Between ruling over the country, celebrating her Platinum Jubilee and doting on 12 great-grandchildren, Queen Elizabeth II has her hands full. Body language expert Judi James spoke exclusively to Express.co.uk about the Queen’s relationship with the latest generation of royals.
The youngest of the Queen’s great-grandchildren is Sienna Elizabeth, who was born on September 18 2021 to Princess Beatrice and Edoardo Mapelli.
The eldest is 11-year-old Savannah Phillips, daughter of Princess Anne’s son Peter Phillips and now ex-wife Autumn Kelly.
Judi stated: “The Queen has often looked at her happiest when surrounded by her great-grandchildren, and even in more formal poses she appears relaxed and quietly playful.
“Her bonds with all of them appear typically doting although we have been shown some moments that look especially intimate.
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“One of her unashamedly doting moments as a besotted great-granny was shown in her pose with Harry and Meghan’s son Archie soon after his birth.
“As Meghan raised the baby’s head a little and pushed the wrap back, the Queen is seen moving in carefully to peep at his face. As she does so her smile suggests utter delight and the emotion is echoed in a broad grin on the face of her husband standing behind her.”
Stoic and unflappable by nature, there have been very few moments in her 70-year reign where the British public has been privy to Her Majesty’s emotions.
But this young generation of royals is clearly a great source of joy in the Queen’s life, and despite her public role, the 95-year-old is a typical, doting great-grandmother figure, suggested Judi.
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Archie was born to Prince Harry and the Duchess of Sussex in 2019, but the Queen’s bond with Prince William’s children is also very strong.
Judi continued: “Charlotte’s facial resemblance to the Queen as a young girl is marked and, thanks also to William and Kate’s daughter’s signals of social confidence, she is often seen close to the Queen looking happy and relaxed, suggesting a mutually close relationship.”
She sat on the Queen’s lap for one formal portrait and when that position was taken by her younger brother Louis for the next formal shot it was still Charlotte sitting close, between the Queen and Prince Philip, raising one hand in the air to suggest she was relaxed and uninhibited in their company.
While of course, for most, the Queen is a pillar of leadership and a mainly unattainable figure, to a very small selection, she is simply family.
“Of course, like her relationship with Charles and William, there is always the sense of something very special in the Queen’s bonding with George that is based on empathy and destiny.
“The Queen knows more than anyone what is in store for her heirs, and her bonds with George, who featured in that all-important photo with his father, grandfather and great-grandmother to define the line of accession, already show signs of a shared sense of duty alongside the more usual signals of a very loving great-granny.”
Royal historian Robert Lacey believes that Prince George is already on his journey to becoming King; the eight-year-old was tasked with helping to deliver meals to the vulnerable during the pandemic, as well as litter picking – like his environmentally conscious father.
“William has not revealed to the world how and when he broke the big news to his son. But sometime around the boy’s seventh birthday in the summer of 2020, it is thought that his parents went into more detail about what the little prince’s life of future royal ‘service and duty’ would particularly involve.”
Judi concluded: “George also has the same name as her beloved father and, unless there is a name change as he takes to the throne, he will be George VII, suggesting historic links to and reminders of the man who was King George before him, making HM’s emotional investment in her great-grandson even more profound.”
