The Queen is marking the 70th anniversary of her reign on Sunday and, while this summer will be full of celebrations for the Platinum Jubilee, the official day will be tinged with sadness.

The day that Princess Elizabeth became The Queen was the day that her father, King George VI, sadly passed away at the age of 56 while she was in Kenya during a tour of the Commonwealth.

Royal correspondent Jennie Bond tells OK! that the day will be "a quiet day of reflection" for Her Majesty as she spends it without her husband, Prince Philip, for the first time.

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Jennie says: "Losing a parent is a landmark, but for The Queen it was an absolute traumatic upheaval. To leave the UK as one role as a Princess and return as a Queen, she was faced with a brutal reality.

"She had lost her father, she loved him, and had this huge weight of responsibility on her shoulders.

"She'd lost her father, had to move house, was crowned, had to establish a relationship with the Prime Minister, she had to sign every act of parliament, her diary was crammed with demands and engagements and she was only 25 with two young kids.

"She also had to deal with the domestic upset of Philip having to leave his career in the Navy and help him navigate the suspicions of the old fashioned Buckingham Palace courtiers, that must have brought some marital stress."

Jennie continued: "The loss of her father meant a whole raft of things. For the rest of us, we have the grief and the loss but we don't have to do quite so much.

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"This year she has a lot to reflect on, she has the Platinum Jubilee, the loss of both her father and her husband, but her 70 years by any measure has been a highly successful reign, despite all of the difficulties and all of the traumas and with more to come this year with Andrew and Harry's memoirs.

"She can look herself in the mirror and say it's been a job well done, but I don't think she will do that, she's not one to pat herself on the back.

"I think she'll have a quiet day of reflection. It is a sombre and very private day.

"She doesn't usually appear in public on that day, she has once or twice but it's very unusual."

Discussing her jubilee in her Christmas Day speech, The Queen said she hopes "it will be an opportunity for people everywhere to enjoy a sense of togetherness, a chance to give thanks to the enormous changes over the past 70 years; social, scientific and cultural. And also to look ahead with confidence."

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