How Queen Elizabeth Is Spending Her 94th Birthday While in Lockdown

Queen Elizabeth is celebrating her 94th birthday on Tuesday while in lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The monarch is spending it privately at Windsor Castle, where she is isolating alongside her husband, Prince Philip, 98, amid the outbreak.

Queen Elizabeth is scaling down her birthday celebrations this year. The monarch has requested that there be no special gun salutes to mark her birthday, which is usually celebrated with army cannons being fired in some of the Royal Parks in central London and elsewhere. It is thought that it’s the first time in her reign that the salutes have not taken place.

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The Queen’s official birthday celebration of Trooping the Colour in June has also been cancelled and there are no current plans for any alternative way of marking her birthday.

While the Queen and Philip are isolating away from their children and grandchildren, they’ve been staying in touch via video calls.

“We’ve been talking to all the family online. And it’s been a really good way of keeping in touch and seeing each other,” Prince William told the BBC.

Prince William says the royal family is intensely aware of the vulnerability of his grandmother and grandfather during this time.

“I think very carefully about my grandparents who are, you know, at the age they’re at, and we’re doing everything we can to make sure that they’re, you know, isolated away and protected from this,” he told the BBC. “But it does worry me, you know, what’s going to happen to a lot of the vulnerable people and the high-risk people who are going to potentially have to isolate away for quite some time, and the impact that’s going to have on them and on families up and down the country having to do that.”

William added, “The family are getting a little bit more used to be able to contact each other and pressing the right buttons and not dropping the computer halfway through.”

But his son Prince Louis, who turns 2 on Thursday, has gotten into the habit of disconnecting the calls!

“For some reason, he sees the red button and he always wants to press the red button,” William said.

On April 5, Queen Elizabeth made a rare televised address amid the pandemic, expressing her gratitude for the efforts people are taking to stop the spread of the virus and acknowledged the severe challenges being faced by families across the world.

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“Together we are tackling this disease, and I want to reassure you that if we remain united and resolute, then we will overcome it,” she said. “I hope in the years to come everyone will be able to take pride in how they responded to this challenge. And those who come after us will say the Britons of this generation were as strong as any. That the attributes of self-discipline, of quiet good-humoured resolve and of fellow-feeling still characterise this country.”