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It’s been exactly one year since the world said goodbye to Britain’s longest-standing monarch, Queen Elizabeth II. But did you know her final days were planned down to the location?
In a brand-new episode of Royally Obsessed, podcast co-hosts Roberta Fiorito and Rachel Bowie chatted with author and royal expert Tina Brown about the late monarch. (FYI, Brown is the mastermind behind The Diana Chronicles and The Palace Papers.)
During the episode (listen below), Brown explained that there’s a hidden meaning behind the location of the queen’s passing, Balmoral Castle. The author revealed that the monarch wanted to spend her final days at the Scottish estate.
“The way she managed her exit from this world was as beautifully choreographed as everything about her and her reign,” Brown said in the episode. “It was so thoughtful the way she went out because, clearly, they had been planning for years what would happen if she died in various different places.”
Brown went on to reveal that Queen Elizabeth specifically preferred Balmoral Castle, adding, “She wanted to die in Scotland, I was told by several people who knew her very well. It was always her desire to die at Balmoral, and she was in her last months, and she knew she was in her last months.”
“I’m told that she was actually looking to extend her stay there last year because she wanted to die at Balmoral, and she knew it wasn’t far off and that’s where she wanted to pass,” Brown said.
Brown also explained how the queen’s passing solidified the relationship between England and Scotland. “And it happened, just as she wished it had,” she continued. “And as a result, she died at a place which at that point had a sort of instability in the union, in the cries for Scotland to be independent. But somehow by dying in Scotland, she reinforced the bond of the whole United Kingdom as one kingdom.”
“There was a real sense of ‘this was the way it ought to be,’” Brown added. “And it recemented her into the whole Scottish story.”
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