Prince Philip is stepping down from public life, Buckingham Palace has announced in a statement.
The Duke of Edinburgh has "the full support of the Queen", and will no longer undertake public engagements from autumn this year – although he may attend public events "from time to time".
Full statement below:
The palace statement added: "Her Majesty will continue to carry out a full programme of official engagements with the support of the royal family."
Prince Philip, who turns 96 in June, was at Lord's yesterday to open a new stand at the cricket ground.
The Queen had called an emergency "all staff" meeting at Buckingham Palace this morning (May 4) amid frenzied internet speculation – but a Palace official soon told The AP that there was "no cause for concern".
Staff from royal residences from around the country were called to London to be addressed by the Lord Chamberlain, the most senior official in the Royal Household, and Her Majesty's Private Secretary Sir Christopher Geidt.
The announcement was soon said to not concern the health of either the Queen or the Duke of Edinburgh, despite some tabloid headlines to the contrary. The Queen celebrated her 91st birthday last month.
"No-one has died overnight," ITV News' royal editor Chris Ship told Good Morning Britain on live TV earlier. "All we can say is staff have been called in for quite an important meeting. That meeting is happening and, as a result of it, you can imagine social media and things have gone a little bit wild."
Multiple reports sparked the internet into motion this morning as people speculated about the details of the meeting. "All-staff" meetings are not unusual, though staff were reportedly not told what today's concerned.
"My understanding is that this isn't a significant announcement about an accession, the Queen is not about to abdicate," said Ship. "But we think that there is a reasonably important announcement and we ourselves are then speculating.
"Are we talking about illness, are we talking about the Queen stepping down from various duties or have they found something in the refurb on Buckingham Palace?"
