A rogue tweet by a BBC reporter after an “obituary rehearsal” led several major international news organizations to wrongly report that Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II had been admitted to hospital.
Buckingham Palace has denied any suggestion the monarch is unwell, after erroneous breaking news reports said she was staying at the King Edward VII’s Hospital, a private facility in Marylebone, London.
The BBC said it was carrying out a “category one obituary rehearsal” when the reporter mistakenly sent the tweet.
The news of the queen’s hospitalization originally came from the Twitter account of a BBC Urdu reporter, Ahmen Khawaja.
She later deleted the original tweet and called it a false alarm.
A few minutes afterward, she tweeted that she had left her mobile phone unattended and said the tweet had been a “silly prank.”
US news channel CNN was forced to recall a tweet it sent about the queen’s hospitalization, saying it was sent in error.
Other news outlets that reported the false story included the German newspaper Bild and the editor of India’s Hindustan Times.
Buckingham Palace said the queen went to the hospital on Wednesday morning for a “routine” and “pre-scheduled” annual checkup.
It took the unusual step of confirming the private medical visit following the flurry of speculation on social media about the queen’s health.
“I can confirm that the queen this morning attended her annual medical checkup at the King Edward VII’s Hospital in London. This was a routine, pre-scheduled appointment, the queen has now left hospital,” a Buckingham Palace spokesman said.
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