During her 70-year reign as Britain’s longest-serving monarch, Queen Elizabeth II often presented to most of the world as a strong and fearless leader.

However, when she wasn’t focused on her duties to the crown, those around her could get a glimpse of her kind and warm nature.

‘A PERSON THAT ENJOYED LIFE’

Among countless politicians the Queen met during her time, former prime minister Jean Chretien said her admiration for the people of the Commonwealth shined best through her kindness.

Chretien told CTV’s Your Morning the only other person he’s seen receive the same adoration from crowds was Nelson Mandela.

“It was an aura of respect and admiration that people had when she would appear,” he said on Friday. “She was a fantastic monarch and everyone recognized her as such around the globe.”

Chretien recalled how the Queen loved to laugh, and showed that despite her responsibilities to the crown, she was still a human being.

“She was a great human being; she was the monarch but she was a person that enjoyed life,” he said.

DEVOTED MATRIARCH

British filmmaker John Bridcut, who made several documentaries on the Royal Family, said the Queen was a working mother of four throughout the 1940s and 1960s, and it was considered unusual for a matriarch of her social status to juggle both roles.

“Like many professional women find today, there's quite a strain between the amount of time you can give your children and the amount of time you need to give to your work. So I think it was difficult for her and for the children,” Bridcut told CTV’s Your Morning on Friday.

While raising children while on the throne might have been difficult, Bridcut said the Queen was able to give more affection to her grandchildren and great-grand children as the years went on.

“When she became a grandmother she found she could be warm to her grandchildren and she had more time for them,” he said. “She’s always had that real affection for babies but it was different when it was her own children.”

DINNER WITH THE QUEEN

Former prime minister Brian Mulroney also shared one of his fondest memories of Queen Elizabeth II during his term in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Mulroney told CTV’s Your Morning about the time the Queen visited him and his wife Mila for a state dinner. However, what started off as a formal dinner quickly became a family gathering.

“We were going to have a small dinner on a Sunday night at 24 Sussex drive and she expressed that she'd like to have the kids included,” Mulroney said on Friday.

He said his four children were all stunned to see the Queen in their dining room but throughout the dinner she assured them by engaging in conversation like she would with any other important political figure.

“We had a huge family dinner and I said to Mila, you know the Queen she's a lovely person and she said, ‘why’ and I said ‘because she paid as much attention to the kids as she would to the chancellor.’”