Here's How the Royal Family Will Privately Mark Queen Elizabeth's Birthday, According to a Former Royal Butler
April 21 marks the second posthumous birthday for the former Queen of England.
A former butler for the royal family is giving an inside look into how the members of the monarchy will likely celebrate Queen Elizabeth's birthday.
In a recent interview with Slingo, Grant Harrold, who was a member of the royal staff from 2004 to 2011, said there will be "toasts, tributes and reflections" in honor of the late Queen of England, who passed away in 2022 at 96 years of age.
April 21 would have been Queen Elizabeth's 98th birthday.
"They won't publicly do anything," he told the publication. "Privately, I have no doubt they'll raise a toast to her in the evening. I'm sure the day will very much be spent reflecting on the late Queen.
"I can almost guarantee that if you were to go to Windsor Castle that day, it's very likely there'll be some flowers on the tomb that have been sent by the family members," Harrold added. "Sometimes on royal anniversaries, flowers are sent to royal graves. It's very possible there will be flowers on the tombstone."
Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, Prince Charles, Prince of Wales, Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Louis of Cambridge, Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, Princess Charlotte of Cambridge, Prince George of Cambridge and Prince William, Duke of Cambridge on the balcony of Buckingham Palace watch the RAF flypast during the Trooping the Colour parade on June 02, 2022 in London, England.
As predicted, Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York, honored the late Queen in a moving Instagram post featuring a portrait of Queen Elizabeth.
"Today we are remembering Her Late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II on what would have been her 97th birthday," the royal captioned the post, appearing to have accidentally miscalculating the Queen's would-be age.
"Thank you for all that you have taught us, for being a steadfast leader and dear friend," Ferguson continued. "You are sorely missed."
The official Instagram account for London's iconic Westminster Abbey, the location of Queen Elizabeth's state funeral in 2022, also shared a tribute to the late monarch.
"Remembering Her late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, who was born #onthisday in 1926. 'The souls of the righteous are in the hand of God,'" the caption reads.
The former royal butler, Harrold, shared some of his past memories of his time spent around the royal family, including what he had heard about the Queen and some of her more notorious antics.
"With the Queen, I used to hear about her sense of humor and the fact that sometimes you couldn’t tell if she was being serious or not," he recalled. "And sometimes she’d catch you off guard."
There was one instance, according to the former staffer, where her humor shined through in one truly memorable way when no one followed her after dinner was officially announced during a trip to Scotland.
"Royal protocol kind of states they should follow or at least already be in the dining room and they were all still in the other room chatting," he shared. "So she ran down the corridor and I remember looking thinking: 'The Queen is running, what do I do?' So I started running—well not running because I thought it would be rude to run as a butler.
"I kind of did a trot into the room and when we got in there she looked around and she smiled and I heard the rest of the guests running down the corridor to come in," he continued. "She looked at me then she gave me a wink as if to say: 'How about that.' "
