Did Queen Victoria really marry her beloved servant John Brown, or was it a 'misogynistic' rumour? The Mail's Robert Hardman and historian Kate Williams explore the pair's VERY intimate relationship i

He was the strapping Highlander with a face 'hewn from granite', and she was the grieving monarch in the depths of misery. The relationship between Queen Victoria and her beloved servant John Brown, who was her close companion after the death of her husband Prince Albert, has been the subject of intrigue for well over a century. In the Mail's new podcast, columnist and royal biographer Robert Hardman and historian Professor Kate Williams examine how Brown's relationship with Victoria blossomed over more than two decades. John Brown became Queen Victoria's most trusted servant after the death of Prince Albert Victoria initially became close with Brown after she and Albert took over the lease of Balmoral in 1848. Scurrilous newspaper columns started to refer to the monarch as 'Mrs Brown', a name that became the title of the 1997 film starring Judi Dench as the Queen and Billy Connolly as her beloved servant Brown was by the side of Queen Victoria for more than 20 years John Brown stands next to Queen Victoria's carriage she prepares to step off it at Windsor to review 52,000 volunteers, 1881.