I wonder if we’ll ever find out why Queen Elizabeth was hospitalized last October, and what medical issues preceded that hospitalization, and what she’s been dealing with since then. Because that was the moment everything changed, despite the palace’s efforts to make it sound like the Queen was doing poorly immediately following Prince Philip’s passing. Immediately following Philip’s death, the Queen was super-active, attending public events and horse trials and traveling all over the place. The change happened in October when she canceled her trip to Northern Ireland at the last minute and the palace covered up her hospitalization. I bring all of this up because the palace has spent the past six months canceling the Queen’s public appearances and tamping down expectations that she will be seen anywhere other than Windsor Castle. Here’s the latest:
The public must start assuming the Queen will not attend public events, a palace source has told The Mail on Sunday. In recent months, Buckingham Palace has been forced to make several last-minute announcements that the Queen has ‘regretfully’ pulled out of engagements due to mobility issues. Under a new strategy, aides will now confirm her attendance only on the day of an event.
‘The assumption must now be that the Queen will not be present at events,’ the source said. ‘If Her Majesty does attend, it will be decided on the day and she will be accompanied by another member of the Royal Family.’
During her record-breaking 70-year reign, the Queen’s attendance at most engagements has been planned for months and often announced publicly weeks in advance. But the presence of the Monarch – who marks her 96th birthday on Thursday – will now be a bonus, rather than guaranteed. The decision means an even greater role for Prince Charles, under whose leadership – in large part – the Monarchy is effectively continuing.
Aides are hopeful the Queen will be able to attend some of the events organised to mark her 70th jubilee in person, although it is expected these will be few in number.
Yikes, it sounds like the Queen’s health is declining rapidly. Although, I’ll admit, this could be just an acknowledgement from the palace courtiers that their strategy for the past six months hasn’t worked, that they need to stop pressuring the Queen to “show up” for all of these “important” events. The memorial service was a great example of that – they hyped that too much, to the point where if the Queen didn’t go to it, people would have felt like the end was coming within days. I also wonder how much of this is simply the Queen not wanting to be seen in a wheelchair too.
Meanwhile, the Queen knows that the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge f–ked up royally (lol) on their Flop Tour, which is why the Queen is leaning more on Charles, Anne, Edward and Sophie these days:
The Queen is turning to stalwart royals like Sophie Wessex and Princess Anne to bolster the monarchy’s image after William and Kate’s tour of the Caribbean, a royal branding expert has claimed. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s intense eight-day long tour around Belize, Jamaica and the Bahamas saw the couple face backlash after encountering tensions in the Caribbean nations. Their trip was plagued by public relations gaffes and protests about British colonialism, which led to the endeavour being branded ‘tone deaf’ to modern sensibilities.
In the wake of the criticism, Her Majesty is reportedly turning to ‘relatively scandal and misstep-free’ royals to drum up support for the Royal Family ahead of the Platinum Jubilee. Royal branding expert Cele Otnes claimed that after failing to generate ‘fervour’ for the monarchy, the Queen is putting her trust in her children to ‘help fulfil her roles and to build excitement for the Jubilee’.
‘The Wessexes, along with Princess Anne and her family, have been relatively scandal and misstep-free’, she told the Express. ‘ And it’s significant that they are visiting the Caribbean so soon after William and Kate. ‘I think that does display quite a bit of trust in them on the Queen’s part.’
I genuinely wonder if the Cambridges will be sent on another kind of tour like the Chaotic Colonialist Flop Tour ever again. The Queen and Prince Charles really saw how poorly William and Kate travel, and how incapable they are. Best to just keep the Keens as the “in-house” idiots and send them around the UK.
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😂 those two imbeciles can’t even go to the corner without screwing up.. I don’t think sending the boring ones ( Sophie and Edward) will change the sentiment that has been long growing in the Caribbean. They should just accept that and work towards reparations and strengthening those allies in a different capacity.
It won’t because they won’t be able to generate any headlines. As for william and kate, i think that under charles they’ll be regulated to only visits in the UK and Ireland. And maybe the occasional trip to mainland Europe. It’s obvious he doesn’t trust them enough to not f up.
imagine what it will be like when william is king and no one to stop him.
@goofpuff – Will is so work shy that nobody will have to stop him.
