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Despite rumors earlier, it appears that both Prince Philip and Queen Elizabeth are fine. Rumors were circulating about Prince Philip’s health and whether or not he was alive or dead, after news broke that an emergency meeting was held at Buckingham Palace.
As of 3:30 a.m. Eastern, it appears that the Buckingham Palace meeting had nothing to do with either Prince Philip’s or Queen Elizabeth’s health. One BBC reporter shared:
There’ll be a staff meeting at Buckingham Palace this morning. It’s not to do with the health of either the Queen or Prince Philip.
A later tweet clarified:
The BBC understands there is no cause for concern regarding the health of either the Queen or Prince Philip.
The rumors had started to calm down earlier in the night, after Rosa Hwang, a senior broadcast producer for CTV, said that the Buckingham Palace press office told her Prince Philip and Queen Elizabeth II were “alive and well.”
Hwang noted that earlier that day, Prince Philip made a public appearance at a cricket pitch and appeared to be in good health.
There was no official word yet from Buckingham Palace, and news about the purpose behind the emergency meeting that sparked the rumors also wasn’t known. The staff meeting will take place at 10 a.m. London time, according to the BBC.
A rare emergency meeting was called at Buckingham Palace, which started the rumors that Prince Philip might be gravely ill or might have died. Such emergency meetings are rare, which is why the public paid so much attention to it. The Queen’s senior aides and staff were called to a meeting, where they were going to be addressed by the Lord Chamberlain, who is the most senior officer in the Royal Household. According to the Daily Mail, meetings of the entire royal household do happen occasionally, but meetings held “at the eleventh hour” are “highly unusual and suggests there there is something major to be disseminated… But at the moment, only those closest to her genuinely know what on earth this is all about.”
According to protocol, explained by The Daily Beast reported in 2015, if Prince Philip died during the night, Buckingham Palace would not announce his death until after 8 a.m., and the BBC would be told first so they could make the official announcement. The BBC’s statements early in the morning, after 8 a.m. London time, indicated that the Prince and the Queen were fine.
French media and some other reporters had stated that Philip had died. But those were unconfirmed rumors that were directly in conflict with what Hwang herself heard from Buckingham Palace’s press office. (And later, what BBC said.) If protocol is maintained, official word about a royal death would not be known until about 8 a.m. London time. But after 8 a.m., BBC reporters confirmed the meeting was not about the Queen’s or the Prince’s health.
Prince Philip is 95 years old. He and Queen Elizabeth had canceled an annual Christmas train trip in December. At the time, it was announced they had canceled the trips due to “heavy colds,” People reported. The day before the canceled the train trip, the Queen announced that she was stepping down from being patron of 25 charities so she could lighten her workload.
In November it had been revealed that Philip was in great health and hadn’t even had the flu for 40 years.