Like most nonagenarians who have survived the UK’s coronavirus pandemic, Prince Philip’s birthday celebrations on Wednesday will be home-based and distinctly low-key. But unlike many other 99-year-olds, the Queen’s husband will blow his candles out not in a care home or a modest bungalow, but in a castle with a 13-acre garden. No visits are expected from the rest of the royal family, with Prince Charles saying they had been getting by with Zoom calls. The Duke of Edinburgh and the Queen, who have been married for 72 years, will mark his final double-digit birthday in Windsor Castle, where they have been isolating together since March. Buckingham Palace released a new photograph of the couple, which was taken on 1 June in the quadrangle at the castle, to mark his birthday. BBC Radio 4 played the national anthem in his honour on Wednesday morning, shortly before an item on the Black Lives Matter statue-removal movement. The juxtaposition prompted complaints from many on social media, who consider him to have made racist remarks. The duke once warned students they would turn “slitty-eyed” if they stayed in China and disparaged an old-fashioned fusebox by saying: “It looks as if it was put in by an Indian.” Philip has not been seen in public since he spent four nights in hospital in December for what royal officials said was observation and treatment” for a pre-existing condition. The “precautionary measure” and unspecified condition renewed concerns about the duke’s health as he approaches his landmark 100th birthday. Centenarians in Britain typically receive a birthday card from the Queen. In January 2019, Philip emerged unscathed after his vehicle was involved in a traffic accident that injured two people near the Queen’s Sandringham estate in Norfolk. Born in Corfu in 1921, the Duke of Edinburgh is the longest-serving consort in British history. He stepped down from frontline royal duties in May 2017. The Queen and the duke moved to Windsor in March, in effect to self-isolate as the coronavirus outbreak took hold, but have remained there as stay-at-home restrictions were eased. The Queen celebrated her 94th birthday in April with no fanfare, cancelling the traditional gun salute because of the crisis. She was recently seen riding a horse in the grounds of the castle. At the height of the coronavirus outbreak, she sent two rare televised messages to the nation, urging solidarity and determination to fight the virus. The royal family have all been staying apart in lockdown during the pandemic, and communicated via Zoom video calls, FaceTime and by phone, as they are expected to do for Philip’s birthday. Charles is 500 miles away from Philip and the Queen, at Birkhall in Scotland with Camilla. He spoke last week about not seeing the duke, saying in an interview with Sky News: “Well, I haven’t seen my father for a long time. He’s going to be 99 next week, so yes, or my grandchildren or anything. I’ve been doing the FaceTime, is all very well but …” He added: “Well, it’s terribly sad, let alone one’s friends. But fortunately at least you can speak to them on telephones and occasionally do this sort of thing. But it isn’t the same, is it? You really want to give people a hug.”