The Monarch, 95, is spending the accession day at Sandringham, her estate in the east of England where King George VI passed away on February 6, 1952, making her queen.

The year will be defined by celebration, with pageants and parades in June, but the anniversary itself has a sombre backdrop too.

And it takes place less than a year after the queen lost her husband of 73 years, Prince Philip, who also spent much of his retirement on Sandringham Estate at Wood Farm.

Co-host Jack Royston told Newsweek podcast The Royal Report how the queen was not originally a direct heir to the throne until her uncle Edward VIII abdicated in 1936 to marry Wallis Simpson making her father king.

He said: “Over the course of the war the pressure and stress of the job took such a huge toll on George VI that his health deteriorated leading to his death at 56.

“So at the age of 26 she then took on the job that helped to kill her father which is an enormous amount of responsibility and I just wonder how its going to feel for her so soon after Philip passed away last year.

“Sandringham is the place where Philip spent much of his retirement so there must be so much emotion swilling around for her in terms of the poignancy of that mirroring—the moment she lost her father and the moment she lost her husband.”

He added: “They say its lonely at the top and she’s been at the top for 70 years.”

Elizabeth automatically became queen the moment her father passed away but her official coronation was not until the following year, in 1953.

Buckingham Palace has released pictures of her looking over memorabilia from past jubilees at Windsor Castle, before she relocated to Sandringham.

The center piece of the Platinum Jubilee will be over a four-day weekend at the beginning of June, when the royals will gather, including for Trooping the Color, Elizabeth’s birthday parade.

However, the events will have several clouds hanging over them, including the notable absence of Prince Andrew who is preparing to fight allegations he had sex with a 17-year-old Jeffrey Epstein trafficking victim, Virginia Giuffre.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle also may not make the celebrations after the Duke of Sussex filed a lawsuit against the British Government for not providing him police protection while in Britain.

His legal representative said it is not safe for him and his family to return without Metropolitan Police bodyguards.

Royal watcher Kristen Meinzer said: “It has been such a tough year between COVID, Prince Philip dying, everything that’s happened with Meghan and Harry, Andrew under investigation. There’s just so much that has been tough in the last year or two.

“During this moment of celebration a lot of those feelings about those tough things aren’t going to go away entirely. They’re not going to evaporate.”