What Will Happen to the Queen’s Dogs After Her Passing?
We don't exactly know yet, but experts have some thoughts.
Queen Elizabeth II was so associated with her love for corgis that you can even buy plush toy versions of the dogs in the Royal Palace shops.
At the sad time of her passing on Sept. 8, the monarch was believed to own about four or five dogs: "two corgis named Muick and Sandy, a Dorgi called Candy, and two Cocker Spaniels," as reported by Newsweek. And over her reign, she is thought to have owned some 30 corgis total.
But what will happen to the dogs that survive the monarch now that she is no longer there to care for them?
"I imagine the dogs would be looked after by the family, probably Andrew [as] he's the one that gave them to her, they're quite young, the corgi and the dorgi," royal biographer Ingrid Seward speculated, speaking to Newsweek.
But royal author Penny Junor has a different theory: "Care of the dogs has fallen sometimes to footmen but mostly to the Queen's trusted dressmaker, assistant and right-hand woman, Angela Kelly; and to her equally trusted page of many years standing, Paul Whybrew, who was seen walking with the Queen and the dogs in the James Bond spoof," Junor wrote in a 2018 book, per Newsweek.
Read: We don't actually know what will happen to the dogs now, and it remains to be seen while arrangements continue to be made in the coming weeks.
But though the Queen may have had an eternal love for corgis, not everyone in the royal household was such a huge fan of the pets. The late Prince Philip, for one, was reported to often be heard saying, "Bloody dogs. Why do you have so many?" as reported by The Guardian.
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Iris Goldsztajn is a London-based journalist, editor and author. She is the morning editor at Marie Claire, and her work has appeared in the likes of British Vogue, InStyle, Cosmopolitan, Refinery29 and SELF. Iris writes about everything from celebrity news and relationship advice to the pitfalls of diet culture and the joys of exercise. She has many opinions on Harry Styles, and can typically be found eating her body weight in cheap chocolate.