The 92nd birthday of Queen Elizabeth is looking like a real holiday-affair with a star-studded celebration planned at Royal Albert Hall. While it is a time for celebrating, this birthday may be bittersweet for the Queen after recent reports indicate she is still having a tough time with a recent loss that she's taken "especially hard."
Billed as the "Queen's Birthday Party," and set for Saturday night, the Queen will celebrate one of her two yearly birthdays with stars like Tom Jones belting out a song or two.
Each year the Queen's birthday is celebrated on the actual date she was born, April 21, but her "official birthday" is on the second Sunday in June when the Queen joins Trooping the Color military parade, according to Fox News.
A special day for Prince Harry
Prince Harry has a special duty Saturday night of delivering a speech in his new role as the president of the Queen's Commonwealth Trust. The Queen will not only feel the love around her as she rings in her 92nd year, but she will also be a proud grandmother when Harry steps into the spotlight to make that speech.
The Queen is without a corgi
This week has been an especially hard one for the Queen.
The death of her dog Willow marks the end of her royal line of corgis. Queen Elizabeth has had a corgi, or three, by her side since she spent her days as a young princess.
The end of the royal breed
According to the Washington Post, Queen Elizabeth had her own Royal breeding line, which started with her beloved corgi Susan. This was a dog she was given to her on her 18th birthday and with it, the Queen started a royal breeding line.
The breeding line has spawned hundreds of dogs over the years, but these corgis were never sold. Other than the pups the Queen kept for herself, she gifted the puppies to friends and family.
The Queen has owned 30 corgis in her lifetime
Queen Elizabeth has owned 30 corgis in total.
Since she's been in reign those dogs were very much a part of the Royal Family, as seen in photos through the years. Willow, who was the Queen's very last corgi, was put to sleep last Sunday at the palace.
He was diagnosed with cancer and the Queen would not let the pup suffer so she opted to euthanize Willow. Today as Queen Elizabeth turns 92, she is without a corgi underfoot for the first time on her birthday since she was a kid.
The end of an era
The Queen quietly disbanded the breeding program a few years ago. She did this because she was up there in age and she didn't want the task of caring for the corgis to be part of the inheritance she would leave behind one day.
So as the Queen turns 92 today, this will be the first time since she was a child that she does not have her beloved Corgi dogs underfoot, on the sofa, or beckoning her for a belly rub.