Tag: Queen Elizabeth

  • 71-year-old Prince Charles tests positive for coronavirus

    71-year-old Prince Charles tests positive for coronavirus

    Heir to the British throne Prince Charles has tested positive for coronavirus. According to the Palace, the “Prince has been displaying mild symptoms but otherwise remains in good health and has been working from home throughout the last few days as usual.”

    A spokesman for the Clarence House also added that “It is not possible to ascertain from whom the Prince caught the virus owing to the high number of engagements he carried out in his public role during recent weeks.”

    His wife Camilla has also been tested and she does not have the virus.

    Both Charles and Camilla are self isolating at their home on the Balmoral Estate in Scotland.

    Meanwhile, the Palace also added that the Queen remains in good health and last saw the Prince on March 12.

  • Queen Elizabeth’s granddaughter Princess Beatrice is in Pakistan for a ski trip

    Queen Elizabeth’s granddaughter Princess Beatrice is in Pakistan for a ski trip

    Queen Elizabeth’s granddaughter and Prince Andrew’s daughter Princess Beatrice of York is currently in Pakistan for a skiing trip.

    According to Prime Minister Imran Khan’s official Instagram account, she met with him early Saturday morning along with Jose Maria Aznar (Former Prime Minister of Spain), Matteo Renzi (Former Prime Minister of Italy), Zia Chishti and Frederico Rigoni. Special Assistant to the PM for Overseas Pakistanis Sayed Zulfikar Bukhari and Ali Jehangir Siddiqui were also present during the meeting.

    https://www.instagram.com/p/B8lJUolH701/

    Bukhari also welcomed the entourage to Pakistan.

    A member of the British royal family, Princess Beatrice is the elder daughter of Prince Andrew, Duke of York, and Sarah, Duchess of York. She is ninth in the line of succession to the British throne, followed by her sister, Princess Eugenie. The princess is expected to get married to her fiance Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi on May 29 at Chapel Royal at St James’s Palace with a reception at Buckingham Palace afterwards.

    Beatrice’s visit comes months after the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge William and Kate visited Pakistan. The couple on their whirlwind trip to the country explored Lahore, Islamabad and Chitral.

  • Netflix’s ‘The Crown’ can’t have Prince Harry – report

    Netflix’s ‘The Crown’ can’t have Prince Harry – report

    Prince Harry doesn’t want Netflix’s ‘The Crown’ to cover his life and has said that he will stop the production of the series before they cover his life. According to the Daily Express, Royal biographer Angela Levin revealed that Harry had told her about his plans when she had met him at Buckingham Palace.

    “Well Harry, when I went to interview him at the palace, the first thing he said to me when he shook my hand was ‘Are you watching The Crown?’… “And I had been at the time and I felt very embarrassed,” she added.

    “I got up and he said, ‘I’m going to make sure I stop it before they get to me,” she said.

    Prince Harry and his wife Meghan and son Archie are no longer working members of the Royal Family

    There are rumours that Netflix would be interested in working with Harry and Meghan. According to The Daily Mail, when Netflix’s chief content officer, Ted Sarando was asked if they would be interested in working with the couple, he said, “Who wouldn’t be interested?”

    READ MORE: Ahmed Ali Butt criticises Meghan, Harry for their decision to ‘step back’ from royal duties

    On the other hand, there are also reports that Netflix will not be covering present day royals. According to The Sun, Suzanne Mackie the executive producer of ‘The Crown’ said it’s unlikely it will ever cover today’s royals. She said: “To be honest, whatever the life of The Crown is after where we are now, I doubt we’ll ever go as far into the present day.”

    The Crown is currently chronicling Prince Charles life, who is Harry’s father

    ‘The Crown’ is a Netflix series that chronicles the life of Queen Elizabeth II and is in it’s third season.

    Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have given up their royal titles to live an independent life in Canada. Latest pictures show Meghan hiking with baby Archie and Harry recently attended an event where he said that he was ‘sad‘ about the way things turned out.

    Meghan Markle, all smiles as she hikes in Canada with her son and dogs
    Harry returns to Canada after two weeks of being in England for the last of his royal engagements
  • Prince Harry is ‘sad’ over the end of his royal role

    Prince Harry is ‘sad’ over the end of his royal role

    Britain’s Prince Harry expressed his sadness at being forced to give up his royal duties in a deal with Queen Elizabeth and senior Windsors that will see him and Meghan exit official roles to seek an independent future.

