The Moment Queen Elizabeth Wept In Airplane After Learning Of Father's Death: Report

Queen Elizabeth II broke down in tears in an airplane during her journey home from Kenya to the U.K. after learning of her father King George VI's death seven decades ago, according to a biographer.

The Queen will mark the anniversary of her father's death Sunday, and People is looking back at the moment the monarch learned of King George VI's passing.

The then-25-year-old princess was visiting Kenya on a tour of the Commonwealth on Feb. 6, 1952, when Prince Philip told his wife the tragic news. King George VI had died at age 56 of coronary thrombosis — making his elder daughter and heir the new monarch.

Nicholas Best, biographer of Eric Sherbrooke Walker — the founder of the Treetops resort where the royal couple had been staying in Kenya at the time — said Queen Elizabeth immediately canceled the rest of the tour and made her way to the Nanyuki airstrip with her husband and royal entourage.

She boarded the plane quickly and wept during the flight, according to Best.

"The mask slipped once they were airborne. The Queen left her seat after a while. Her face was set when she returned, but it was obvious to the other passengers that she had been in the loo, having a good long cry," Best previously wrote in a piece for The Guardian.

It took several hours before word of her father's death reached Queen Elizabeth because the telegram sent to the Government House in Nairobi couldn't be decoded as the keys to the safe holding the codebook were unavailable. In addition, the royals' accommodation was in a remote location.

"We were the last people in the world to hear the news," Lady Pamela Hicks, cousin to Prince Philip and lady-in-waiting to Queen Elizabeth, previously told her daughter, India, on "The India Hicks Podcast."

Hicks witnessed the moment the late Duke of Edinburgh broke the news to his wife during a walk in the gardens at the nearby Sagana Lodge. She recalled that the monarch immediately returned to apologize to everyone for having to fly back to the U.K. in haste.

The Queen and Prince Philip had been enjoying a short break on the first week of their tour and were staying in a treehouse perched on an enormous fig tree at Treetops in Aberdare National Park. Hicks recalled that their accommodation only had two guest rooms, and they had to climb up a ladder pinned to the tree to get there.

"She goes up that ladder as a princess; the King dies that night; she comes down that ladder a Queen," Hicks said.

The lady-in-waiting noted that this moment was one of the last times Queen Elizabeth's "natural modesty" could be played out.

"She was only thinking of all of us and there were not many opportunities later on," Hicks said.

Queen Elizabeth II headed to Sandringham late last month ahead of her late father King George VI's death anniversary on Feb. 6.

The Queen usually stays at the Norfolk estate starting in late December, when the royal family reunites to celebrate the holidays. However, last year, she decided to spend Christmas at Windsor Castle accompanied by Prince Charles and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall amid the surge in COVID-19 cases in the U.K.

Queen Elizabeth traditionally stays at Sandringham until after Feb. 6, also known as Accession Day. She normally spends it in quiet, somber reflection and takes part in a low-key engagement close to her estate.

This year also marks Queen Elizabeth's 70th year on the throne. The monarch's Platinum Jubilee festivities will culminate in a four-day U.K. bank holiday weekend from June 2 to 5.