Throughout her long and enduring life that spanned a total of 96 years, Queen Elizabeth II was a devoted and comforting presence to both the nation and to the royal family. Even as the world continued to turn, with everything from natural disasters and global conflicts, through to technological advances and milestone discoveries, shaping the world around us, her late majesty continued to provide a source of stability and reassurance to the people around her. Yet even the Queen herself knew that she wouldn’t be present forever, and just four months before her death had even predicted that great change was on the horizon, when she admitted: “I have lived long enough to know things never remain quite the same for very long. Events and situations change with startling speed.” Since her death on September 8, 2022, a number of changes have rocked the Royal family including a blistering feud between Princes William and Harry, along with the cancer diagnoses of King Charles and the Princess of Wales to name just a few of the obstacles that have been swiftly navigated. It is these two diagnoses that would have most concerned the Queen, who like any doting parent and grandmother, would want the best for her relatives. READ MORE: Three people remained at late Queen’s bedside as she died – but only one royal “It was a double whammy of bad news affecting two of those closest to her, so it would have upset her terribly had she still been alive,” royal commentator Duncan Larcombe told OK! “But I think she would have been extremely proud of how they’ve both handled things. The Queen always had that ‘keep calm and carry on’ work ethic, and we’ve really seen that continue with the King. He has kept going, and you get the impression he’s been doing as much as he physically can. I wonder if his doctors might privately be a bit annoyed that he hasn’t rested as much as he could have.” Echoing Duncan, royal biographer Andrew Morton added: “It’s been very difficult for the Royal Family just to keep going, because so many of them have been seriously ill – and are seriously ill. King Charles has not been a particularly lucky monarch so far.” Prior to his hospitalisation at the star of the year to initially treat an enlarged prostate, both King Charles and Queen Camilla had been firmly committed to their royal duties and embarked on a number of overseas trips to kickstart Charles’ reign. Among these trips were a state visit to Germany in March 2023, during which Charles became the first British monarch to address the Bundestag, Germany’s parliament. Trips to Romania, Kenya and Dubai also followed, along with a number of engagements on home soil that saw the King host foreign dignities including US President Joe Biden. Sadly by January 2024, this jam-packed schedule had finally caught up to the King, when he was forced to step back from royal duties to undergo treatment for an undisclosed form of cancer that had been identified after his hospital stay. Kate Middleton also revealed her own cancer battle just a few short months later, when she too revealed she was being treated for an undisclosed form of cancer. Of course, these haven’t been the only scares to rock the Royals in recent months, with Princess Anne’s hospitalisation following a horse riding accident and Sarah Ferguson’s, skin cancer diagnosis just one year after she had battled breast cancer, also leaving a dark cloud hanging over the whole family. It’s also a cloud that the Queen may have struggled to come to terms with, suggests former BBC correspondent Jennie Bond. “It would have been a great shock for Elizabeth to witness the difficulties of the past few months, and she would obviously have been deeply upset by her son and her granddaughter-in-law suffering from cancer,” she explained, while highlighting how up until her death, the Queen had been confident that all three heirs to the throne were in good health. “I think William, in particular, would have found his grandmother’s presence reassuring and she would have given him wise counsel. I suspect she would have told him to do exactly what he is doing: putting his family first until things improve.”
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