Business Insider’s Headline About Queen Elizabeth Dying Probably Could Have Been Timed a Little Better

Many of us can agree that it’s been a tough 2016. In addition to a crazy presidential election, the world also lost a lot of incredible artists and people, including David Bowie, Prince, Alan Rickman, Gene Wilder, and Florence Henderson. This week, George Michael and Carrie Fisher also died. Several websites, including Us and NPR have written “In Memoriam” articles. Today, Business Insider did something different.

The website published an article with the headline “The death of Queen Elizabeth will be the most disruptive event in Britain in the last 70 years.” True. The timing, however, feels a bit odd.

To be fair, the article isn’t as much about the death of Queen Elizabeth as it is about what happens in the country in the event of the death of a monarch. According to the article, when this happens, all comedy is cancelled. The new monarch has the opportunity to change his or her name. The article says that “Upon ascending to the Throne, royals may pick their “regnal” name from any of their Christian or middle names.” A lot of it is interesting. It also feels like it’s in poor taste, especially since the Queen has reportedly been suffering from a “heavy cold,” and according to a report from Yahoo, the “public in the United Kingdom is growing concerned.”

The article was posted to Facebook, and lots of commenters weren’t happy. One wrote, “I do not understand why this article was written. It’s despicable and unwarranted.” Another wrote “Would the author write as coldly if it were their own parent?”

Others felt differently. One commenter wrote, “The article simply says she will not live forever. And also wishes she will be with us for many years to come. This is nothing but an article about the future of the British monarchy.” A screen shot of a few of the comments is below:

It’s also worth noting that the article was published 13 hours ago, before the news of Fisher’s death was widespread.

[featured image via Lorna Roberts / Shutterstock.com]