Penny Mordaunt has just lifted the lid on how she really prepared for carrying a 3.6kg sword for King Charles IIII’s coronation.
The Conservative MP had a central role during the royal ceremony, as the Lord President of the Privy Council (made up of the UK’s most senior politicians who advise the King).
Mordaunt made headlines for her impressive performance carrying a 17th Century Sword of State into Westminster Abbey, which is the heaviest in the royal collection, weighing 3.6kg and stretching to 1.2 metres in length.
She had to carry it at a right angle to her body, and told Times Radio she had been “doing some press-ups to train” and practising with “some replicas which are weighted the same”.
However, when pressed about the details of this training, she told Nick Robinson’s Political Thinking podcast on the BBC: “I was not in the gym for six months prior to this.”
But, she added: “You want to make sure you are in good nick.
“I did take a couple of painkillers before just to make sure I was going to be alright.”
She said that her Navy training in Portsmouth helped too, as she knew how “wriggling your toes” helps keep circulation going.