After Queen Elizabeth: Inside a Royal Family Rocked by Crisis as It Marks Her Centennial (Exclusive)
After Queen Elizabeth: Inside a Royal Family Rocked by Crisis as It Marks Her Centennial (Exclusive)
Simon PerryTue, April 14, 2026 at 12:00 PM UTC
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Right: King Charles, Prince William and Kate Middleton in September 2025 in LondonCredit: Samir Hussein/WireImage
For decades, Queen Elizabeth’s Buckingham Palace balcony appearances offered a reassuring kind of royal shorthand: the sovereign at the center, the family arranged around her, the institution intact. Now, nearly four years after her death, the image looks very different — slimmer, more fragile and shadowed by the strains she often seemed able to absorb.
As the Windsors mark 100 years since Elizabeth’s birth on April 21, 1926, the woman who defined modern monarchy remains everywhere — in memory, in ritual, in the enduring symbols of the crown. But so too does her absence following her death on Sept. 8, 2022. The family she once held together is navigating a far more uncertain era, marked by illness, estrangement, scandal and the pressure of proving the monarchy can still steady itself without its longest-serving anchor.
“She was the calm in the face of problems,” royal biographer Sally Bedell Smith tells PEOPLE in this week's cover story. “People knew that they could count on her.”
Elizabeth did not solve every royal problem in her lifetime. But she did something few public figures ever manage: She made turbulence look containable. Without her, the monarchy has appeared more exposed than ever — under mounting pressure at every turn. King Charles’ long-awaited reign has been repeatedly overtaken by personal and institutional upheaval. Prince William and Kate Middleton, still navigating the aftershocks of the Princess of Wales’ cancer diagnosis, have been pushed into an even more consequential role. Prince Harry remains estranged from the family and the institution he left behind. And the former Prince Andrew’s scandal continues to cast a long shadow over the House of Windsor.
“You go from having a streamlined but action-ready royal family to having the monarchy itself looking incredibly tattered,” says Catherine Mayer, author of the upcoming Divide and Rule.
Charles’ reign was tested from the start — long expected to serve as a bridge between his mother’s historic tenure and William’s future, but quickly overtaken by events beyond his control. In the year following his coronation in May 2023, the new King, 77, was navigating his own cancer diagnosis as scrutiny surrounding his brother Andrew intensified. That scrutiny culminated in Andrew's February arrest on suspicion of misconduct in public office, bringing renewed attention to his ties to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Meanwhile, the estrangement with Charles’ younger son, Harry, 41, who stepped back from royal duties and moved to California with his wife, Meghan Markle, 44, has left a gap in the monarchy’s front line when it can least afford it.
“Charles was the best-prepared monarch in history,” says Mayer. “But he will be seen as one of the unluckiest.”
Even so, Charles has persisted with the sense of duty he inherited from his mother. Amid ongoing cancer treatment, he and Queen Camilla, 78, are set to travel to the U.S. in late April for a state visit—even as anti-monarchy protests have trailed him on many recent public outings.
“He embodies a lot of his mother’s values,” says Bedell Smith, while a close palace source adds that Charles has “carried on in the spirit of that reign.”
King Charles and Prince George (far left) at the monarch's coronation on May 6, 2023Credit: Max Mumby/Indigo/Getty
The pressures on Charles have also reshaped the roles of those around him — none more so than William, 43, and Kate, 44. As the King has faced his cancer diagnosis, the couple has been forced into an increasingly more central position, even as Kate confronted a serious health crisis of her own. With Kate now in remission from an undisclosed form of cancer, she and William have returned to a full schedule of public duties, palace insiders say. But for roughly 18 months, the monarchy was largely without one of its most stabilizing figures in Kate.
“The Queen would have been extremely concerned, but would have relied on her faith to sustain her,” Bedell Smith, author of the Royals Extra Substack, says of Charles and Kate’s cancer diagnoses. “She would have been a good support for both of them.”
For William, the moment has brought added weight. Those close to him say he had long looked to his late grandmother for guidance, and in recent months has worked to keep distance from the continuing fallout surrounding his uncle Andrew, while Kate has remained a calming influence behind the scenes.
