A body language expert analyses 15 iconic photos of Queen Elizabeth II

A grandmother’s love is like no other. Here, the Queen’s happiness is unmistakable, Wood points out to Reader’s Digest, as she “leans in” to look at the world through the innocent eyes of her young grandsons, the Princes William and Harry, at the Guards Polo Club in Windsor in 1987.

For more adorable royal kids, check out these pictures of the world’s future kings and queens.

“1992 is not a year on which I shall look back with undiluted pleasure,” Her Majesty stated in her public address at Guildhall on November 24, 1992, which marked her 40th year as Queen. It had, as she put it, turned out to be an “Annus Horribilis,” which is the politest possible way the Queen could express her regret at the collapse of three of her children’s marriages, a devastating fire at the historic Windsor Castle, and the related tabloid feeding frenzy. In this photo, the Queen, then 66, stretches her mouth tensely, pulling and holding back her emotions, as Wood puts it. Still, she maintains her composure as she holds her script, just as she did 56 years earlier (see “The future foretold,” above).

In a much more mirthful moment, the Queen and her eldest grandchild, Prince William, have some fun together in the Royal Box at the Royal Albert Hall in London during the Annual Festival of Remembrance on November 7, 2015. It’s a rare moment in which Her Majesty allows us to see her enjoying her family, genuinely and without self-consciousness, Wood tells Reader’s Digest.

Don’t miss these 12 photos of Prince William acting like the future king that he is.

One month after Meghan Markle’s marriage to the Queen’s second-born grandson, Prince Harry, we see the Queen successfully engaging her new granddaughter-in-law at their first royal engagement together, a ceremony to open the new Mersey Gateway Bridge, held on June 14, 2018. All is hopeful and happy in this moment, it seems to Wood, who notes, “Queen Elizabeth seems to be having fun with Meghan.”

This photo, taken on November 11, 2019, shows how things have changed for Her Majesty in the year or so since Harry wed Meghan. By the 100th observance of Remembrance Day marking the “11th-hour” signing of the armistice that ended World War I between the Allied countries and Germany, relations between the royal family and the Duke and Duchess of Sussex had grown prickly, and it appears the Duchess of Cambridge is taking the brunt of it, at least on this particular occasion, in which Wood sees Elizabeth II rejecting Kate’s friendly overtures. On this solemn occasion, the Queen wishes to be serious, Wood explains. Kate appears to accept the rebuff graciously.

On January 19, 2020, the Queen had left St Mary the Virgin Church in Norfolk, shortly after the royal family’s official announcement that a settlement had been reached with Harry and Meghan; the Sussexes would give up their “HRH” styling, as well as public funding, and begin a new civilian life, away from the royals, in North America.

“Oh, there are so many emotions here,” Wood says about this photo. “It’s as if the left side of her face is where all the happiness has gone, and the right side of her face expresses all the sadness.”

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Source: RD.com