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From the history books and what we’ve seen in documentaries and Netflix’s The Crown, Queen Elizabeth’s life hasn’t exactly been carefree. The Crowned Queen was never supposed to sit on the throne. However, when she was just 10 years old, her father’s brother, King Edward VIII, abdicated the crown, making her father, King George VI.

Though she understood her destiny, it would come much faster then anyone could have expected. In 1952 when the queen was just 25, her father passed away and she was left to become the Head of State, undertaking constitutional and representational duties for the U.K. and the Commonwealth.

Unfortunately, this means that the queen’s life has never truly been her own. Though she takes solace in her work and her family, the queen has said that despite everything, the most exciting night of her life occurred just after World War II.

Queen Elizabeth has seen a lot of hardship in her long reign

Though people are still up in arms about Meghan, Duchess of Sussex and Prince Harry choosing to leave the British royal family, we have to remember that this doesn’t even begin to fall in the same category as some of the scandals that the queen has seen during her time on the throne.

The queen lived through World War II, witnessed countless scandalous from her younger sister, Princess Margaret including an affair with a married man and an overdose. Her daughter, Princess Anne, was nearly kidnapped one point. And, she also had to contend with Princess Diana’s tragic death.

However, none of this compares to the year, 1992. That year, Princess Anne discovered that her husband, had fathered a child outside of their marriage, Princess Diana and Prince Charles separated following the prince’s affair with Camilla Duchess of Cornwall, and Prince Andrew began dissolving is marriage to Duchess Sarah Ferguson after she was photographed getting her toes sucked by an American businessman.

Queen Elizabeth keeps an incredibly fast-paced schedule

Though her family has certainly been in the newspapers across the decades, the queen has never let that deter her from doing the work. Even in her wiser years, she still has a very hectic daily schedule.

“If you think about it, her entire life has been one of duty, ” royal expert, Ingrid Seward, editor of Majesty Magazine told Sky News. “Even from when she was a tiny child her day was very regulated. So she will be very unused to this. She has probably been doing some of the things we have all been doing like going through draws and photo albums. Certainly, one thing is that she will have been kept busy because she always says ‘if I stop, I drop’. She will probably celebrate with her immediate staff because she is not able to be around anyone else. Normally she might perhaps go riding but she certainly would think that was the wrong thing to do at the moment. She is very conscious as always of other people and their problems.”

The most exciting day of Queen Elizabeth’s life happened when she was a young woman

Despite the drama and her work schedule, the queen has had some very good moments. In fact, the most exciting day of her life occurred in 1945. In the new PBS new documentary, The Queen at War, there is rare footage of Princess Margaret and Queen Elizabeth when they were relocated to the countryside between 1940 and 1941 when Germany was regularly bombing England. The description for the film reads, “She was evacuated, her home was bombed, she lost a family member and she volunteered to help the war effort.”

However, the film also reflects on the queen’s favorite days ever. Following King George VI’s historic announcement that Germany had surrendered, the queen and Princess Margaret were allowed to celebrate in the streets of London. Queen Elizabeth has called it “the most exciting night of her life.”

The Queen at War executive producer Chris Granlund told Town & Country that this was probably the first and one of the only times in her life the queen has ever been given such freedom. He called the moment, “unprecedented.”

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