@Eurydice he wants the admiration and press so if he pompously thinks some events or tours may give him that, he will impose himself on everyone and the staff can’t stop him. We all know he thinks he’s a PR genius and any screw up is not his fault!
I see your point – like his idea of taking the US by storm with Earthshot. But I think he might find that being actual king is less flexible than just being FFK.
Pretty sure these royal tours are at the request of HM’s government–meaning, the Home Office or some other cabinet-level parliamentarian body. William can’t just up & impose himself on a country.
This is all about not wanting the Queen in a wheelchair. It’s interesting that nobody in the press has asked how she gets around Windsor Castle. She has to be using some mobility aid at home. The Palace could have used this as a teachable moment for the country about disability and also aging. The Queen is not going be seen again at this rate. The press and royalists always tell us the Royals’ role is to highlight issues. We’ll here’s one inside their own bubble and they refuse to do their job.
+1
Yeah i think they are simply not being truthful about her health. It could be a mobility issue and mostly likely that is definitely one of the things she’s suffering from. But i think she’s genuinely ill. And wakes up most mornings feeling terrible and unable to leave the house.
For someone her age, I suspect the relative inactivity forced by the original Covid lockdowns was a detriment, and simply because of that she may have been unlikely to resume the type of schedule she had previously. Combine this with the emotional impact of Philip’s decline, and the fact that he was relocated so he was actually living with her at Windsor during that time. Plus, more than one commenter (including me) suspect the bruising seen on TQ’s legs in particular may indicate she’s on blood thinners (possible cardiac issues). And then, the bout with Covid. She may or may not be desperately ill, but if she’s a shadow of her former self of three or four years ago, it’s not a surprise. She’ll be 96 this week. That the palaces can’t be truthful with the public about what’s going on is ridiculous. We’ll see if anything changes after the Jubbly celebration, when they no longer have to focus on her being out there on the balcony.
@windyriver: My dad had a (very minor) stroke last spring. Mentally he’s fine, but he is now on blood thinners and he needs to use a walker. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if TQ had something like that last fall.
To my dad, the walker is an annoyance but not a big deal. He’s as active as he wants to be (Covid restrictions notwithstanding). But apparently TQ would rather be nonexistent in public than to be seen to have to rely on any kind of mobility aid.
@harpervalleypta – I’m glad to hear your dad was able to (mostly) recover from his stroke. Something similar happened to my mom; it was scary for everyone but we were also fortunate she was able to recover.
I was responding to @Chloe’s comment above about TQ maybe waking up most mornings feeling physically terrible. And my point about an impact of the Covid lockdown (among other things I mentioned) referred to a very possible decline in her overall fitness, since she was no longer on such an active schedule. Older people don’t necessarily get that fitness back without an active (therapy) program. That’s why it’s not great for seniors to spend much time in a hospital, why a hospital stay is often followed by a stay in rehab, and why there may also be a mental decline in susceptible people as well. Not to mention, a blood thinner may not be the only (cardiac) medication TQ is on, and depending on her problem, could cause tiredness.
TQ has actually appeared in public using an aid, a cane. Whether she has an issue using more than that in public is something we don’t know. However, it’s clear – especially given that hospital stay last year – that she does have medical issues, which the RF is not being open and truthful about, and that’s my main point.
There was a report about her using a very expensive golf cart at the palace. You can’t use yourself as an example of people dealing with weakness if you believe you are superior and above other people and their weaknesses.
@equality: that’s so true.
There was a photo recently of the in-house golf cart rolling on carpeted castle floors.
@tuille Cool to be Queen and have a residence large enough to ride around in a golf cart. Funny though when the media acts as if H&M live so privileged with a house (containing many bathrooms) they paid for themselves.
Weren’t there some stories about her using a fancy golf cart?
@mattielove: Yes but that was for her to move around the grounds. I very much doubt she using a golf cart inside the property.
Amy Bee – perhaps it’s a very fancy golf cart and the hallways are really wide? 🤔
It could be that she is the one refusing to use a wheelchair. If it were up to the staff, maybe they’d be OK with it. But she gave her ill sister a hard time for using one, so I could see her being stubborn about it.
She might be using a walker – much better than a cane if there are balance issues. But I think it could also be that royal appearances are long and tiring – everyone wants to see the Queen and that takes time.
