The couple had the longest royal marriage in history.
Many people will recall photographs of the late Queen Elizabeth II attending her husband Prince Philip’s funeral under Covid restrictions.
Due to rigorous social distance rules, the late monarch was obliged to attend the service at St George’s Chapel entirely alone and masked in April 2021.
While people all across the world had to deal with similar situations when their loved ones died, Britons were especially heartbroken when they saw the Queen weep for her husband of over 74 years.
Following Prince Philip’s ᴅᴇᴀᴛʜ, the Queen reportedly performed a similarly ‘heartbreakingly’ simple act.
Angela Kelly, her close friend and senior dresser, reportedly told royal biographer and former MP Gyles Brandreth about the incident, which he documented in his book Elizabeth: An Intimate Portrait.
An excerpt of the book saw the expert writing: “Immediately after Prince Philip’s funeral, she returned to her apartment in Windsor Castle in silence.”
It continued: “‘I helped her off with her coat and hat’, her dresser, Angela Kelly, remembered, ‘and no words were spoken’. The Queen then walked to her sitting room, closed the door behind her, and she was alone with her thoughts’.”
In a 1997 address commemorating the couple’s 50th wedding anniversary, the Queen referred to Philip as her’strength and stay’.
She said: “All too often, I fear, Prince Philip has had to listen to me speaking. Frequently we have discussed my intended speech beforehand and, as you will imagine, his views have been expressed in a forthright manner.
“He has, quite simply, been my strength and stay all these years, and I, and his whole family, and this and many other countries, owe him a debt greater than he would ever claim, or we shall ever know.”
The late monarch pass:ed away in September 2022 at the age of 96, having ruled for an astounding seven decades.
She met Philip for the first time in 1934, at the wedding of Princess Marina of Greece and Denmark to Prince George, Duke of Kent. Their engagement was officially announced on July 9, 1947, and they married just a few months later, in late November.
This marked the start of what would become the world’s longest royal marriage.
The couple had four children together: Charles, born a year after their wedding in 1948, Anne, born a few years later in 1950, Andrew, born a decade later in 1960, and their youngest child, Edward, born in 1964.
