The royal family affair gets tongues wagging at the slightest rumor. For instance, the news of the divorce between Princess Diana and then-Prince Charles in 1996 was the talk of the year.
In the royal family, marriages are held in high regard, and marital issues were not publicly talked about. A royal divorce was unheard of until Charles and Diana came out to the public with the news of their divorce. It wasn’t all that shocking since there were constant rumors over the years of King Charles III having an affair with his now current wife, Camilla Parker Bowles, while he was still married to Diana.
Diana was open about the troubles in her marriage to Charles and even confronted Camilla about their affair in 1989. Diana and Charles separated in 1992, just a decade into their marriage. The issue could no longer stay hidden from the public once Charles confessed to the infidelity claims in 1994. However, even before that, close observers of the royal family had had an inkling as to what was happening.
Diana and Charles’ marriage became so troubled that it affected the entire royal family. While everyone seemed to turn their backs on the princess, the late Prince Philip reportedly took Diana’s side. Surprisingly, Philip and Diana didn’t have that much of a close relationship when she was still married to Charles, and taking her side seemed a little weird. He had been reported to treat Diana unkindly previous to the couple’s divorce. This reported unkindness was later turned around, however.
Queen Elizabeth, Princess Alexandra of Kent, Prince Philip, Princess Diana, Prince Charles (1982), (Terry Fincher/Princess Diana Archive/Getty Images)
While speaking to the UK’s Evening Standard, Anji Hunter, a former government official, recalled a conference call with Prince Philip in the days before Diana’s funeral. “We were all talking about how William and Harry should be involved, and suddenly came Prince Philip’s voice,” she said. “We hadn’t heard from him before, but he was really anguished. ‘It’s about the boys,’ he cried, ‘They’ve lost their mother.'”
TODAY reported that at dinner the day before Prince Diana’s funeral, Prince Philip told his grandsons, “I’ll walk if you walk.” This fact was fortified once more by Princess Anne’s revelations during an interview with UK’s ITV after her father’s death. “I seem to remember them saying that, in fact, it was a question of, ‘If you’ll do it, I’ll do it,'” Princess Anne said.
The next day, the funeral procession took place from Kensington Palace to Westminster Abbey in London, and Prince Philip joined 15-year-old William and 12-year-old Harry as they walked along with their father, King Charles III, and Diana’s brother Earl Spencer. The photographs from that day show that the family had come together during the most difficult times in their lives.
It’s clear that Philip was of great help to his family during such a difficult time for them. But he had also been there for Diana when she needed someone the most following her very public divorce from Charles. To make matters even more troubling for Diana, the world had come to know that Charles had been having an affair with Camilla Parker Bowles.
And while it seemed like everyone was turning their backs on the princess, Philip showed he was there for her
