Queen heads to Prince Philip’s memorial service with disgraced son Andrew
The Duke of Edinburgh died in April last year
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Your support makes all the difference.The Queen is on her way to the Service of Thanksgiving for the Duke of Edinburgh, accompanied by the Duke of York.
Her Majesty was seen travelling in the backseat of a car on her journey from Windsor to Westminster Abbey in London, where the ceremony is taking place.
The service, which is being broadcast live by the BBC, will celebrate the duke’s public service and “long life lived fully”. Other senior members of the Royal Family are also expected to attend.
Prince Philip died on 9 April last year aged 99. His funeral was attended by just 30 guests due to Covid-19 social distancing restrictions.
Photographs from inside St George’s Chapel, which showed the queen sitting alone for the duration of the service, were shared across the world.
Today’s ceremony will mark the Queen’s first public event outside of her own residences this year.
Buckingham Palace confirmed the Queen’s attendance in a statement on Tuesday.
Prince Andrew has a front row seat at the Service of Thanksgiving, close to his other siblings, the PA news agency has reported.
It marks his first public appearance since he reached a settlement with Virginia Giuffre in a sex abuse case leveled against him.
Andrew, who has denied ever meeting Giuffre, came to a multi-million pound agreement to stop the case from proceeding to trial.
The Queen will be seated next to the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall.
Concerns for the Queen’s health have heightened in recent months after she spent a night in hospital in October 2021. News of the hospital stay rocked the nation as the Queen was previously perceived to be in good health for her age.
Her Majesty was due to visit Northern Ireland to meet locals and school children in County Down but the trip was cancelled.
Earlier that month, she was also pictured using a walking stick during a service at Westminster Abbey.
In November, the Queen missed the annual Remembrance Sunday service in London, with Buckingham Palace announcing that the monarch would not attend because she has sprained her back.
The event was supposed to mark her first public appearance following the hospital stay.
The monarch, who contracted Covid-19 in February, also did not attend a Commonwealth Day service at Westminster Abbey earlier this month and was represented by Prince Charles instead.
The Queen and Prince Philip had been married for 73 years before his death. During her 2021 Christmas message, the monarch spoke of the “beloved” duke.
Sporting a brooch she had worn during their honeymoon, she said: “That mischievous, enquiring twinkle was as bright at the end as when I first set eyes on him.”
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