@eurydice: Then a wheelchair is her best option.
I wonder if this is part of the old belief that the monarch must not show weakness of any sort, like the belief in the infallibility of the Pope and because of that no Pope should criticise or condemn what previous popes have done because it challenges that ideology?
If that’s the case then even the Catholic church has shown more vestiges of evolution in comparison to the monarchy. Hasn’t Pope Francis condemned the past actions of the church in some issues and even issued apologies?
This really was a chance for the queen to make a valuable connection with the British population and possibly garner more sympathy and empathy for herself and Charles if he was seen escorting around while she was wheelchair bound. Don’t they want some extra positive publicity? They could have spun this so well.
@ Amy Bee, well Betty better get her girdle going because the taxpayers have paid handsomely for a Fakata Jubbly, so she better head to PT or some such support for her mobility issues.
Get to it Betty!!! The venue has been booked and there are no refunds!!!
She uses a golf cart.
I don’t know if it’s about the wheelchair, or if she has some kind of other health problem.
I mean she is in her ’90s if she has some kind of dementia issue, or the fact she has lost her husband: at that age losing the spouse can take a major tool.
Someone here mentionend the Catholic Church: i remember clearly how John Paul two was giving speech at the balcony even at the end of his life, and the last time the world saw him he couldn’t speak because of Parkinson, at the time I thought it was unfair, he died few weeks later. So I don’t know.
What I know is that Charles &co is totally unfit to be king.
They don’t know how to be modern.
If they can’t carry out a commonwealth royal tour without making it such a spectacular failure, how can William be expected to be king of the commonwealth?!?! “We’ll just keep them home in the U.K.” Okay, but he’s supposed to be King one day…👀
By the time William ascends to the throne, the Commonwealth will be only the UK, so I think the strategy makes sense.
Exactly.
I’ve caught a couple of episodes of Old Enough on Netflix. It showed several 3-4 year old children going alone to the market, running other errands with more grace and charm, care and kindness than W&K managed with their decades of grooming and experience.
Anne, Sophie and Ed have had scandals. They are just such unexciting people and were covered less by the media so nobody remembers their “missteps” constantly. How do you expect to upgrade your reputation if their are issues with the future actual leaders?
Do l care about those idiots? I only have contempt for them.
So these people are worthless to you and yet you don’t even know them. I agree that their actions have not been in the best light of the royal family but having contempt for them is a stretch.
The way they treated their suicidal, pregnant sister in law is beyond contempt. So there’s that.
only if you haven’t been paying attention. the colonial cosplay flop tour alone should be enough. bigging up the pedo prince. refusing to place Harry’s wreath at the Cenotaph. yanking security from the Sussexes. hell, yanking Diana’s security which led directly to her death! I could go on and on. they are terrible people.
Wow, W&K really did pee on the carpet, didn’t they? Bad dogs, bad – you’ll have to stay outside until you learn to behave. But, I think if TQ wants to avoid more scandal and misstep, she might want to keep Andrew outside, too.
A rogue Andrew might be even worse, unless Charles can cut him out completely, and I think it’s pretty clear that won’t happen so long as the queen lives.
If Andrew weren’t basically grounded at royal lodge right now, we can bet he’d be straight back into the arms of whichever oligarch, international criminal, or shady investor can offer him a yacht or chalet to live out the kind of life he believes he is owed.
Until it’s clear that he has no information, access, or privileges to offer anyone, he’s a dangerous liability. Better to keep him in the tent, I think, essentially under house arrest. But maybe Chuck should do something about his social media accounts. Parental controls?
If the DM story about the Queen leaning on Sophie etc to carry the family is true then they’re admitting that their future is doomed.
Yes, that is an excellent take on TQ choosing Sofiesta, Anne and Edward to shore up the reputation of the family! It will be mildly entertaining to see Sofiesta out in one of the Caribbean islands as she dances with the locals! That would be quite a sight!!
ED “dad” dancing would be *painfully* funny to see!! And them dancing *together* showing “affection”? HAHAHAHAHAAHA (BREATH) HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHA!!!
There’s a strange amount of denial going on here about her health. I’m in Scotland for the next three years for work and it’s just so odd to me that people won’t accept that she’s clearly been disabled by long covid.