Some of the monarchy’s most persistent strains, however, still appear difficult to contain. The rift with Harry and Meghan — now in its sixth year as they build a life in Montecito — shows little sign of resolution. While there have been gradual efforts to repair Harry’s relationship with his father — they’re talking more these days, a source says — his estrangement from William endures. The Queen, as ever, sought a middle path.
Kate Middleton, Prince William, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle on Sept. 10, 2022 at Windsor CastleCredit: KIRSTY O'CONNOR/POOL/AFP via Getty
“She saw both of them, even after the estrangement,” says the close palace source. “She also believed that you might have views, but you don’t have sides. She knew that families are complicated.”
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Adds Ailsa Anderson, former press secretary to the Queen: “It’s very difficult. The only two people who can mend this are themselves. She could have been the convenor, but they have to take the first steps.”
That sense of unresolved tension extends beyond personal rifts. Questions continue to linger over how much was known — and by whom — about the depth of Andrew’s ties to Epstein. In the wake of fresh scrutiny, Charles moved decisively, stripping Andrew, 66, of his remaining titles and forcing him to vacate Royal Lodge. Now living quietly on a royal property in Norfolk paid for by the King, Andrew has been effectively exiled from public life — yet the scandal, more than 15 years on, remains ongoing. For those who knew Queen Elizabeth, the episode remains a complicated part of her legacy.
“The Queen effectively sacked him and forced him to step back from public life, which clearly he didn’t want to do,” says a former staffer. “I don’t think we should underestimate what it would take for a mother to do that. Throughout, she showed that when it came to the demands of family over the role, the role would win out.”
Prince Charles, Queen Elizabeth and Prince Andrew in 2019Credit: Max Mumby/Indigo/Getty
At the same time, others acknowledge that her instinct to protect her son may have contributed to decisions that are still being debated. The reported choice to help fund his estimated $16 million civil settlement with the late Virginia Giuffre, who accused Andrew of sexual abuse when she was a minor — which he has denied and agreed to settle without admitting wrongdoing — “will go down as a mistake… and one that has outlasted her,” says Robert Hardman, author of Elizabeth II: In Private. In Public. The Inside Story (out May 19).
As the royal family marks Elizabeth’s centenary, Charles and Camilla lead a series of commemorative events. Among them is a new Buckingham Palace exhibit. Featuring hundreds of pieces from her personal wardrobe, the show traces how she used fashion not just as personal expression, but as a tool of diplomacy.
“She took it to a whole other level of sophistication,” says curator Caroline de Guitaut, noting the Queen’s close collaboration with designers to create looks that carried symbolic weight around the world.
King Charles, Queen Elizabeth, Prince William, Kate Middleton, Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis on June 5, 2022Credit: Getty Images
That enduring sense of purpose remains central to how she is remembered.
“I don’t think anybody can take away her extraordinary commitment to duty and service for 70 years,” says Bedell Smith. “That’s what people should remember — that she never wavered.”
For many observers, the late Queen’s legacy looms far larger than the challenges now facing the family she left behind.
“Her greatness remains,” says Hardman. “We tend to look at things through the prism of the present — particularly Andrew and Harry. But when you stand back and look at a 70-year reign and a 96-year life, those are important chapters, not the defining elements. She came into a man’s world, held that institution together and handed it on in far better shape than people expected.”
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That steadiness was most visible when the country needed it most.
“In moments of anguish, stress and crisis, she was the glue that kept us all together,” saysAnderson, recalling Elizabeth’s “we will meet again” address during the first wave of COVID-19 — a message that resonated far beyond Britain.Viewed through that legacy, history suggests the institution may bend but not break. Fromabdication to divorce to the shock of Princess Diana’s death nearly 30 years ago, the monarchy has repeatedly confronted upheaval that once seemed capable of bringing it to its knees.The recent tests for Charles and his family “are not going to be the downfall,” Anderson says. “They’re survivors. The monarchy has weathered far worse.”
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