‘It was so gentle, like someone took him by the hand and off he went’
Sophie reveals Duke slipped away ‘peacefully’ – as Harry flies in for funeral without Meghan
PRINCE Philip slipped away peacefully as if ‘somebody took him by the hand’, his grieving daughter-inlaw revealed yesterday.
The death of the Queen’s beloved husband at Windsor Castle on Friday was ‘so gentle’, according to an emotional Countess of Wessex.
Sophie, 56, told well-wishers: ‘It was just like somebody took him by the hand and off he went. Very, very peaceful and that’s all you want for somebody, isn’t it?’ Sophie spoke as she and Prince Edward, their daughter Lady Louise, 17, and the Duke of York attended a church service at Windsor where they said prayers for the Duke of Edinburgh.
As Prince Harry arrived back in the UK – he will now go into quarantine ahead of Saturday’s funeral – Andrew said the Queen had described her
husband’s death as ‘having left a huge void in her life’. In a rare public appearance since stepping down from official duties, Andrew added: ‘We’ve lost almost the grandfather of the nation.’
Edward said Philip’s death at 99 was a ‘dreadful shock’ and the family was still ‘trying to come to terms with that’, but added that they had been comforted by the tributes that have flooded in from around the world.
In other developments:
■ The Queen worshipped privately at Windsor Castle, where Philip’s coffin is resting in the private chapel draped with his personal standard and a wreath of flowers;
■ Princess Anne visited her mother and issued a statement, describing her father as ‘my teacher, my supporter and my critic’;
■ It emerged that Philip thought Harry and Meghan’s bombshell Oprah interview was ‘madness’ and ‘no good would come of it’;
■ Sir John Major said the Queen must be given ‘time and space’ to grieve after the death of her husband of 73 years;
■ The Archbishop of Canterbury praised Philip’s ‘inspiring’ life at a service of remembrance at Canterbury Cathedral.
Philip’s funeral will take place at 3pm on Saturday at St George’s Chapel in the grounds of Windsor Castle. In line with government regulations, there will be just 30 mourners and no public elements that could attract crowds.
Fittingly, his coffin will be carried down from the castle to the chapel in a specially modified Land Rover he designed himself with his funeral in mind.
‘My father was a remarkable man’
‘ His death has left a huge void in the Queen’s life ’ Prince Andrew yesterday
A party of his family and aides will make the eight-minute walk behind it, with the Queen, 94, being driven down by car.
Prince Andrew said members of the family have been rallying round to support the Queen as she deals with the death of her adored husband just two months short of his 100th birthday.
Speaking outside the Royal Chapel of All Saints at Royal Lodge, Windsor, he said: ‘It is a terrible loss. The Queen as you would expect is an incredibly stoic person. She described his passing as a miracle and she’s contemplating, I think is the way I would put it.
‘She described it as having left a huge void in her life but we, the family, the ones that are close, are rallying round to make sure that we’re there to support her.
‘And I know that there is a huge amount of support not just for her, but for everybody, as we go through this enormous change.’ Andrew, who stepped down from royal duties over his friendship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein in 2019, said of Philip: ‘He was a remarkable man. I loved him as a father. He was so calm. If you had a problem, he would think about it.
‘It’s a great loss. We’ve lost almost the grandfather of the nation. And I feel very sorry and supportive of my mother who’s feeling it probably more than everybody else.’ Recalling a conversation he had with Philip earlier this year, Andrew said: ‘My father said to me on the telephone a few months ago, “We are all in the same boat and we must always remember that, but occasionally we, the family, are asked to stand up and show compassion and leadership”.
‘And unfortunately, with my father’s death, it has brought it home to me, not just our loss, but actually the loss that everybody else has felt, for so many people who have died and lost loved ones during the pandemic. We’re all feeling a great sense of loss.
‘We are all in the same boat – slightly different circumstances because he didn’t die from Covid – but we’re all feeling a great sense of loss.’
Prince Edward said: ‘It’s been a bit of a shock. However much one tries to prepare oneself for something like this, it’s still a dreadful shock. And we’re still trying to come to terms with that. And it’s very, very sad. But I have to say that the extraordinary tributes and the memories that everybody has had and been willing to share has been so fantastic.’
His wife, Sophie, said Philip always stopped to greet people on the royal estates, adding: ‘He always exchanged words with everybody because it didn’t matter what anybody was doing in and around the estate here and everywhere else, they all meant a lot to him and he always took a very personal interest in everything that they were doing.’
The couple talked about Philip’s passion for carriage driving, with Sophie laughing affectionately about he had been ‘pulled out of quite a few ditches here’.
Asked how the Queen was, she said the monarch was ‘thinking of others before herself’.
‘As always,’ added her husband, ‘but bearing up, and again it’s just that wave of affection for him and just those lovely stories.’ Asked how the Queen will manage without her husband, former prime
minister Sir John, who has been an adviser to the monarch for many years, told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show: ‘It will be difficult. The Queen and Prince Philip had 73 years of marriage together. That is extraordinary – I can think of no one else who has had a marriage of that length in my experience. So it will be an enormous hole in her life that suddenly Prince Philip isn’t there.’
He urged people to give her ‘time and space’ to grieve, saying she may be monarch but had ‘earned that right’. Movingly, Sir John said he was sure that while the Queen may have lost her beloved husband, the memory of him would be as clear for her as it had ever been.
He said: ‘Prince Philip may physically have gone but he will be in the Queen’s mind as clearly as if she was sitting opposite him. She will hear his voice, metaphorically, in her ear, she will know what he will say in certain circumstances, he will still be there in her memory. The echo will be there and it always will be.’
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