What does nine and a half stone mean in The Crown season 5?

The Crown season 5 has arrived on Netflix and the new season wasted no time in introducing viewers to its new Queen, though our introduction definitely comes via an unexpected thread.

This season, Imelda Staunton takes over the role of Queen Elizabeth II from Olivia Colman, who took over the role in seasons 3 and 4 after Claire Foy originated the role, and we get to formally meet this new iteration of the Queen within the opening sequence of the season in a very personal moment.

As the season begins, we get a flashback to a moment from the Queen’s past before we return to the present day in the show’s timeline, July 1991. When we first meet Staunton’s Queen Elizabeth II, she’s meeting with her physician for what appears to be her annual physical.

When taking her weight, the Queen’s doctor says she is nine and a half stone — a phrasing that has many heading to Google to figure out what exactly it means. And that’s where we come in!

What age is nine and a half stone The Crown season 5

So what exactly did the Queen’s physician mean when he told Queen Elizabeth II she weighed nine and a half stone? As it turns out, this was a way of saying 133 pounds — which is how much the Queen was recorded to weigh at the time of her physical.

The phrasing is one that threw off a lot of folks who are used to weights being given in pounds, not stones. Stone is a British unit of weight with one stone being the equivalent of 14 pounds. So when the Queen’s physician says she was nine stone at her last physical, that was his way of saying the queen had gained roughly seven pounds since her last physical.

The Crown season 5 is streaming now on Netflix.