Queen & Philip Reportedly Quietly ‘Separated’ Before His Death as Sources Claim ‘She Was Furious’ at Him
There’s no unimportant royal gossip, apparently. That even applies to things that should not make headlines at this point, like the relationship between Queen Elizabeth II and her husband, Prince Philip.
Sure, both of them passed away years ago, and their son, King Charles, is now the King of England. But that doesn’t mean people are still not interested in what went on between them. There’s an entire show, The Crown, that proves how much people care, after all.
Related: Here’s what each royal inherited from Queen Elizabeth
A new biography on Queen Elizabeth II is now shedding light on what their relationship was in the final years before Prince Philip’s 2021 death, with writer Hugo Vickers claiming that, “in a sense, they had separated.”
Vickers says that by the time the Duke of Edinburgh passed away on April 9, 2021, he and the queen had lived apart for several years. Philip took a step back from royal duties in 2017 amid his health issues, which reportedly included cancer, and retired to Sandringham. The Queen, meanwhile, continued with her public duties.
“The Queen let the Duke do exactly as he pleased. He was at his happiest at Wood Farm on the Sandringham estate,” Vickers wrote, via People.
Philip lived at Wood Farm, on Sandringham, ironically, where his son Andrew is living these days, alone. Andrew is there for much worse reasons, though. However, according to Vickers, Philip wasn’t always alone. His longtime friend Penny Mountbatten frequently joined him.
“He enjoyed his carriage-driving, read voraciously and painted a little,” Vickers wrote. “From time to time, the Queen went up by train to Norfolk to stay the weekend. Once again, she gave him a loose rein. In a sense, they had separated.”
However, in his final months, Queen Elizabeth II relocated from Buckingham Palace to Windsor Castle amid COVID-19 lockdowns and asked Philip to join her. They were “moved into four rooms in the castle, looked after by a ‘skeleton’ staff, 22 in total,” Vickers wrote. “They entered a strict isolation, jokingly nicknamed HMS Bubble, by the Master of the Household, Tony Johnstone-Burt. Nobody was allowed to enter the Upper Ward of the castle, and there were no ladies-in-waiting in attendance.”
Vickers recounts that on Philip’s final night, he “gave his nurses the slip, shuffled along the corridor on his Zimmer frame, helped himself to a beer and drank it in the Oak Room.” The Queen did not see him before his death. “The following morning, he got up, had a bath, said he did not feel well, and quietly slipped away.”
“[The Queen] took the line, I was told, that she was ‘absolutely furious that, as so often in life, he left without saying goodbye,’” Vickers wrote. Reportedly, this was a common comment between the two, as Philip often slipped away without bidding the queen farewell.
The Duke of Edinburgh’s funeral was severely scaled down because of the pandemic. Only 30 people were allowed at the funeral, and the queen sat alone at the church, wearing a mask. “Nothing would have delighted the Duke more than having such a pared-down farewell,” Vickers wrote.