Also as for the royal tours in the Caribbean, I feel like it should be obvious to them that a lot of the backlash has stemmed from them revealing themselves to be a very racist bunch. I don’t think there’s any coming back from that.
Agreed on all points.
What exactly is long Covid? Being unable to pass the virus for a long time or the long term effects of the virus regardless of how long you had it? I keep seeing this term on Twitter but don’t really understand it.
In some, the virus can cause permanent damage, even if the symptoms were minor in the beginning. Lungs, brain, heart, can all be affected, long after the virus is no longer active. In more extreme cases, organ transplants are the only way to recover. But mild cases can bite you in the ass too. Chronic fatigue, breathing issues, heart damage, brain fog, etc. And no one yet knows if the damage keeps progressing over the long-term.
@Steph, obviously there’s still a lot to learn, but some people who have had Covid seem to have lasting adverse effects. I personally know a couple people who have long-term fatigue/ respiratory issues, and someone with a child under ten who went from playing soccer twice a week to unable to focus and have enough energy to get through the school day after h
they got over the virus. It’s scary stuff.
I have also read about people whose nervous system has been damaged, hair/teeth falling out, and brain fog.
Don’t know if that’s what is going on with QE, but wouldn’t surprise me if she’s still feeling the effects.
This feels less like the people around the Queen acknowledging they were wrong to push her out for so many events, but maybe the soft regency becoming more of a reality. It’s interesting that the Wessexes are mentioned, though, as Charles has been pointedly not including them in his “slimmed down” monarchy. But somebody will need to attend events on the monarchy’s behalf in the coming years, and it’s pretty obvious William and Kate ain’t it.
I wouldn’t be surprised if she passes this year. She’s very old after all and really has been declining steadily for the last 2 years. I noticed her weight loss around 18 months ago or so. I do think it’s an image thing, but as someone said above, I do think she’s really declining and is ill.
I have said the monarchy won’t last past Charles and if it does, it for sure won’t survive William. Can you imagine? Ugh
These fools ran off two of the most dynamic and impactful royals they had in Harry and Meghan. Fools.
Fools indeed. But the fools are jealous.
yes. no matter how hard rags like the Daily Mail try, they just can’t help but highlight the contrast between the two articulate, kind, charismatic and joyful people at Invictus with the dour, gormless bunch of tw*ts marching to church. They can’t say anything about Kate except what she is wearing, mostly because she doesn’t *DO* anything. She’s little more than a paper doll.
I too wonder if QEII will last till the Jubbly. Hard telling at this point.
Susan, but, but, but Kate’s perfect and never puts a foot wrong!!!!! If there was any misteps during the tour it must be because her hubby was in the wrong. After all, everyone wanted to see her cause play the overlord in her expensive and over the top wardrobe. I have no doubt that someone will be headed to the Tower of London for writing “Her Majesty is reportedly turning to ‘relatively scandal and misstep-free’ royals”.
(Yes, said with heavy sarcasm.) (No, I doubt that she knows that people aren’t sent to the Tower any longer. She had to ask about faberge eggs.)
But can they just deploy the Lamebridges within the UK without fallout?! Ireland (COVID gaffes), Scotland (COVID choo choo tour over government objections) are still fresh on our minds. These two are hopeless.
ETA — I forgot WALES when Khate went around shaking bugs in peoples’ faces. 😣
At some point, the Cambridges won’t be welcome outside of the home counties.
@Jay! 😂
Plus that England-Italy football game where they kinda pissed off both sides by being such sore losers…
My inner conspiracy theorist personality wouldn’t be surprised if the Keenbridges were happy the tour was a disaster if it means they won’t be asked to do long haul trips again. It will mean even less “work” in the future which they will see as being good news.
I can’t imagine Will failed intentionally in order to get less work/tours. First of all, IMO, he hates failing, he always remembers that he is a future(future) King therefore he is the best.
Secondly, he is longing for adoration and popularity, if not sincere and spontanious then organized. Usually he got this on tours.
Thirdly, it’s too complicated intrigue for Will to plan. In order to plan this he had to understand the reaction of the others to his words and actions – I don’t believe he is capable.
