Makeup artist Mary Greenwell was ‘flattered’ to work with Margaret Thatcher

Makeup artist Mary Greenwell has said she was “flattered” when she was asked to work with then-prime minister Margaret Thatcher.

Greenwell, who has worked with the likes of singer David Bowie, Princess Diana and actress Cate Blanchett, said she built up a good relationship with the late Conservative politician while doing her makeup for a BBC interview about the miners’ strikes.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs, she said of the Iron Lady: “She was phenomenal – whether you liked her or not, she was still a phenomenal woman.

“Was I nervous? Probably a bit, yes, let’s face it, but you know, quite flattered to be doing this woman’s makeup.

“It was actually for a BBC broadcast about the coal miners strike, and I was taken into her sitting room in 10 Downing Street, her private sitting room, and told to set up, and then I could hear this booming voice coming down the stairs, thinking: ‘Oh my goodness, I’m a bit nervous now.’

“In walked Margaret Thatcher. I had the most amazing two hours with her … she was so kind and sweet to me, and we talked about Carol (Thatcher’s daughter), who was the same age as me, and she was very interested in how I felt emotionally.”

Greenwell also spoke about working with Diana, who she befriended and was eventually invited to have lunch with, saying she was “not in any way in awe” of her when she first did her makeup.

She added: “I used to go and see her sometimes, just because she wanted to see me, and so I used to go down there and sit with her and do her makeup and have fun.

“And one time I went down there for the sake of it, I think it really was just for the sake of it, to have a lovely morning with her, and she said: ‘Do you want to stay for lunch?’

“I went: ‘Sure, OK’, so in her dining room at Kensington Palace, there was a lovely great big round table, I was so honoured.

“And so I had lunch at the dining table with the prime minister and other people of super importance, and there I was just sitting there having the best time.”

Greenwell also spoke about her work with Bowie, describing him as “quite an important person in my life”.

Greenwell said: “I met him with Iman (Bowie’s wife) down in South Africa with Bruce Weber and Grace Coddington when we were shooting Vogue with Iman, and then we got on so well.

“So I toured with him in America, and he was the easiest, most relaxed person in the world, and I absolutely adored him, just no ego.

“I mean, he was just a really intelligent man, and to be sitting with him in his apartment in New York Central Park, looking out over the park with him there was just like an experience of a lifetime.”

Bowie’s Heroes, Bob Dylan’s Lay Lady Lay and Lou Reed’s Walk On The Wild Side were among the records chosen by Greenwell on Desert Island Discs.

The full interview can be heard on the episode which airs at 10am on Sunday on BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds.

Published: 19/10/2025 by Radio NewsHub