Queen’s heartache PHILIP’S OTHER WOMAN REVEALED
Her Majesty is facing yet more upsetting reminders from the past
Aside from his personal secretary, the only other non-family member at Prince Philip’s funeral in April was Penny Knatchbull, the Countess Mountbatten of Burma. Her inclusion in the small COVIDrestricted gathering was a gracious acknowledgement by the Queen of her importance to Philip throughout his life.
However, that respect may be a thing of the past as TV bosses from The Crown plan to include Philip and Penny’s “special friendship” in a storyline for the upcoming new series – and sources say the palace is bracing for the worst.
“When the story about Philip and the ballet dancer aired in season one, it was trending on Twitter!” says a palace insider. “So it’s safe to assume they’re going to drum up Philip and Penny’s friendship into something more exciting, except this time the Queen doesn’t have Philip around to explain it in person. It’s actually cruel to do this to her when she’s still in mourning... but there’s no denying that Penny was his companion for many years, especially after her husband [Philip’s godson Norton Knatchbull] left her [in 2010].”
Philip and Penny, who had been his carriage-driving partner in competitions since 1994, developed a “very special friendship” after he helped her through the death of her five-year-old daughter to kidney cancer in 1991.
“They’ve been close ever since then,” adds the insider. “How close? She was the only person in the world who could convince him to relinquish his driver’s licence! He adored her company and they’d talk for hours during training. She’s got a business degree, she’s loud and funny, and she knows how to handle that carriage in the wet.”
Despite their 32-year age gap, Penny, 68, was often by Philip’s side, whether it be riding a motorised lawnmower together or dancing with him at the Royal Yacht Squadron’s Ball at the Isle of Wight one year, which set tongues wagging.
According to Ingrid Seward, author of Prince Philip Revealed: A Man Of His Century, “We’ll never know how the Queen felt about it all. Philip always was a flirt and the Queen used to joke about his lascivious nature. If she had been hurt by rumours, she’d never let on.”