piece of advice,” V’landys told the Kytherian Newsletter. “It’s helped me a lot.”

And how funny I should recount that. Because there was a strange piece recently in the Daily Telegraph where, asked who the most famous person’s mobile number in his contact book was, V’landys replied – wait for it – Queen Elizabeth II.

I call bullshit. No! Let me rephrase.

This, um, strains my credulity. I am ... baffled.

“The queen was a lovely lady,” V’landys told the Tele, “And because she had a love for horse racing. So I spent an hour and a half with her talking about everything, not just horse racing.”

Are we to understand Her Maj also had an interest in rugba league?

But seriously. You can just imagine how the chat might have gone from there, as she says, “Here’s my number, so why don’t you call me sometime, and we can talk horsies?”

It is known that the late Queen did actually have her own mobile phone – given to her by the artist once known as Prince Andrew, in 2001, but she used it all but exclusively for communicating with her family – particularly Princess Anne.

And when I asked royal correspondent friend, Jo Elvin, co-host of The Royals Uncensored with Piers Morgan’s Uncensored network, what she thought of the likelihood of the Queen handing her number to the NRL boss after a long conversation, she first roared with laughter, and then composed herself.

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“I think that is ... [unlikely],” she said.

When I asked V’landys if he stood behind the claim, he was initially a tad snarly, sending me a seating plan from the dinner he attended at Royal Ascot in 2022, proving he had been sat right beside the Queen. I agreed that was impressive but pointed out it did not answer the question I had asked, to which he replied:

“As far as the number I had is for me to know and you to find out. Good luck. Still luvya.”

I replied: “I don’t dispute Ascot! Congrats, meantime on the broadcasting deal. Cheers, Peter.”

See? All friends in the big city.

Back in the day,the legendary All Black fly-half Grant Fox could kick a ball with such accuracy he could knock the ash from the cigarette in a seagull’s mouth at 50 metres. (Mongrel that he was!)

And that was exactly what his son, Ryan, was like coming down the final stretch of the British........

© Brisbane Times