Queen Elizabeth's 95th Birthday Celebration Will Be Scaled Back After Prince Philip's Death, She Is 'Still In The Official Period Of Royal Mourning'
April 19 2021, Updated 11:34 a.m. ET
Queen Elizabeth's birthday celebration will look a lot different this year. The matriarch, who turns 95 on April 21, will not share a new portrait with the public this year, as she is still grieving Prince Philip's death, and there will be no gun salute, the Daily Express reported.
"Plans to mark the day with a new portrait of her are set to be shelved because she is still in the official period of royal mourning for her beloved husband," royal expert Rebecca English shared.
"The glaring absence of Prince Philip will be impossible to ignore and the run-up to what should have been a joyous day is set to be overshadowed by speculation about the major rift in her family."
However, it's been reported that members of the royal family will visit the Queen this week so she has some company.
The Queen's public birthday celebrations are toned down as well due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Trooping the Colour — a ceremony performed by regiments of the British and Commonwealth armies in June to mark the Queen's birthday — was canceled for the second year in a row.
"It's not the celebration she envisioned. She's saddened that Trooping the Colour has been postponed for the second year in a row, but safety is her primary concern," an insider previously told OK!.
"These are extremely challenging times for the Queen," added the insider. "She's reeling from so much stress at one time," the insider shared. "It's a shame this has all happened so close to her special day."
Prince Edward's wife, Sophie, Countees of Wessex, said the Queen "has been amazing" following Philip's death, and it seems like she is trying to keep busy during this trying time.
For one, she hosted an event four days after Philip passed, and she made her first solo statement one day before Philip's funeral.
"Her family will step up and be by her side, but she will carry on," a former royal aide revealed. "She understands that she has a job to do, and [Philip] would have wanted her to crack on. She did do so when he retired from public life."
"She will never abdicate because of duty and honor and public service is so deep in her, as it was for him," another royal insider added.