Queen Elizabeth's birthday will look a bit different this year.
Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and the recent passing of her devoted husband of 73 years, Prince Philip, the queen will celebrate her 95th birthday this week with a scaled-down get-together.
A royal source tells BAZAAR.com that the queen is expected to spend time with a small group of family members on Wednesday to celebrate her birthday. Another palace source confirms that due to Philip's passing, a new birthday portrait of the monarch will not be released to the public, as her official mourning period continues until this Friday. The queen, along with other members of the royal family—including Prince Charles and his sons, Princes William and Harry—came together on Saturday to honor the life of the Duke of Edinburgh with an official funeral ceremony.
Further, a spokesperson for Britain's Ministry of Defense confirms that the traditional gun salutes, which take place at Hyde Park and the Tower of London to mark the queen's birthday, will not happen for the second year in a row. (The tradition took an initial pause last year due to the start of national COVID-19 lockdowns across the United Kingdom.) The queen's annual summertime birthday celebration, known as Trooping the Colour, will also not take place this year.
Though the queen will not be taking part in any public royal engagements in the coming weeks, she will still be working from home. The monarch will personally respond to messages from world leaders who expressed their condolences over the duke's passing. Prince William, Duchess Kate, and Prince Charles are also expected to respond to global figures who reached out after Philip's passing with correspondence being sent out via Kensington Palace and Clarence House.
Bianca Betancourt is the culture editor at HarpersBAZAAR.com, where she covers all things film, TV, music, and more. When she's not writing, she loves impulsively baking a batch of cookies, re-listening to the same early-2000s pop playlist, and stalking Mariah Carey's Twitter feed.
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