Don't Worry, the Queen's Alive and Well

Having tested positive for COVID-19 just a few days prior, Queen Elizabeth II reportedly still found the time to virtually attend her weekly meeting with UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson. According to royal sources, the Queen is still suffering from mild cold-like symptoms, hence the attendance via video call in keeping with the country's self-isolation guidelines, but has postponed two other planned meetings continuing to maintain “light duties” such as reviewing and answering documents throughout her recovery.

Given that the Queen is 95 years old, the concern over her health is to be expected but it was more so the fact that Hollywood Unlocked founder Jason Lee repeatedly doubled down on the baseless report that the monarch had died. The gossip blog had initially stated on Tuesday that sources close to (but not in the Royal Family nor Palace staff) had informed them that the Queen passed after failing to attend Vogue editor Edward Enninful's wedding.

The Instagram post was quickly flagged as "false information" but Lee continued to stand by the outlet's initial reporting telling Buzzfeed News, “I would never post something like this if the person that told me, I did not trust. People are asking why we posted without allowing the royal family or the Palace to release a statement. Why? Because we break stories. And I’ve broken many stories that have been factual. We have never been wrong.”

Buzzfeed did rightfully point out that the Queen was not expected to attend Enninful's wedding nor does she usually attend celebrity weddings. A source also suggested that Hollywood Unlocked may have confused the British royal with the late Queens of the Stone Age lead singer Mark Lanegan, who passed away at the age of 57 on the same day that Enninful announced the wedding.

But despite mounting evidence to the contrary, Lee continued to stand by the report, posting bullet points a Notes app statement asserting that “1. I’ve never lied. 2. I’ve never been wrong, 3. I trust my sources, 4. I have yet to see an official statement from the Palace stating otherwise" and making sure to flex that “5. I’ll be at the Donda concert tonight with Ye.” Lee also denounced a retraction that was posted and then deleted by a Twitter account thats posted on behalf of Hollywood Unlocked for two years as being a draft mistakenly shared by an "intern journalist."

All of this has since been deleted as word of Lee's doubling down spread across Twitter but now that the Palace has been able to provide proof of life for the Queen so to speak, it remains to be seen whether or not Lee will issue a formal retraction or just let the whole matter quietly fade into obscurity has yet to be seen.

Photo via Getty/Samir Hussein/WireImage