(LONDON) — A close member of the royal family will care for Queen Elizabeth’s beloved corgis, ABC News has learned.
Prince Andrew, the Duke of York, will look after the dogs after they return to live with him and Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York, at Royal Lodge in Berkshire, England, a source close to Prince Andrew told ABC News.
Queen Elizabeth II’s love for the breed began in 1933, when her father, then the Duke of York, gifted a Pembroke Welsh corgi, for the family. The future monarch then received Susan — the first corgi of her own — as an 18th birthday present in 1944. Susan would later accompany Elizabeth and Prince Philip on their honeymoon at Broadlands in Romsey in 1947.
Elizabeth is believed to have owned more than 30 corgis descended from Susan throughout her lifetime. Some of the dogs included some corgi-dachshund mixes called “dorgis,” which were conceived accidentally after one of Elizabeth’s corgis mated with a dachshund owned by Princess Margaret.
A pack of corgis soon became synonymous with the monarch and staples of the royal households.
“My corgis are family,” the queen once said, according to Vanity Fair.
Queen Elizabeth has been described by the American Kennel Club as “one of the most prolific and dedicated Pembroke Welsh Corgi breeders and ambassadors that the world has ever seen.”
Elizabeth stopped breeding corgis this past decade to avoid the dogs outliving her, Monty Roberts, an adviser to the queen, told Vanity Fair in 2015. The last of the queen’s purebred corgis, Willow, died in 2018.
But Ferguson found the puppies later gifted to the queen by Prince Andrew following the hospitalization of Prince Philip in 2021.
Ferguson first bonded with the queen over dog walking and horse riding and continued that friendship even after her divorce from Prince Andrew. Royal Lodge is only a few miles from Windsor Castle, and the pair would walk the dogs in the area, the source said.
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