One more note – their reaction to black/brown people was instinctive, not planned, especially of his not so bright wife.
+1
I think it’s important to realize that this tour showed us the best that they were capable of. The BEST. Meantime, look at events in the Hague this weekend. As hard as the tabloids tried, they could not dull the shine of H&M, caring, kind people who can show love and real charity. It’s quite a contrast, isn’t it?
She’s almost 96, it makes sense to deploy the “we’ll wait till day of” strategy. Frankly, it should have been done a few years back. And the Wessexes have to be used by Charles because they’re the only working royals below the age of 75 that actually work.
Rather unwise to build months and months of events and closer to the date, weeks of events to celebrate a 95 year old monarch’s reign.
What is it going to look like when she is (and even that’s a maybe) only able to attend a single “jubilee” event? Will it even be the one on the balcony? What a farce it will look to the world if the invalid queen makes it to none of her own events.
Yeah, that was my thought when I saw this headline. So glad there’s a whole multi-day celebration planned for a woman who might attend ONE of the events.
Really, at this point it might actually be a better look if she DOES die before the day of and it turns into weeks of memorials and mourning for a beloved Queen.
At least if she’s dead you don’t expect her to attend…or conversely, if she’s dead you can be absolutely CERTAIN she is in attendance.
I guess mental health really is just lip service to the BRF. The Queen lost her spouse of over 70 years a year ago. Regardless of the nature of their relationship, they were partners for most of their lives and losing that someone leaves a great void in your life. I can’t imagine how she must feel. I lost my husband of 40 years a year ago and the mental and physical journey I’ve been on since then is at times overwhelming. The grief can be unimaginable at times. It just seems that “Elizabeth” has not been allowed to mourn her loss and just process the grief of losing her life partner because she’s required to be the “The Queen.”
I’m so sorry for your loss.
My heart hurts reading about your loss – I hope your journey gets less painful as the days go by.
Thank you for your kind thoughts and words.❤️
I bet she was diagnosed with congestive heart failure. And on top of stiff joints, the edema in her legs caused by the heart failure, makes it hard for her to walk. I bet she is on Lasix and a blood thinner. Maybe even complicated by takotsubo caused by Phillip’s passing. They prob don’t know til the morning of, because it depends on how much extra fluid she is carrying around that day. If they give her extra Lasix to get rid of the edema, she would have to pee every 20 min, which would be awkward at a public event.
I’ve said this repeatedly, you can tell in her public appearances that she’s not entirely lucid any more, or at least not consistently. Some of it maybe age, some from probably being on a whole buffet of medications like most super elderly people. And as others have commented, and I know from my own elderly relatives, there can be real bladder control/incontinence issues at that age, like we are rushing as fast as you can with a person that needs a walker to find the closest restroom and hope it’s not occupied because we are in the verge of an accident. Literally have pleaded for people to exit a stall. That would make it really difficult to plan some lengthy event where the person is the focus of attention.
That’s what Depends are for.
Yep, my elderly mom wore them constantly, even attending my niece’s wedding ceremony.
The lack of transparency about the head of state’s health (both physical and mental) would be a huge issue in any other nation. Especially if the head of state was 96. Oh, wait! I forgot. Other countries don’t have 96 year old heads of state. For good reason.
The Palace should have issued a proper statement about The Queen handing over most of her public duties, instead of just making reasons up as the go along. Why should a 95 year old keep up with the level of public appearances she was doing a decade or two ago.
My guess would be that she realizes that Chuck is relatively unpopular and the Cambridges are obviously unfit to carry out any duties without offending someone or acting like twits. It’s really a bad look since Chuck has been preparing for his future role his whole life but, I think, Liz sees the shitshow that was Sussexit (with the accompanying downright racism re: Meghan and Archie, stripping security from them, outing their location etc.) as well as the public’s awareness of the criminaity and denunciation of her beloved Pedrew, and she figures that she’s the only stabilizing force that is keeping the Monarchy afloat. She has no faith in her heirs as they are terrible, self-serving people without morals who will sink her beloved House of Windsor the second she leaves the Palace. And she’s probably right.
If she plans on staying in charge though, she needs to be seen as being productive or else the British public will wonder what the Sovereign Grant is paying for. Methinks, a motorized wheelchair may be the answer.
