One proud “Gan-Gan”! Whereas Queen Elizabeth II has a very busy job because the sovereign of the UK and its Commonwealth territories, she nonetheless finds time to prioritize her household and her many great-grandchildren.
“The queen is in her factor when she’s acquired her great-grandchildren sitting on her lap and having that household time,” royal skilled Kerene Barefield completely informed Us Weekly in December 2021. “I’m certain it’s one thing that we’ll by no means ever get to witness — that type of actually relaxed household time, which is what everybody else has at Christmas.”
The long-reigning monarch — who marked 70 years on the throne in February 2022 — first turned a proud great-grandparent in December 2010 when grandson Peter Phillips welcomed his eldest daughter, Savannah, with ex-wife Autumn Kelly. Since then, Elizabeth’s brood has expanded to incorporate 12 great-grandchildren, together with Prince William and Duchess Kate’s three youngsters, Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis, in addition to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s two little ones, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet.
“George is barely 2 [and a half] and he calls her ‘Gan-Gan,’” the Duchess of Cambridge beforehand mentioned throughout a March 2016 interview for ITV’s Our Queen at Ninety documentary. “She at all times leaves just a little present or one thing of their room after we go and keep, and that simply exhibits her love for the household.”
Kate added: “The queen was actually thrilled that [my second child] was just a little woman, and I believe as quickly as we got here again right here to Kensington Palace [from the hospital], she was considered one of our first guests right here.”
Not solely does Elizabeth have an in depth connection to lots of her littlest family, however their dad and mom additionally selected to honor her when it got here to deciding on a reputation. Upon Charlotte’s beginning in Could 2015, William and Kate selected the center monikers “Elizabeth Diana” to honor each the queen and his late mom, Princess Diana. Harry additionally took inspiration from his mom and grandmother’s legacies when his daughter Lilibet Diana was born in June 2021.
“Lili is known as after her great-grandmother, Her Majesty The Queen, whose household nickname is Lilibet,” the Archewell cofounders wrote on their group web site that June. “Her center title, Diana, was chosen to honor her beloved late grandmother, The Princess of Wales.”
Princess Beatrice, for her half, honored the queen by selecting the title “Sienna Elizabeth” for her little woman, who was born in September 2021. Beatrice’s sister, Princess Eugenie, took inspiration from the queen’s late husband, Prince Philip, when it got here to a center title for her son August Philip upon his February 2021 beginning.
Whereas lots of Elizabeth’s great-grandchildren don’t have as many public appearances because the monarch, they incessantly steal the present on the ones they attend. Because the queen celebrated her Platinum Jubilee at the annual Trooping the Color parade in June 2022, she was caught having a candy second with Prince Louis, born in April 2018.
Louis notably lined his ears as he stood on the Buckingham Palace balcony to observe the army flyover, although it was onerous to maintain his consideration. At one level, Elizabeth kindly inspired him to lookup on the planes’ formation within the sky.
The queen died in September 2022 on the age of 96 and is succeeded by eldest son King Charles III.
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Scroll beneath to see the queen’s sweetest household moments along with her great-grandchildren by way of the years: