Final Farewell Missed: Queen Elizabeth II Could Not 'Reach' Husband of 73 Years Prince Philip's Bedside Before He Died
The late Queen Elizabeth II could not 'reach' Prince Philip's deathbed, as revealed by royal author.
Queen Elizabeth II, who died two years ago on September 8, unfortunately, could not get to Prince Philip's bedside before he passed away.
"The Queen was reported to have been at her husband's bedside when he died on the morning of April 9, 2021," royal author and former confidant to the late Queen and Duke, Gyles Brandreth, shared in his 2022 book Elizabeth: An Intimate Portrait, before adding, "In fact, I don't believe she was."
"The Duke of Edinburgh had been in a hospital bed, set up in his dressing room at Windsor Castle," he added. "That morning, he went to the bathroom, helped by a nurse."
The scribe continued, "When he came back, he said he felt a little faint and wanted help getting back into bed. The nurse called the Duke's valet and the Queen's page, Paul Whybrew, for help — and he died before the Queen could be called. The Queen wasn't yet up. And she wasn't called until after a doctor had come and pronounced the Duke dead."
The former Member of Parliament then revealed that being friends with British royalty should be something that a commoner recognizes is "intermittent and one-sided," as a former palace aide also shared.
"The Duke showed me great friendliness over 40 years, but royalty offers you friendliness, not friendship, and you have to remember the difference," Brandreth said.
Although Philip's loss was "immeasurable" for Her late Majesty, the monarch did find joy again in a popular TV show weeks after his death.
Brandreth interviewed numerous individuals close to the monarch, as well as members of her staff, and found that Britain's longest-reigning sovereign found solace in the police procedural drama Line of Duty.
He wrote, "In the immediate aftermath of Prince Philip's death, Vice Admiral Sir Tony Johnstone-Burt, the cheery Master of the Household, told me: 'My principal duty with HM has been to keep her spirits up — so I've been watching Line Of Duty with her . . . I'm 'the Explainer'! It's very funny."
Brandreth added, "The 95-year-old widow of Windsor laughed as she struggled to understand the convoluted plotting and sometimes incomprehensible dialogue in the popular 'police procedural' television series."
The author then shared how the iconic monarch "struggled" with contemporary television after beginning her reign at the very start of TV programming. "She enjoyed watching television and told me: 'It keeps me in touch — when I can understand what's being said. There's an awful lot of mumbling on television now. It's not my hearing. They just don't seem to speak as clearly as they used to do.'"
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Daily Mirror reported on Brandreth's book.
