News organisations and social media launched into overdrive after a newspaper reported Buckingham Palace had called an emergency meeting, prompting speculation Queen Elizabeth II or the Duke of Edinburgh had died.
It began with The Daily Mail reporting a “highly unusual” emergency meeting had been called in the early hours of Thursday, with all royal staff called back to the Palace.
A statement was released saying the Duke of Edinburgh would be stepping down from his public engagements, but in the hours preceding that announcement, there was a flurry of rumours about the meeting’s purpose, and reporters in Britain converged on the Palace.
Talk turned to the health of the 91-year-old Queen and Prince Philip, who turns 96 next month.
Both have suffered recent health scares, and they developed severe colds over Christmas that forced the Queen to miss the traditional Christmas Service.
Prince Philip was also treated in hospital in 2012 after suffering a bladder infection, an illness that overshadowed the latter stages of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations.
However, while the royal couple have trimmed their workload in recent years, they still regularly carry out official duties.
And both appeared to be in good health on Wednesday.
The Queen met Prime Minister Theresa May at the Palace and Prince Philip made an appearance at Lord’s Cricket Ground.
Speculation the meeting could be about one of their deaths continued as a source inside the Palace confirmed to the ABC that the all-staff meeting would take place, but said it was not unusual.
The source said such meetings take place on occasion, usually once or twice per year.
A separate source told the Reuters news agency there was “no cause for alarm”, while a palace official told the Associated Press there was “no cause for concern”.
However it was not before British newspaper The Sun published a report incorrectly declaring the Prince dead, before retracting it.
Finally, shortly after 7pm Australian time, the Royal Family issued a statement revealing Prince Philip would no longer carry out public engagements after August this year.
After the day’s events, and a sleepless night for many in other parts of the world, the news brought on a sense of relief, sadness and even amusement at the global fuss, with one Twitter user suggesting the Queen had just ‘trolled the whole world’.
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