    Buckingham Palace and the queen announced on Saturday that Harry and Meghan would no longer be working members of Britain’s monarchy, no longer use their “Royal Highness” titles and would now pay their own way in life, freeing them to forge new careers.

    In a speech to the Sentebale charity on Sunday, a clearly upset Harry said the final outcome was not what he and Meghan had wanted.

    “Our hope was to continue serving the queen, the Commonwealth and my military associations without public funding. Sadly that wasn’t possible,” the prince, the sixth-in-line to the throne, said.

    “I’ve accepted this knowing it doesn’t change who I am, or how committed I am. But I hope that helps you understand what it had come to, that I would step back from all I have ever known to take a step forward into what I hope can be a more peaceful life.”

    Under the arrangement, Harry will remain a prince and the couple will keep their titles of Duke and Duchess of Sussex as they begin a new life split between Britain and North America where they will spend the majority of their time. But they will not take part in any future ceremonial events or royal tours.

    Royal commentators said it amounted to an “abdication” from the “firm” — as the royals are known — and showed that, under the warm words in which she said Harry and Meghan were much loved, the queen had taken a firm and decisive line by insisting on a clean break.

    “It brings me great sadness that it has come to this,” said Harry. He said the decision to step back had followed months of talks and had not been a decision he had come to lightly. They were not walking away, he explained.

    “As far as this goes, there really was no other option,” he added.

    He told the audience at the charity he founded to help children with HIV in Africa that he wanted them to hear the truth from him “not as a Prince, or a Duke, but as Harry, the same person that many of you have watched grow up over the last 35 years but with a clearer perspective”.

    “The UK is my home and a place that I love. That will never change,” he said.

    Meghan is currently in Canada with their son Archie and Harry is expected to join her soon.

    The couple’s plans for independence, announced after a long break over the Christmas period in Canada, caught the rest of the royal family by surprise earlier this month and left the queen and other senior members hurt and disappointed, according to royal sources.

    Buckingham Palace have said the couple would no longer receive public money and that they would repay the cost of refurbishing their cottage in Windsor, which official figures show amounted to $3.1 million.

    But certain details, such as their future security arrangements or whether the couple could continue to use the “Sussex Royal” title for their website and branding, have either not been finalised or publicly revealed.

  • Queen approves of Megxit for now

    Queen approves of Megxit for now

    Queen Elizabeth II on Monday allowed Prince Harry and Meghan Markle to split their time between Canada and Britain during a “transition period” in which the family will figure out how to deal with their shock resignation from front-line royal duties.

    The monarch said she held “very constructive” talks between Harry and his older brother Prince William and their father Prince Charles aimed at charting a course through the fallout of the bombshell announcement.

    Meghan reportedly joined the conversation by phone from Canada after abruptly jetting out of Britain last week.

    The Sussex’s resignation last Wednesday came after a year filled with rumours of infighting between the brothers and reports of Meghan feeling unwelcome in the highly traditional and structured royal family.

    “My family and I are entirely supportive of Harry and Meghan’s desire to create a new life as a young family,” the 93-year-old queen said in a statement after the first day of meetings at her Sandringham estate in eastern England.

    Harry and Meghan said they wanted to “carve out a progressive new role within this institution” — a statement that some read as a slight at the way the royal family has been run under Britain’s beloved monarch.

    The monarch stressed the couple told her “they do not want to be reliant on public funds” but did not address the issue of whether they would keep their royal titles.

    Harry and Meghan are formally known as the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. Five percent of their income comes from public funds. The rest comes from Prince Charles’ Duchy of Cornwall heredity private estate. It dates back to 1337 and has officially reported assets worth £1.1 billion ($1.4 billion).

    However, the queen elaborated there were still “complex matters” for the family to sort out.

    “It has therefore been agreed that there will be a period of transition in which the Sussexes will spend time in Canada and the UK,” she said.

    According to British media, Charles was furious at Harry for making the announcement without winning the queen’s consent and had left the meeting early.

