WHY HE FORGAVE SOPHIE’S TABLOID BLUNDER

IN THE spring of 2001, a Sunday newspaper ran an embarrassing story about Sophie, Countess of Wessex. She’d been the victim of a sting set up by the News of the World, and her reported remarks to an undercover reporter were unfortunate, to say the least.

She referred to the Queen as ‘the old dear’ and described the Prince of Wales and Camilla Parker Bowles as ‘No 1 on the unpopular people list’, only likely to be married after the death of ‘the old lady’ (the Queen Mother).

Most damagingly, she let slip that, while her PR company’s prestige and royal connections were not officially for hire, ‘that is an unspoken benefit’. Despite all this, Prince Philip — and the Queen — immediately forgave her. Why?

‘She was “set up”,’ said the duke. ‘It was entrapment.’

It also helped that Sophie’s husband, Prince Edward, seemingly a bit wet and a tad irritating to the rest of us, had

always been his parents’ favourite. That became apparent in 1987 when Edward, aged 22, opted out of the Royal Marines when he was just a third of the way through his basic training.

To the surprise of some, Prince Philip (Captain-General of the Royal Marines) didn’t come down on his son like a ton of bricks. He accepted that the Marines ‘ wasn’t right for Edward’ — and, to this day, Edward is grateful for that.

Edward was always close to his father.

And now that Prince Philip has died, it is Prince Edward who will eventually become the Duke of Edinburgh.