Queen Elizabeth birthday
Queen Elizabeth and Philip in solitary confinement in Windsor Castle will replace the traditional family celebration with private video calls.
Her Majesty and her consort Philip in solitary confinement at Windsor Castle will have to replace the traditional family party with a series of private video calls. Like most mere mortals in these pandemic times, Queen Elizabeth II will be forced to celebrate her birthday in total isolation – the 94th, which will fall on Tuesday 21 April – , as she and Prince Philip have been locked up in Windsor Castle for long before Easter and will be there for a long time.
Which means that the usual family party (last year there were sixteen) will be replaced by a virtual party, but strictly private, with calls and video calls of children and grandchildren to the sovereign for the traditional rite wishes, while royal security has been working for weeks to find a secure video conferencing system, so that the whole house can be reunited.
It is no coincidence that Prince William revealed that the various members of the royal family talk to each other every day online and that there is a group on Zoom (the most popular video chat app of the moment) to allow Princes George, Charlotte and Louis to see and talk to the Queen and his wife.
According to the Sun, William (who is in Anmer, Norfolk) keeps in touch with his father Charles (who is in Birkhall, Scotland) through FaceTime, while Prince Harry and his wife Meghan Markle, who now live in Los Angeles, use Zoom to talk to the various charities they support. In addition to the missed birthday party, this year Her Majesty will also do without – but in this case by her explicit request – the 41 blank cannons that are fired on the Groud Parade in Hyde Park and it is the first time in 68 years of reign.