Taking it easy. Prince Charles revealed how his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, is feeling after her absence from the annual Remembrance Day celebration.
“She’s alright, thank you very much,” the 73-year-old royal told Sky News while attending an event in Jordan on Wednesday, November 17. “Once you get to 95, it’s not quite as easy as it used to be.”
The Prince of Wales then quipped, “It’s bad enough at 73.”
Charles’ update on the 95-year-old monarch comes shortly after she was forced to miss the Sunday, November 14, service honoring fallen veterans at London’s Cenotaph memorial due to a sprained back. At the time, Buckingham Palace noted in a statement that the queen was “disappointed” to skip the event.
Elizabeth previously canceled a number of public appearances last month on the recommendation of her doctors. On October 20, she was briefly hospitalized but was sent home after being monitored overnight. She returned to work right away, much to the concern of her loved ones.
“They’d been urging her to take it easy for months,” a source told Us Weekly exclusively earlier this month, adding that the queen received “a huge bouquet of flowers” from Prince William‘s wife, Duchess Kate.
The long-reigning royal “hates people fussing over her” and is “not a quitter,” but began “handing over some of her duties” to Charles and William, 39, while she recovered, the insider said.
Elizabeth’s eldest son is first in line for the throne, with the Duke of Cambridge following behind him. When his father, Prince Philip, died at age 99 in April, Charles inherited the late royal’s Duke of Edinburgh title. The honor will likely be passed down once again once Charles becomes king, which he’s long been preparing for.
“This is something he’s dreamed about his entire life — he sees it as his birthright, and Her Majesty would find it extremely difficult to deprive him of that,” a source told Us in November 2020, noting that “Charles will serve as king with [his wife] Duchess Camilla by his side.”
William, for his part, has ideas of his own for when he’s the one in charge. “While he respects protocol, he plans to modernize some aspects and is making it his mission to be more relatable than previous generations,” a separate insider noted earlier this year. “He takes his future role as King and seriously and sees it as a great honor and privilege to be in his position. The Monarchy and his family will always come first.”
