The Queen’s dad was reluctant for her to marry Prince Philip because he ‘secretly dreaded losing her’, claims royal author
THE QUEEN’s dad was reluctant to allow her to marry Prince Philip because he “secretly dreaded losing her” an insider has claimed.
Philip Eade, the author behind Young Prince Philip: His Turbulent Early Life, revealed that King George VI feared losing his daughter as a companion.
Mabell Airlie, lady-in-waiting to Queen Mary, told Eade that the king had a "secret dread" of losing "his constant companion in shooting, walking, riding - in fact everything."
The king eventually agreed that his daughter could marry Philip of Greece and Denmark, as he was then known, on the condition that she waited until she was 21.
He had previously been keen to delay the engagement, as had the Queen mother as they found him "rough, ill-mannered, uneducated and would probably not be faithful", the reports.
Lady Pamela Hicks, the daughter of the Duke of Edinburgh’s uncle Louis Mountbatten and the Queen’s third cousin, previously admitted that their relationship got off to a rocky start.
Speaking to Vanity Fair journalist James Reginato about their relationship in 2013, she explained that it was her sister Patricia’s wedding in 1946 that was a monumental moment for the couple.
Philip of Greece and Denmark, as he was then known, was seen taking the coat of the young Princess Elizabeth which caused a “media frenzy” according to the .
But her parents King George VI and the Queen Mother were less than impressed.
Lady Pamela said: “The King and Queen were appalled.
“The thought that he might become a son-in-law was most unwelcome. Why wasn’t she marrying some respectable English duke?
“Yes, he was a Prince of Greece and Denmark. But very suspect, Greece – they get rid of their royal families regularly. And he had no money.”
However, their disapproval clearly had no impact on the royal romance with the Queen and Philip marrying in a historic ceremony on November 20, 1947.
The couple had met 13 years earlier, at the wedding of Princess Marina of Greece and Denmark and Prince George, Duke of Kent, in 1934.
After a third meeting in July 1939 our future Queen, who was just 13 years old at the time, is said to have fallen in love with Philip - and they began exchanging letters.
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The couple became secretly engaged in 1946 and Elizabeth's father, King George VI, ordered that any formal engagement was delayed until after his daughter's 21st birthday - in April 1947.
Their engagement was officially announced in July of the same year.
They reached their platinum wedding anniversary in 2017 which marked 70 years since their big day.
In other royal news, we told you how Camilla "didn't want William to marry pretty but dim Kate Middleton and urged Prince Charles to help her split them up" according to a royal author.
We also revealed the scientific reason why we’re all obsessed with the Royal Family.