How Is The Queen Really Dealing With Personal And Professional Turmoil?

The years preceding Queen Elizabeth II's historic platinum jubilee have been trying, to say the least. Ahead of the celebrations for her 70th year on the throne in February 2022, the queen of England is managing a series of personal crises and heartbreaks that have kept her and the royal family in the news. In April, Elizabeth lost her husband of 73 years, Prince Philip, who would have turned 100 the following month, as the BBC pointed out. 

Elizabeth mourned his death on the heels of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's bombshell interview with Oprah Winfrey the month prior, in which the Sussexes both criticized the royal family made serious accusations of racism. Following the backlash, Buckingham Palace said it would look into the matter "privately," according to NBC News. "While some recollections may vary, they are taken very seriously and will be addressed by the family privately," the institution said in a statement. The queen's response was unsurprisingly scrutinized by commentators, with many criticizing her unwillingness to condemn racism, as The Guardian argued.

Adding to Elizabeth's difficult year, her third child (and reportedly her favorite), Prince Andrew, was sued in federal court in August by an alleged victim of the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, who also accused Andrew of sexual abuse, according to ABC News. But despite it all, Elizabeth continues to carry out her duties as queen and handle personal crises with grace. And she does it all thanks to a trait she has had since childhood.

Having ascended to the throne at the young age of 25, Queen Elizabeth II has had to learn to separate her private and public roles — and that has proved to be the key to her successful and long reign, according to royal biographer Ingrid Seward. "She won't let things crowd in on her. She is mentally disciplined and that has helped her through these 70 years. It has enabled her to deal with all the things and not allow things to overwhelm her," Seward told People in December. "It goes a long way towards explaining her ability to be able to still be working at this age." Elizabeth has mastered the art of compartmentalizing, which has allowed her to manage different aspects of her life with practicality. "Fundamentally she puts things in a box and says 'that can be dealt with on Thursday,' for example," Seward added.

While she has perfected her discipline over her nearly 70 years as queen, Elizabeth was reportedly born that way. "Elizabeth was conscientious, dutiful and orderly," as History Extra described her, adding that she never failed to feed and unsaddle her pet horses before going to bed. The personality trait was also noticed by the former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, who met the future queen when she was just 2 years old. "[Elizabeth was a] character [with] an air of authority and reflectiveness astonishing in an infant," he once said (per WinstonChurchill.Org).