The Queen’s only daughter, Princess Anne, has released a touching statement detailing her last goodbye to her mother – as it emerged just how quickly the late monarch’s health declined in her final hours.
The Princess Royal expressed her gratitude for being able to spend time with her mother as her health failed.
“I was fortunate to share the last 24 hours of my dearest mother’s life,” Princess Anne said in a statement.
“It has been an honour and a privilege to accompany her on her final journeys. Witnessing the love and respect shown by so many on these journeys has been both humbling and uplifting.
“We will all share unique memories. I offer my thanks to each and every one who share our sense of loss.
“We may have been reminded how much of her presence and contribution to our national identity we took for granted. I am also so grateful for the support and understanding offered to my dear brother Charles as he accepts the added responsibilities of the monarch.
“To my mother, the Queen, thank you.”
Anne’s statement came as the daughter of a former US president revealed the suddenness of the Queen’s decline.
NBC Today show host Jenna Bush, the daughter of George W. Bush, was in Scotland last week with her husband Henry Hager to interview the then Duchess of Cornwall.
“We were at their house … We heard sort of running up and down the halls. [The then Prince of Wales’ team] came in and said, ‘Can you please be quiet. There’s a call’,” she said.
“We were right by then-Prince Charles’, now King Charles III’s, office.
“Then, all of a sudden, we heard a helicopter.”
Staff then told Bush that “the Queen is ill” and that her son and daughter-in-law had “gone and rushed off to be with her”. The Queen’s death was announced later that day – with only Anne and her eldest son there for her last hours.
Anne, who is the Queen’s second eldest child, accompanied her mother’s coffin on its trip from Balmoral to Edinburgh, before arriving in London at Buckingham Palace on Tuesday morning.
Flight tracking website Flightradar24 said 4.79 million people watched the flight live online, with a further quarter of a million watching on its YouTube channel.
The company said an unprecedented six million people tried to follow the flight within the first minute of the Boeing C17A Globemaster turning on its transponder at Edinburgh’s airport, affecting the stability of the platform.
It was officially Flightradar24’s most tracked flight – more than twice the previous record of 2.2 million, set when US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi flew into Taiwan on her controversial visit in August.
A palace spokesperson confirmed the Queen’s coffin had been received by King Charles and other members of the royal family in a private ceremony.
Those present included Anne and her brothers Prince Andrew and Prince Edward. Other royals, including Prince William and wife Kate Middleton, Prince Harry and wife Meghan Markle, the Countess of Wessex and the late Queen’s nephew, the Earl of Snowdon, were also there.
It came as other details were confirmed for the procession of the Queen’s coffin from the palace to Westminster Hall on Wednesday afternoon (British time).
Her coffin will be placed on a gun carriage to be taken through central London to Westminster Hall.
The King’s sons, William and Harry, will join him and his siblings in a silent walk behind the carriage.
Charles’ wife, Camilla – now Queen Consort – as well as William’s wife Kate Middleton, the Princess of Wales, and Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, and Edward’s wife Sophie, Countess of Wessex, will travel by car.
With much of central London closed to traffic, large crowds are expected to line the route to watch the procession, which will be accompanied by guns firing every minute at Hyde Park, while parliament’s Big Ben bell will toll.
Once at Westminster Hall, there will be a brief service led by the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Dean of Westminster.
Later on Wednesday, the public will be allowed in to view the Queen’s coffin.
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As many as 750,000 mourners are expected to file past the coffin during its period of lying-in-state, which lasts until Monday morning. People have already begun queuing to pay their final respects, with the government warning they face a long and arduous wait.
The Scottish government said about 33,000 people filed past the coffin during the 24 hours it was at St Giles’ Cathedral in Edinburgh.
The hundreds of thousands predicted to join the line in London will be asked to queue for up to 7.5 kilometres along the southern bank of the River Thames.
-with AAP
