Queen Elizabeth's final days as they happened | Royal News Today

foreign [Music] a few moments ago Buckingham Palace announced the death of her majesty Queen Elizabeth II breaking news from Scotland here at Balmoral where her majesty Queen Elizabeth II has passed away at the age of 96. The Queen Is Dead at 96 Elizabeth II is gone the news came through just a few minutes ago it was released on the Royal Family's Twitter account the statement reads the queen died peacefully at Balmoral this afternoon the king and the queen consort will remain at Balmoral this evening and will return to London tomorrow it's been one year since the passing of Queen Elizabeth II the end of the monarchy as we all knew it it is a day of great loss but Queen Elizabeth II leaves a great legacy today the crown passes as it has done for more than a thousand years to our new monarch our new head of state his majesty King Charles III seven news Europe bureau chief Hugh Whitfield has been covering the royal family for years on September 8 2022 Hugh and seven cameraman James Cannon were the first journalists in the world on the scene at Balmoral as history was made the amazing thing was this wasn't just a momentous week in terms of the change of the Monarch it had already been a history making week because we were up in Scotland because the queen was overseeing the changeover of prime minister Liz truss had arrived shortly after Boris Johnson had left Balmoral Castle on the Tuesday the whole country and all of us had been expecting that momentous change of prime minister which in itself was an important occasion we were up in Scotland we chose to stay on for another 24 hours we we felt like we had a few more stories to pick up there and then on the Wednesday night we received word that the queen had pulled out of a privy Council Zoom meeting now over the course of the previous 12 months we knew that she'd had some health ailments she experienced covert of course back in February of 2022 but had been able to continue working virtually on these Zoom meetings so the fact that for the first time to our knowledge she'd pulled out of a zoom meeting if she wasn't well enough to get in front of a computer screen and basically oversee a meeting of a dozen or so people then something was seriously wrong we made it back to Balmoral that night we're there the next morning we were the first journalists on the ground there at Balmoral and then what played out was obviously a history making history defining day I received phone calls from people close to the Palace who told me not to go anywhere that the Queen's Health had deteriorated to the extent that the change of sovereign was going to happen that day and I think the truth is that it all happened very quickly Charles was in Dumfries house in the south of Scotland he was only scrambled to Balmoral on that morning of September 8 when it became apparent that the queen was unlikely to survive the day and then around lunchtime Liz truss barely 48 hours into her prime ministership she's trying to lay out this ambitious domestic agenda in the House of Commons she slipped a piece of paper by her cabinet minister Nadeem zahawi which we now know is her being informed that the queen was Gravely ill and momentous things were about to happen all of this was playing out live on TV so very quickly the nation became aware that things were beginning to move quickly and that the country and the Commonwealth had to prepare itself for history changing news thank you over the course of that afternoon of course we saw this scramble of members of the royal family Prince William prince Andrew Prince Edward up to Balmoral Charles was at that point there along with his sister Princess Anne who was already in Scotland there was this very sad scramble by Prince Harry as well effectively left behind by his brother and his uncles having to catch commercial flight to Aberdeen he didn't make it in time to see the Queen by the time she'd passed away it was a wet day it was a very somber day at Balmoral um news crews who who quickly discovered that they needed to be at Balmoral was scrambling up there it became busier as as locals from aberdeenshire and Scotland tried to get there as well and then of course that moment at 6 30 p.m Scotland time 3 30 in the morning in the on the Australian East Coast that news came through that the queen had passed away and this was an event we were preparing for for I Was preparing I've been preparing for for the last nine years and so they were one of two ways that it could have gone obviously the queen may have ended up in hospital with this long illness that had her bed ridden for months years I mean she was a woman in her mid-90s anything could have happened to her um I think the fact that it happened so quickly on the Tuesday we'd seen her up and about greeting Liz truss in front of the fireplace at Balmoral Castle she looked really old I mean everyone who saw that photo knew that she'd changed in a couple of months since we'd seen her she looked incredibly thin she looked tiny these tiny old woman but I think just the speed that it ended up happening in the end and I think for her you know we've all got grandparents great grandparents who we've seen go over the course of our lifetimes and for her it was a bit of a blessing she was in her favorite place and it did all happen very quickly she wasn't convalesced for a long period of time and and her family knew that it was coming um but in the end it happened really quickly and that day unfolded really quickly as well at Balmoral between waking up in the morning having a sense that this could be the day that it all unfolded and then by lunchtime knowing that uh that it was going to be a day that we'd all remember and a day that would change the country and the Commonwealth forever the the bit that gave me goosebumps was not just the fact that the queen had died because we were expecting that message to come through but the term the king and queen will remain in Balmoral tonight and will return to London tomorrow and that was the first time in more than seven decades that the palace had released a statement with the words the king in it and I think that was the first moment for me certainly that I realized we realized that the change had happened and a massive series of events was about to unfold over the next 10 days

Channel: Sunrise

Views: 892,800

Keywords: Sunrise, morning show, breaking news, seven, entertainment, current affairs, australia, channel 7, news, queen, queen death, queen elizabeth, meghan markle, prince harry, prince william, king charles, kate middleton, day the queen died, how the queen died, how did the queen die, queens funeral, queens death, queen last appearance, hugh whitfield channel 7, royal news today, royal news today uk, royal news uk, royal news bbc, royal headlines, royal documentary

Id: WoGe5PUj3h0

Length: 8min 15sec (495 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 14 2023