Long live the Queen! Rumor spread on Wednesday, June 3, that Queen Elizabeth II was dead, but the monarch is still alive and well.
The talk began when BBC broadcast journalist Ahmen Khawaja tweeted, "BREAKING: Queen Elizabeth is being treated at King Edward 7th Hospital in London. Statement due shortly: @BBC World." That was followed up by another tweet reading, "'Queen Elizabeth has died': @BBCWorld."
According to NBC News, the tweets were brought to the attention of Buckingham Palace, which shot down the rumors. The palace did confirm that the royal, 89, saw a doctor this week, but only for a checkup, saying in a statement, "This was a routine pre-scheduled appointment. The queen has now left [the] hospital and carries on with her engagements."
Though her tweets have since been deleted, Khawaja offered up multiple different explanations for the false alarm, NBC News reports. She allegedly first blamed someone who had picked up her phone while it was unattended, writing, "Silly prank, Apologies for upsetting anyone!" and later said simply, "False Alarm: Have deleted previous tweets!!"
The BBC gave its own explanation in a statement to NBC, citing a news exercise that was gauging the staff's readiness for the event of Elizabeth II's death.
"During a technical rehearsal for an obituary, tweets were mistakenly sent from the account of a BBC journalist," the statement reads. "The tweets were swiftly deleted and we apologize for any offense."
On Wednesday morning, Khawaja went on to retweet a message from NBC's Alexander Smith, which reads, "Buckingham Palace tells me Queen/hospital report 100% untrue, no idea where it came from."
