A royal affair! Queen Elizabeth II is set to hit a very important milestone in 2022 — and the palace is celebrating the occasion all year long.
On February 6, the monarch will celebrate 70 years on the throne. This makes her the first British ruler ever to be honored with a Platinum Jubilee. (She is already the commonwealth’s longest-reigning monarch, surpassing her great-great-grandmother Queen Victoria in 2015.)
Buckingham Palace announced the first plans for the celebrations on January 10. It kicked off everything with a nationwide baking contest to create a Jubilee Pudding. The celebrations will culminate with a four-day weekend of festivities in the U.K. that runs from June 2 to June 5. “The bank holiday will provide an opportunity for communities and people throughout the United Kingdom to come together to celebrate the historic milestone,” the palace said in a statement at the time.
The queen is no stranger to setting unprecedented records, becoming the first British monarch to celebrate a Sapphire Jubilee — which occurs after 65 years on the throne — in 2017. Elizabeth was elected to power in February 1952, after her father, King George VI died at the age of 56. In June 1953, she was crowned.
Since she was crowned, the queen has been served 14 times by British prime ministers, including Winston Churchill (her initial), Margaret Thatcher and Margaret Thatcher. Tony Blair. She is also the longest-serving female head to state in the history any country.
Though the upcoming event is supposed to be a joyous occasion, it will also mark the queen’s first jubilee without her husband, Prince Philip, who died in April 2021 at age 99. The monarch may be able to see all her grandchildren after the coronavirus epidemic forced her to cancel her Christmas plans.
In January 2021, the royal expert Jonathan SacerdotiOnly told Us WeeklyThat Prince HarryCould travel to the U.K. with his wife for the celebration. Meghan MarkleArchie, Lili, and their children. Since her birth in June 2021, Lili hasn’t yet been to her father’s home country.
“This is an extremely exciting moment,” the British journalist told UseNoting that the jubilee could offer the family an opportunity to mend fences following the announcement by the Sussexes that they would be stepping aside as senior royals in January 2020, she said.
“Sometimes all families might use a special occasion or an event to put some things behind them that maybe have been causing trouble,” Sacerdoti explained. “Hopefully, this jubilee year will be the opportunity for them to do so.”
Keep scrolling for everything to know about the queen’s Platinum Jubilee:
