Queen Elizabeth II

Back in June, Meghan Markle welcomed her second child, a girl named Lilibet.

The name was taken from a nickname that Prince Philip had often used when referring to his wife, Queen Elizabeth II.

It's almost impossible to believe that Meghan Markle is a day over 29, but the Duchess of Sussex hit the big 4-0 on Wednesday.

Of course, Meghan is one of the most beloved women on the planet, so any anxiety that she might be feeling about crossing the line into middle-age is surely allayed by the loving tributes that have poured in from every corner of the globe.

From the moment that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle announced that they would be stepping down from the roles as senior members of the royal family, fans, critics, and media outlets all over the world have been speculating about the final straw that led to that momentous decision.

Even after the couple told their side of the story in an interview with Oprah Winfrey, rumors about the exact cause of their irreparable rift with Harry's family remained somewhat mysterious.

Here in the US, Meghan Markle's Oprah Winfrey was a major boon to the popularity of the already-beloved Duchess.

But it seems that overseas, the candid conversation between two queens had a very different effect.

Last week, Queen Elizabeth II celebrated her 95th birthday.

The occasion was a bittersweet one, of course, as it came just days after the death of Prince Philip, Elizabeth's husband of 73 years.

British tabloids have managed to blame Meghan Markle for Prince Philip's death and everything else that comes to mind.

The hatred for the Duchess of Sussex is not a mystery, but her strongest critics of course deny racism.

Prince Philip, the lifelong companion of Great Britain's Queen Elizabeth II and the longest-serving consort of any British monarch, passed away on Friday.

He was 99 years old.

Long before it actually aired, Meghan Markle's interview with Oprah was expected to create some major turmoil within the British Royal Family.

But aside from the few insiders who knew exactly what Meghan was planning to reveal, we don't think anyone expected this level of upheaval.

Buckingham Palace is aghast, you guys. It's shocked. It's stunned. It's utterly flabbergasted at this recent news.

It's taken aback by some of the stuff Prince Harry and Meghan Markle told Oprah Winfrey on Sunday night.

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry don't give many interviews.

That's one of the best parts about marrying or being born into a royal family -- you get all the spoils of fame without having to do all the annoying self-promotional crap.

Here's something that might come as a surprise to our readers in the UK:

Here in America, Meghan Markle is very highly regarded.

We're not sure if it's a job requirement, or just one of the psychological effects of holding a position of authority over tens of millions of people, but queens are generally tough to please.

That might go double for Queen Elizabeth II, who's been the reigning monarch in her country since the days when Winston Churchill was prime minister, Dwight D. Eisenhower was president, and landing on the moon was the stuff of distant dreams.

As we enter a new year, many are voicing hopes that 2021 will be the year in which members of the royal family will be able to set aside the differences that have been tearing them apart for so long.

But so far it looks like the pleas for peace have fallen on deaf ears.

In the nine months since Prince Harry and Meghan Markle stepped down from their roles as senior members of the Royal Family, the press has made a big deal of the surprising ways in which the couple has asserted their independence.

In fact, if this were a contest of some sort, we think it's safe to say that the average commoner's take on the situation would be that Harry and Meghan have "won."

When Meghan Markle and Prince Harry stepped down from their roles as senior members of the Royal Family, no one knew what to expect.

After all, nothing like this had ever been attempted in the modern era.

We don't need to tell you that 2020 wasn't an easy year for anyone.

And while we have no special sympathy for the British Royal Family -- after all, they were spared the economic anxiety that characterized the past nine months for so many -- the Queen and her inner circle had their most trying year in recent memory due to a seemingly endless string of PR crises.

Last week, in a stunning essay for the New York Times, Meghan Markle revealed that she had suffered a miscarriage in July of this year.

The news was met with an outpouring of sympathy, and the essay drew widespread praise for its courage and candor.

In the most recent season of the Netflix drama The Crown, there's an episode in which Queen Elizabeth does some soul searching in an effort to determine if she has a favorite among her four children.

While she eventually comes to the conclusion that she's not that crazy about any of her kids, the Queen's husband, Prince Philip, insists that her clear favorite is the perennially troubled Prince Andrew.

The fourth season of the royal drama The Crown debuted on Netflix this week, and for many of the show's younger fans, these may be the its most poignant episodes yet.

While the series' protagonist is still a fictionalized version of Queen Elizabeth, she now finds herself butting heads with a character whom viewers might find far more sympathetic -- a very young and very naive Princess Diana.

One only has to look at their new, non-royal portrait to see how far Meghan and Harry have come from their royal days.

According to a new book, it was the Queen who decided that the two could not be trusted with the "royal" title after Megxit.

According to a brand new book, not even Queen Elizabeth II was immune from the wrath of Prince Harry amid the ex-Royal's simmering feud with his famous family members.

The coronavirus pandemic has led to millions of events and public appearances being canceled or indefinitely postponed all over the world.

We've become accustomed to holing up at home and watching our favorite celebrities do the same.

Queen Elizabeth II turned 94 years old on Tuesday, celebrating the occasion amid a viral outbreak that has shut down her country -- and the entire world.

This special occasion also took place in the wake of another trady:

You definitely should not need another reason to believe in the severity of the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic.

But just in case the daily rising death roll isn't sufficient enough for you, consider the following: