Most years since 1932, the reigning British monarch has delivered a Christmas speech chronicling the royal family’s previous year. It’s a time-honored tradition that everyone looks forward to hearing, especially since it comes directly from the king or queen. Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth has had the honor of giving the annual Christmas address since 1952.
Though there have been troubling events and serious scandals throughout the years, for the most part, these speeches focus on the positive happenings and look forward to the future. But royal experts are already wondering what good things Queen Elizabeth could possibly say this year.
It turns out the queen might be having a difficult time finding the right words for her annual speech. Would she consider skipping it entirely?
It’s been a tough year for the British royal family
This year saw plenty of happy moments for the British royal
family, but those have been mostly overshadowed by an overwhelming sense of
gloom. The scandal with Prince Andrew and his involvement with convicted sex
offender Jeffrey Epstein came to a head in November. Things got
so intense that the Duke of York was forced to resign his position as a
working royal.
Earlier in the year, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle contributed drama of their own when they announced their intention to sue the British press. Tensions had been running high for a while, but this move was considered unnecessarily dramatic by some critics.
The queen can’t think of what to say in her Christmas speech
Royal correspondent Katie Nicholl explained
to Fox News that Queen Elizabeth is stumped about what to say in her
speech. “It’s still at a first-draft stage because of
the election, but it probably hasn’t been the easiest speech to write,” Nicholl
said. “It has been a very different time behind the scenes, and morale is at a
bit of a low.”
Royal author Leslie
Carroll expressed her sympathies for the queen, who is a mostly innocent
bystander to most
of this drama. “I feel a bit sad that at this stage in her life… the queen
can never relax her hands on the reins of the monarchy and completely trust the
younger generation to carry on,” Carroll said. “[She] is said to be
‘disappointed’ by Andrew… He’s always been a wild one, but he went off the rails
by associating with Epstein, to begin with.”
Would Queen Elizabeth
consider canceling the speech?
Canceling the annual
Royal Christmas Message seems like a dramatic move, but it’s actually been done
before. In 1969, the queen decided not to do a
Christmas address because that was the same year the Royal Family documentary
was released. She believed the public had already heard enough intimate information
for the time being.
Interestingly, the queen
did give the Christmas speech in 1992 just one month after a fire at Windsor
Castle. This was after the royal family’s so-called “annus horribilis,” or
horrible year.
If the queen found the strength
to go on with her speech in 1992, then there’s a good chance she’ll also do one
in 2019. But whether it addresses the most pressing scandals currently ongoing
in the royal family is anyone’s guess.
