Don’t expect Queen Elizabeth II to relinquish her throne anytime soon.
The 91-year-old British monarch is the world’s longest serving, boasting a reign of 65 years. But according royal insiders, retirement is not on the table.
The queen’s thinking is “duty first, nation first, I’m going to be there,” according to the Sunday Times of London. Multiple sources confirmed the sovereign’s stalwart mind-set to the newspaper.
If the queen were to step aside or die, her son Prince Charles would become king, an action allowed for by the 1937 Regency Act.
Fears over the queen’s health have run rampant the past several months.
In May, after a last-minute royal staff meeting was called at Buckingham Palace, there was widespread speculation that the queen or her husband, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, had died. In actuality, the gathering was meant to announce that Philip, 95, was retiring from formal royal duties.
In December, a cold forced the queen to miss Sunday church service for two weeks in a row.