Isn’t October when the Queen strained her back? Or shortly after they announced that? My guess is she had a fall in October, it’s right around the time she started using a cane in public. And maybe she was on the ground for a few hours (especially if it happened at night). This recently happened to my own grandparents. My grandmother fell on her way to the bathroom or her bedroom, don’t know which. My grandfather who was already in bed tried to get up (he can’t walk anymore, period) to get to her and he also fell. They were on the ground for a few hours and they don’t live in a nursing home, they live in just a regular apartment. Finally my grandfather started shouting and the super woke up in the middle of the night and was finally able to call emergency services to help them. My grandparents have emergency medical bracelets but of course neither of them were wearing theirs at the time.
My guess is the Queen was hospitalized overnight due to a bad fall throwing out her back and ever since she hasn’t been the same, canceling appearances last minute. Her bout with covid-19 has probably made her even more frail. A fall at that age always precipitates the ageing process–a fairly active healthy senior’s health usually takes a turn for the worse by a sudden fall. She is declining and I get that she deserves her privacy and we don’t need up a daily update on her decline, that’s too morbid. But there’s no sense in trying to cover up that a 95 year old woman is slowly dying.
I suspect that she has had some compression fractures in her spine. old people don’t “throw their back out”, the bones disintegrate. This affects mobility, causes pain and of course, is not a reversible process. but there’s no way she would have been on the ground for more than a minute. there are too many people in her space at all times for that. Her mother lived to be what-101, 102? But I don’t think that she will last out the year. maybe not even to the Jubbly. But it’s telling that she won’t retire. Speaks volumes about how much she trusts her son.
I think it’s also because Queen Elizabeth made a promise that she takes quite seriously: that her “whole life” will be one of service. While she may have concerns about Charles and beyond, I think it’s a point of honor for her to keep her vow as best she can.
I agree that we are in the last days of Elizabeth.
Accompanied by a family member. Yep this is where Andrew is eased back into the public eye as the steady strong support of an aging queen. See, the queen depends on him so he can’t be bad!
Excuse me as I go vomit.
I am beginning to disagree that this has anything to do with TQ not wanting to be seen in a wheelchair; I think her health is a lot more fragile and her days are getting a lot less predictable. There might be a degree of confusion, for example, or dietary issues.
She vowed publicly when she was young to stick with the job for the rest of her life. It would be far more dignified for her to openly retire now & let Chuck ascend.
I wonder if they are going to pull back on the Jubilee events. It would be more conspicuous of the Queen’s health for a huge tadoo than to do a couple of events and Trooping of the Color.
I love the way they are making it sound as though ‘the public’ has out of nowhere formed the unreasonable assumption that the Queen will be attending a particular event. People think she will be at ‘Event A’ because the palace are TELLING them she will be there.
Definitely agree that her time is winding down. Honestly, between the visit with Harry & Meg, and the rest of the family at Easter, I wouldn’t be surprised if it was very soon. Some people hold out long enough to say their goodbyes and then, just accept the natural course of things.
Agree. I noticed the majority of the royals packed up and left Windsor only yesterday. They stayed through Monday. Is that normal? My guess is they are spending more time with her since she’s declining rapidly and with H&M’s unannounced drop in, it makes it seem more the case. I wouldn’t be surprised if she passes before summer officially arrives. They could be keeping the state of her true health secret a PR move. I could see them using this as a way to garner sympathy and more support for the monarchy if she passes unexpectedly. The mourning will be enormous and in their mind, will shore up more support for the monarchy to continue. Nostalgia and all. Wouldn’t surprise me with these people. The Royal machine is shrewd.
Another Royal PR team failure. After Phillip’s death, they should have toned down the emphasis on the Jubilee. They didn’t allow the Queen ample time to overcome her grief and deal with her deteriorating health. I suspect it was Charles’ eagerness to step into the spotlight.
Pure chaos emerged. It seemed like a rush to get so much done in such a short period. There were announcements concerning Commonwealth Tours, a multi-million-pound payoff, a full calendar of events commencing June, book releases, walker or wheelchair decisions, and anti-Sussex commentaries.
The Queen’s mental and physical health is failing. From this day forward, they will need to spin new stories regularly. Harry and Meghan’s surprise visit is the key to the truth.