Queen was ‘madly in love’ with Philip and believed ‘tolerance was key’ in marriage, expert claims
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The Queen was “madly in love with Prince Philip” and believed “tolerance was the key” to a happy marriage, a royal expert claimed.
Historian Dr Tessa Dunlop said the late monarch’s marriage was so successful because the Queen provided Prince Philip with the “stability” that the Duke of Edinburgh sadly never had growing up.
The late royal was born just as the Greek royal family fell under a military dictatorship and spent the rest of his childhood on the run in Europe before eventually being enrolled at Gordonstoun School in Scotland.
Speak against OK! magazinesaid the royal expert – who has written the biography Elizabeth and Philip: A Story of Young Love, Marriage and Monarchy – said the Queen remained “madly in love” with Prince Philip throughout their 73-year marriage.
Dr. Dunlop said, “I think Philip loved Elizabeth. I never doubted that. She changed his life.
She gave him stability he never had, she gave him wealth he never had. She gave him a platform he couldn’t have dreamed of. She gave him everything he didn’t have.’
Prince Philip and the Queen pictured on their wedding day in 1947. Royal pundit Dr Tessa Dunlop said the Queen remained ‘madly in love’ with Prince Philip throughout their 73-year marriage
The royal couple pictured in Scotland on September 7, 2013. Dr. Dunlop says the Queen gave Prince Philip the “stability” he never had as a child
Dr. Tessa Dunlop – pictured on Good Morning Britain on 14 October 2022 – has written the biography Elizabeth and Philip: A Story of Young Love, Marriage and Monarchy
That said, the expert claimed that both “independence” and “tolerance” were key to the success of the couple’s lasting marriage and that the Queen was “very good at giving Prince Philip space when he needed to.” had’.
Dr. Dunlop then referred to a speech Prince Philip gave on the couple’s silver wedding anniversary in 1972, in which he described his wife as having “tolerance in abundance”.
Last week, the expert described how the Queen “gave Prince Philip some slack about his friendships with women,” as the late monarch knew her husband was forced to “walk the tightrope” as her consort.
The royal pundit appeared on Mail Plus’s Palace Confidential series and commented on a storyline in The Crown’s new series in which Prince Philip pursues an extra-marital relationship with Penny Knatchbull.
Penny Knatchbull became one of Prince Philip’s “closest confidants” in the last 30 years of his life after the Duke helped the Countess through her grief over the loss of her child to cancer. The pair pictured at the Royal Windsor Horse show in May 2007
The new series of The Crown will show Prince Philip pursuing an affair with Penny Knatchbull. Pictured Jonathan Pryce and Natasha McElhone as Penny Knatchbull
Countess Mountbatten of Burma became the Duke’s ‘closest confidante’ and was one of 30 mourners to attend his funeral in April 2021.
The hit Netflix series allegedly filmed “intimate scenes” between Prince Philip and Penny Knatchbull – who had a 32-year age difference – that landed on screens last week, just over two months after Queen Elizabeth II’s death.
Speaking to presenter Jo Elvin, Dr Dunlop said: ‘The bottom line is he wasn’t sexually faithful – that’s what people have deduced.
“But whether he was or not, the Queen and he clearly had a loving and lasting marriage and a partnership that she leaned on and he leaned on. They both depended on each other.’
In 1947, Prince Philip renounced his claim to the Greek and Danish thrones in order to play the part of the Queen’s Consort.
When the Queen inherited the throne in 1952, it was confirmed that the royal family would be known as ‘Windsor’ – before the couple decided eight years later that their descendants without HRH status would be given the surname Mountbatten-Windsor.
Despite hopes that they could stay at Clarence House, Prime Minister Winston Churchill – who was in office when King VI died – was adamant that the young couple take up residence at Buckingham Palace.
Commenting on the impact this had on their marriage, Dr Dunlop continued: ‘I think the Queen understood Philip’s need for freedom. She asked a lot of an alpha male to step in behind her and support her. To renounce his name. To part with his house.’
Speaking about the Duke of Edinburgh’s alleged infidelity, the expert said: ‘I think the Queen absolutely understood that Prince Philip had to walk a tightrope and she gave him some slack.
“Whatever that means for his behavior with women, I don’t know. He didn’t want us to know and the Queen didn’t want us to know and seemed to be at peace with whatever happened.’
Penny Knatchbull and The Queen pictured at the Royal Windsor Horse show in May 2018. In the Netflix series, Prince Philip tells Penny that he and his wife have ‘grown in different directions’
Penny Knatchbull was one of only 30 mourners to attend Prince Philip’s funeral in April 2021. In the picture, he leaves Windsor after the funeral
Netflix uses the death of Penny’s daughter from cancer at the age of five in 1991 as the starting point for a relationship with her Philip.
In the programme, the Duke – played by Jonathan Pryce – is portrayed telling Lady Mountbatten – played by Natasha McElhone – that he and the Queen have ‘grown in different directions’.
And in another episode, the Duke explains that he is looking for ‘companion’, before the Queen summons Lady Mountbatten to Windsor.
Dickie Arbiter, who served as Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II’s spokesperson from 1988 to 2000, previously expressed how unpleasant it was that scenes involving Penny and Philip would be played just weeks after her funeral.
“Only weeks after the nation buried Her Majesty next to Prince Philip, this is deeply distasteful and, quite frankly, cruel nonsense,” he said.
“The truth is Penny was an old friend of the whole family. Netflix isn’t interested in people’s feelings.”