After 73 years of marriage, Queen Elizabeth II lived for almost 17 months without her
beloved husband, Prince Philip.
What effect did the loss have on the UK's longest-reigning monarch?
Then-Princess Elizabeth and Philip Mountbatten met in 1939, when he was 18 and she was only
13.
They began exchanging letters, and Philip had to do some convincing for Elizabeth's
parents, King George VI and the Queen Mother, to allow the relationship to continue.
In 1947, the couple wed.
From then on, they were often seen together, including at her coronation as queen in 1953.
"They were married for over 70 years.
He was her rock."
Prince Philip died in April 2021 at the age of 99.
Many wondered how the loss of her husband of several decades would impact Queen Elizabeth.
As royal correspondent Nicholas Witchell told the BBC, while Philip's passing was a "moment
of sadness" for the nation,
"[It was] most particularly for the queen, losing her husband of 73 years — a bigger
span of years than most of us can imagine."
Prince Philip died while COVID-19 restrictions were still in place in the United Kingdom.
Those rules applied to the royal family just like anyone else.
At Philip's funeral, members of the same household could be seated together, but others had to
sit at least two meters apart.
This meant that Queen Elizabeth was seated completely alone throughout the entire ceremony.
Prior to Philip's death, he and the queen had been in a home bubble that included themselves
and members of their household staff.
Queen Elizabeth was not permitted to join the bubble of any other family members in
time for the funeral.
Photographs of the queen mourning on her own were a stark glimpse for the public into the
coming months.
Reporters interviewed Queen Elizabeth's son, Prince Andrew, at Philip's funeral.
He discussed how his mother was feeling:
"She described it as having left a huge void in her life."
Yet the queen quickly got back to work.
Sky News reported she returned to duties just four days after the funeral.
Within a few months, her public relations workload would increase dramatically.
By the time Prince Philip died, Andrew had been mired in scandal for some time.
Court documents had connected the queen's second-youngest child to convicted pedophile
and accused trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.
A 2019 BBC interview only made things worse.
"But it would be…it would be a considerable stretch to say that he was a very, very close
friend."
In August 2021, Virginia Giuffre sued Prince Andrew in U.S. federal court, accusing him
of sexually abusing and raping her when she was only 17 years old.
Andrew settled the suit in February 2022, paying an undisclosed sum.
According to The Telegraph, the settlement amount was at least $13.8 million, and some
believe Queen Elizabeth paid the bulk of it out of the Duchy of Lancaster, which is made
up of private funds of the monarchy to which the public does not contribute.
A month before the settlement, the queen stripped Prince Andrew of his military titles and charities.
In late 2021, Buckingham Palace began to hint that Queen Elizabeth was contending with some
health concerns.
The institution stated that the queen was having an "episodic mobility issue" that required
the use of a cane from time to time.
"Well, as you can see, I can't move."
She had to back out of plans to attend the COP26 UN climate conference in Glasgow, Scotland
in October.
The queen also had to back out of a planned official royal trip to Northern Ireland and
missed the Remembrance Sunday service in November.
In the midst of the cancellations, Queen Elizabeth was briefly hospitalized in October 2021.
Buckingham Palace released a statement that read in part,
"The queen attended hospital on Wednesday afternoon for some preliminary investigations,
returning to Windsor Castle at lunchtime today, and remains in good spirits."
The queen was reportedly in such good spirits she even turned down Oldie Magazine's "Oldie
of the Year" award.
Her assistant private secretary told the publication,
"Her Majesty believes you are as old as you feel.
As such, the queen does not believe she meets the relevant criteria to be able to accept
and hopes you will find a more worthy recipient."
Queen Elizabeth came down with COVID-19 in February 2022, a few months after her hospital
stay.
Luckily, she only had to contend with a milder form of the virus.
Buckingham Palace noted that she experienced cold-like symptoms and that she was able to
carry on with most of her work while sick.
"It does leave one very tired and exhausted, doesn't it, this horrible pandemic?"
The queen was careful to hold all important meetings virtually.
At the time, there was a required isolation period of five days following a positive COVID
diagnosis, and the Palace reported that Queen Elizabeth had already received three doses
of the COVID-19 vaccine.
According to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, then-Prince Charles and his wife Camilla contracted
the virus at around the same time.
While it's unclear whether the royal family thought about the optics of Queen Elizabeth
sitting alone at Philip's funeral ahead of time, the subsequent media coverage appeared
to rattle the monarchy.
Perhaps no one was more aware of the PR implications than Queen Elizabeth herself.
In March 2022, the royal family held a celebration of life service for Prince Philip, amid rumors
that the queen had started using a wheelchair to get around.
The queen reportedly didn't want photographs of herself in the chair to be released.
Her sister, Princess Margaret, had been photographed in a wheelchair in the months leading up to
her death, and royal historian Carolyn Harris told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation
that the queen was hesitant to repeat that experience.
Harris said,
"Her decline was very evident to the public, and so it attracted some public interest and
some public sympathy."
In the final months of her life, Queen Elizabeth began to delegate more and more responsibility
to her son, Charles, and her grandson, Prince William.
In May 2022, the queen chose to skip the State Opening of Parliament, opting to have then-Prince
Charles deliver the speech in her stead.
She also asked Prince William to play a prominent role in the annual event.
Many had hoped that Elizabeth would attend the event and make the speech herself as she
had nearly every year of her reign prior, but Buckingham Palace announced the day before
she would not.
She passed away almost four months later, on September 8, 2022.