TAKING OVER

With Queen Elizabeth II sidelined during the pandemic, Prince William and Kate Middleton step up to fill her formidable shoes.

She made her first radio address at the age of 14, and has worked tirelessly ever since, keeping up a grueling schedule of appearances and meetings well into her 90s. But with the U.K. in lockdown due to the coronavirus, Queen Elizabeth II has been forced to relinquish many of her duties — and she isn’t happy about it. “It’s not by choice,” a royals insider says of the queen, who at 94 is in a high-risk group for severe COVID-19 symptoms and is therefore unable to go out in public in the foreseeable future. “While she is usually very good at hiding her emotions, she’s so frustrated that she has cried.”

Yet Her Majesty understands reality. And with her immediate heir, Prince Charles, 71, on the mend from the virus himself, she’s looked to grandson Prince William and his wife, Kate Middleton, to step up and fill her formidable shoes. “She’s handing over many of her responsibilities to William and Kate, and they’re happy to come to the rescue,” says the insider. “They adore the queen and will do anything they can for her, and for the monarchy.”

LEARNING ON THE JOB

Aside from joining the rest of the royal family for recent official appearances — such as a May 12 video conference call to honor nurses around the world — William, 37, and Kate, 38, have had lengthy conversations with the queen, in which she explains her duties and oversees the couple as they begin the task of undertaking them. “She’s guiding William and Kate through her workload, including charity work, diary planning, crisis management, dealing with the press and more,” the insider explains. “It’s basically a royal boot camp.”

And it’s been exhausting. Since her crowning in 1953, the queen

has received daily briefings from heads of state, taking only two days off a year. Now, in passing on her responsibilities to William and Kate, she’s made it clear she expects them to work just as hard. While recent weeks have been challenging for the couple, to be sure, they’ve also been exciting. “They brainstorm with the queen about modernizing the monarchy,” the insider reveals of the parents of George, 6, Charlotte, 5, and Louis, 2. “William and Kate have been learning a lot for when they officially take on the crown — and if that happens sooner rather than later, they’re ready.”