Always having each other’s back

The Queen only ever had eyes for one man – her beloved Prince Philip. Their fairytale romance resulted in a 73-year marriage,

Nothing about the young Elizabeth’s life was normal – including how she fell in love. When 13-year-old Princess Elizabeth sailed to Dartmouth Naval College in July 1939 on an official visit, with the King and Queen and her sister Margaret, a blond “Viking” in the form of 18-year-old naval cadet Philip Mountbatten was assigned to look after the two young princesses. The handsome Greek prince captured young Elizabeth’s heart in the process. It was the ultimate fairytale romance, so much so that in 2016, a letter written by Elizabeth in 1947 describing the moment she fell in love, was sold for $27,000 at auction. “I was 13 years of age and he was 18 and a cadet just due to leave. He joined the navy at the outbreak of war, and I only saw him very occasionally when he was on leave – I suppose about twice in three years,” she wrote. The pair wrote to each other and when he was on leave, Philip – who was a distant cousin and a great-great-grandson of Queen Victoria – spent more and more time with the princess.

Despite the king thinking his daughter far too young for a serious romance, saying she “has never met any young men of her own age”, it turned out she wasn’t interested in meeting any others and only had eyes for one.

In 1946, Philip was invited to join the royal family on their summer holiday at Balmoral and it was there he proposed. The announcement would not be made public until the next year, but in his thank you letter to the Queen Mother after the holiday, he wrote, “I am sure I do not deserve all the good things which have happened to me. To have been spared in the war and seen victory (and) to have fallen in love completely and unreservedly makes all one’s personal and even the world’s troubles seem small and petty.”

To have been spared in the war (and) to have fallen in love completely and unreservedly makes all one’s personal and even the world’s troubles seem small

PHILIP IN A LETTER TO THE QUEEN MOTHER IN 1946

photos The newlyweds study their wedding Hampshire. while on honeymoon in Romsey,

Trooping the Colour at the Mall on June 11, 2016, to mark the Queen’s 90th birthday.

The royal couple in 1958, at home in Buckingham Palace.

Pictures: Getty Images, AFP The Queen and Prince Philip deep in conversation during the Royal Windsor Horse Show at Windsor Castle. Princess Elizabeth and Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten announce their engagement on July 9, 1947.

in Hampshire in November The newly married royal couple at Broadlands wedding anniversary. 1947 and 60 years later to mark their Diamond

The first colour photograph of Princess Anne, taken in 1951, in the arms of her mother Princess Elizabeth while her father, Philip Mountbatten, holds her older brother Prince Charles.

escorts the Queen Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, 27, 2015. after she opened parliament on May