Queen Elizabeth Didn’t See Prince Philip Before He Passed Away

When Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, passed away on April 9, 2021, initial reports stated that Queen Elizabeth II managed to see him in his final moments, but according to royal biographer Gyles Brandreth and his recounting of the morning, that may not have been the case.

“In fact, I don’t believe she was,” he said of the queen being present with her husband as he died. In his 2022 book, Elizabeth: An Intimate Portrait, Brandreth noted that Philip was in a separate room at Windsor Castle and that the late queen wasn’t awake yet when he passed away.

“The Duke of Edinburgh had been in a hospital bed, set up in his dressing room at Windsor Castle. That morning, he went to the bathroom, helped by a nurse,” he wrote. “The nurse called the duke’s valet and the queen’s page, Paul Whybrew, for help—and he died before the queen could be called. The queen wasn’t yet up. And she wasn’t called until after a doctor had come and pronounced the duke dead.”

The Daily Mirror noted that Brandreth is a close friend of the late queen who “knew Prince Philip and Queen Elizabeth for decades.” They met when he was 20 years old and he developed a friendship with Philip through their work at the National Playing Fields Association.

“The duke showed me great friendliness over 40 years, but royalty offer you friendliness, not friendship, and you have to remember the difference,” Brandreth told The Times.

Shortly after his death, Philip’s funeral was held on April 17, 2021. Due to the pandemic, there were only 30 people in attendance, but insiders noted that the low-key royal probably would have preferred it that way.

“Ironically, it is probably how he would have liked,” former palace spokeswoman Ailsa Anderson told People. “No fuss, no bother. Right through his life, he never knew what all the fuss was about.”

Elizabeth and Philip met in 1934 and they were married for 73 years before he passed away. Queen Elizabeth died on September 8, 2022, at age 96.