14 things Queen Elizabeth II doesn’t want you to know about Prince Philip

Prince Philip still likes to get behind the wheel – but the Queen might not want everyone to know that like many older people, maybe he shouldn’t. In early 2019 he got into a bad accident when he pulled out of a driveway and hit another car, flipping his own. Bystanders helped the shaken but unhurt Duke out of his vehicle. In an apology letter to a passenger in the other car who broke her wrist, he noted the sun was in his eyes. “I would like you to know how very sorry I am for my part in the accident,” he reportedly wrote. After the incident, the Duke voluntarily gave up his driver’s license but is still allowed to drive on his own estates’ grounds, as he was recently seen doing.

Queen Elizabeth might not want it getting out that’s she’s upstaged in her own household. But according to Matt Smith, who played Prince Philip in the Netflix series The Crown, the Duke is the favourite royal among the staff. “In the royal house he’s the most popular of all of them – if you’ve talked to any of the staff, Philip’s the one they all love really,” Smith said in a Variety interview. “I think more than a lot of them, he’s a bit more of a man of the people. The royal protocol hasn’t dogged him in quite the same way his whole life, and there’s a sort of rebellion in him and a naughtiness and a cheekiness. I think he’s quite affable and open by all accounts with the staff. They all love him.”

Another way Prince Philip has broken royal protocol? He met his latest great-grandchild, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s son, Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor, before the Queen – although by accident. Queen Elizabeth and her husband weren’t supposed to be introduced to the new royal until later in the day, but Prince Philip ran into Prince Harry and wife Meghan on their way to talk to the press. “We just bumped into the Duke as we were walking by, which was so nice,” the Duchess told photographers.

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The royal family was famously quiet in the days after Princess Diana’s tragic death in 1997 – and have been criticised for it. But although the Queen might not speak about it, she and Prince Philip spent the time helping young Princes Harry and William through the grief over their mother’s passing. The Duke reportedly did not always get along with Diana – the shocking rumour that’s plagued Prince Philip for decades was that he even had a hand in her death. But in reality, Philip helped William find the courage to walk in the funeral procession. At first, the Duke was protective of the boys and their participation in the walk, reportedly saying with uncharacteristic emotion, “We are talking about two boys who have just lost their mother.” But as Prince William wrestled with the decision, he gave the young man strength and support. “If I walk, will you walk with me?” he asked the 15-year-old prince. Both William and his grandfather, along with Prince Harry, Prince Charles and Diana’s brother, Earl Spencer, walked behind her coffin. “It was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done, that walk,” Prince William said in the BBC documentary Diana, 7 Days.

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The Duke may be a secret feminist: he’s not intimidated by his powerful wife, always stands by her side, and in fact, is the only one allowed to take her on. “Prince Philip is the only man in the world who treats the Queen simply as another human being – I think she values that,” her former private secretary Lord Charteris reportedly said. “And, of course, it is not unknown for the Queen to tell the Duke to shut up.” The Queen’s grandson, Prince Harry, even told ABC News, “Without him, she would be slightly lost, I think.” Although she doesn’t often reveal her feelings for her husband, the Queen herself has acknowledged, in a rare show of vulnerability, “He has, quite simply, been my strength and stay all these years. I…owe him a debt greater than he would ever claim or we shall ever know.”

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Source: RD.com