    Debates over Harry and Meghan’s future have divided British public opinion and dominated newspaper front pages for days. According to a poll, 46 percent of respondents supported their decision, while 57 percent thought they were unfair to the Queen.

    While their official plan is to continue to “fully support” the queen and honour their duties to the Commonwealth and their patronages, they want to make 2020 a transition year to carve out their new role and launch their new Sussex Royal charitable entity and seek to raise their own sources of income.

    They also want to keep their newly-renovated Frogmore Cottage home on the queen’s Windsor Castle estate as their British base.

    Meghan likes to vacation in Canada and is currently there with Archie.

    But the Daily Mail said “her real dream” was to settle alongside other celebrities in Los Angeles – “but not while President Donald Trump is in charge”, it added. Meghan and Trump are not particularly known to like each other. In wake of the Sussex’s decision, Trump commented that the couple was being unfair to the Queen.

  • Megxit: Harry, Meghan’s waxworks removed from royal family display at Madame Tussauds

    Megxit: Harry, Meghan’s waxworks removed from royal family display at Madame Tussauds

    Madame Tussauds waxwork museum has removed the figures of Prince Harry and his wife Meghan from its British royal family display, in response to the couple’s announcement that they will be stepping back from royal duties.

    The wax museum announced their move on social media with a cheeky caption.

    Madame Tussauds, which contains more than 250 wax models of celebrities, said the two figures will be placed in a separate section, away from that which includes Queen Elizabeth, Prince Philip, Prince Charles, and Prince William and his wife Kate.

    On Wednesday, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex announced that they intend to divide their time between North America and the UK to carve out a “progressive new role” and step back from their senior positions.

    According to British media, senior members of the royal family, including the Queen, Prince William and Prince Charles were disappointed by the move. Some reports suggested that the Queen was furious with Harry.

    Read more – Queen deeply upset with Harry, Meghan’s decision to quit front-line roles

    Meanwhile, Twitter users are referring to the Sussex’s decision as Megxit.

  • Queen deeply upset with Harry, Meghan’s decision to quit front-line roles

    Queen deeply upset with Harry, Meghan’s decision to quit front-line roles

    Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s bombshell resignation from front-line royal duties rocked the British monarchy, with reports suggesting Queen Elizabeth II had not been informed in advance.

    The couple said they would now “balance” their time between Britain and North America and rip up long-established relations with the press.

    In a short, terse response a short time later, a palace statement said discussions with Harry and Meghan were “at an early stage”.

    “We understand their desire to take a different approach, but these are complicated issues that will take time to work through,” the palace said.

    Media reports said the couple made their shock statement – released on their Instagram account, own website and through Buckingham Palace’s email communications system – without notifying either Harry’s grandmother, the monarch, or father, the future king Prince Charles.

    The mood in the palace was understood to be one of disappointment and even “hurt”, according the BBC.

    The decision follows a turbulent year for the pair, who have admitted to struggling in the spotlight and growing apart from Harry’s brother Prince William.

    They have also complained of negative news coverage and taken several papers to court, another unusual move.

    “We intend to step back as ‘senior’ members of the royal family and work to become financially independent, while continuing to fully support Her Majesty The Queen,” they said.

    “We have chosen to make a transition this year in starting to carve out a progressive new role within this institution.”

    Harry, 35, and Meghan, 38, are among the most senior, core members of the royal family, and, along with William and his wife Kate.

    The couple spent six weeks over Christmas in Canada after speaking of the pressure of being in the spotlight following their fairytale wedding at Windsor Castle in May 2018.

    They skipped the royal family’s traditional Christmas at Sandringham, the sovereign’s private estate in eastern England, spending the festive season instead with Meghan’s American mother Doria Ragland.

    Rumours that all was not well with the Sussexes surfaced in October when Harry, sixth in line to the throne, admitted that he and William were “on different paths” and had good and bad days in their relationship.

    “We don’t see each other as much as we used to,” Harry had said in an interview.

    The couple also said they would no longer take part in the royal rota.

    The rota system is an established arrangement between the palace and the press in which news organisations take turns covering events and then share the pictures, text and video with everyone else, avoiding the mass media scrambles of the past.

    Instead the couple will attempt to invite only “specialist”, “grassroots”, “credible” and “young, up-and-coming” media to events.