Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip’s marriage wasn’t just about keeping calm and carrying on — as evidenced by a blowup fight the couple once had while on a royal tour of Australia.
The two were staying in the Yarra Ranges, Victoria, in 1954, when Philip suddenly burst out of a cottage with the queen on his heels — and she was “hurling a tennis racket and shoes,” writes Robert Jobson in his newly released book, “The Windsor Legacy.”
After spotting a camera crew that had come out to film a staged moment with koalas, she quickly grabbed her husband, dragged him inside, and slammed the door shut.
Fortunately for the royals, a soundman exposed the film and handed it over to the queen’s press secretary, who gratefully accepted it, Jobson writes..
After regaining her composure, the monarch came out of the cottage, smiling.
“Sorry for the little interlude,” she said. “It happens in every marriage. Now, what would you like me to do?”
Elizabeth married naval officer Philip, who came from an impoverished family with ties to the Danish and Greek royal families, in 1947.
On the wedding day, he had “literally pennies to his name,” something that affected him deeply.
“Philip would remain frugal for life,” Jobson writes, “once having his Savile Row tailor alter a 52-year-old pair of trousers.”
Although their marriage lasted 73 years, until his death in 2021 at age 99, it was allegedly not without problems.
Philip’s dream of continuing to serve in the navy was quashed when Elizabeth ascended to the throne in 1952.
He also reportedly struggled to define his role, clashed with palace courtiers because of his independence and ideas for modernizing the monarchy, and chafed at feeling emasculated.
Philip fought hard to give his surname to the couple’s four children — Charles, Anne, Andrew and Edward — but his mother-in-law, the Queen Mother, compelled Philip to accept that their surname would be Windsor.
He retired from official public duties in August 2017, at age 96, moving to a cottage on the Sandringham Estate in Norfolk.
However, during the COVID-19 lockdown, he moved back to Windsor Castle, “where he and the queen spent precious time together, giving her a ‘new lease on life’…” Jobson writes. “The couple settled into a routine, sharing afternoon tea most days, which delighted the queen.”
The Queen, who died in 2022 at age 96, honored her husband in 1997 with a speech celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary.
“He has, quite simply, been my strength and stay all these years,” she said, “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.
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