On September 8, 2022, Queen Elizabeth II passed away, aged 96.
The Queen was the United Kingdom’s longest-serving monarch; just months before her death, she celebrated 70 years on the throne at her Platinum Jubilee, held in February 2022.
But now, as of September 8, 2025, it’s been a full three years since Queen Elizabeth’s death. So you may be wondering how the British royal family will mark the anniversary and what has happened to them since her passing.
How is the royal family honouring Queen Elizabeth for her anniversary?
There was no official public event held in honour of Queen Elizabeth on the three-year anniversary of her death.
However, King Charles issued the following message addressing his mother’s passing on her first anniversary:
“In marking the first anniversary of Her late Majesty’s death and my Accession, we recall with great affection her long life, devoted service and all she meant to so many of us,” he said.
“I am deeply grateful, too, for the love and support that has been shown to my wife and myself during this year as we do our utmost to be of service to you all.”
The King also chose to release this image of Queen Elizabeth, captured at Buckingham Palace on October 16, 1968, by Cecil Beaton, in honour of the anniversary.
In 2025, Prince Harry will be in the UK for the WellChild Awards. He was due to attend the ceremony in 2022, but rushed to Balmoral following the news of her passing.
King Charles and Queen Camilla are currently in Scotland on their summer break and will likely mark the day as a family in Balmoral.
However, Prince William, will visit the National Federation of the Women’s Institute (WI) in Sandringham. It is the largest women’s organisation in the UK. Queen Elizabeth was a member for 80 years. She joined when she was 17 years old in 1943. Furthermore, she was president of the Sandringham WI from 2003 until her passing.
While attending, the Prince recalled his grandmother’s love for the Royal Ascot horse racing.
“I think she would have loved a few more wins. She was very upset that she couldn’t win a few more times,” he said. “She used to have an iPad so that she could watch all the foals being born, so wherever she was in the country she could see. She was very dedicated.”
What happened after the Queen died?
Queen Elizabeth was mourned all around the world.
As per tradition, after the Queen’s death, the United Kingdom observed a national mourning period of 10 days and Queen Elizabeth’s coffin was brought to Westminster Hall for her lying in state. It’s estimated that over 250,000 people queued to pay their respects during the late Queen’s lying in state.
After lying in state for five days, Queen Elizabeth’s state funeral took place on September 19 at Westminster Abbey. It’s been suggested that roughly 4 billion people tuned in to watch her funeral, which was televised all around the world.
While there’s no way to verify exactly how many people watched the funeral, it has been verified that 28 million people living in the UK, 1.4 million people living in the United States and 3.9 million people living in Australia tuned in to watch.
Prince Charles became King
Charles, Queen Elizabeth’s eldest child, immediately ascended the throne once she died and became King Charles III. But he didn’t have his formal coronation ceremony until May of this year.
During his coronation, which was held at Westminster Abbey, Charles was anointed, blessed and consecrated by the Archbishop of Canterbury. Charles was then officially crowned with the crown of St Edward.
Camilla, Charles’s wife, was also crowned as Queen Consort during the coronation. However, Buckingham Palace made it clear that this was intended as a transitional title. By the time of the coronation, official communications, invitations, and the order of service referred to her simply as “Queen Camilla.”
So, while she technically became Queen the moment Charles acceded to the throne in September 2022, the title shift from “Queen Consort” to “Queen” happened publicly and officially in May 2023.
Among the many guests at King Charles’ coronation were Prince William, Princess Catherine, Prince Harry, Crown Princess Mary and Crown Prince Frederik, Princess Anne, Princess Beatrice, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Katy Perry and Emma Thompson.
Buckingham Palace revealed in early early February 2024 the King Charles III was undergoing cancer treatment. His Majesty has shared some updates about his health journey, notably the importace of diet and rest and has praised his medical team and those who work in the medical field.
Prince William and Princess Catherine became the Prince and Princess of Wales
After Queen Elizabeth died, the entire order of succession to the British throne changed. Many members of the British royal family had their official titles changed, too.
For instance, Prince William and Princess Catherine became the Prince and Princess of Wales – titles previously held by King Charles and the late Princess Diana.
You can see the current order of succession here.
The two are now being groomed for the Crown. Both are more front-facing since their title elevation and are more frequently the main faces of the Royal Family. Bother have also expanded their creative outlets. Princess Catherine launched a nature-loving series dubbed Mother Nature and Prince William has launched a series with the BBC to highlight and praise the work of nature’s guardians around the world, aptly called Guardians.
However, Catherine, like her father-in-law, revealed that she was undergoing cancer treatment for an undisclosed type of cancer in March 2024. Since has since revealed that she is in remission and has resumed her royal duties.
Prince Harry released a tell-all memoir
In January 2023, four months after his grandmother’s passing, Prince Harry – who, along with his wife Meghan Markle, officially stepped back from their royal duties in 2020 – released a tell-all memoir: Spare.
And interestingly, the book detailed how Harry found out about the Queen’s passing.
Harry recalled in Spare that his father, Charles, called him and told him that the Queen’s health “had taken a turn.” Harry says he immediately texted his brother William after this call and asked when and how he and Catherine were flying to Balmoral to be with Queen Elizabeth in her final moments.
The Duke of Sussex wrote that William never responded to this text message. However, he did receive another call from Charles. Harry claims that Charles told him he was welcome to come see the Queen at Balmoral, but Meghan was not.
So, Harry jumped on a plane to the Scottish residence on his lonesome, but he was too late; when Harry landed, he checked the BBC’s website and saw that Queen Elizabeth had died while he was flying.
“Granny was gone. Pa was King,” Harry wrote.
Meghan and Harry started a media empire with Netflix
After a rift between Prince Harry, his wife, Meghan, and the royal household and media, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex took a step back from royal duties and are no longer active members of the royal family.
However, we still see plenty of them in their new lives in the United States. The family reloacted to California and thanks to a deal with Netflix, they have released their own documentary and Meghan has launched her own lifestyle brand, As Ever and Netflix show, With Love, Meghan.
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