The Queen's Farewell: ‘Philip Was My Rock'

The greatest love story in royal history was filled with laughter

Theirs was an 82-year love affair with humour at its heart.

Like so many long and successful marriages, Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip built their relationship on firm foundations of friendship and laughter, as well as romance.

Philip was her “rock”, the man who made her giggle at formal events and helped her to relax when off-duty.

At a London lunch in 1997 to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary, the Queen paid a public tribute to her husband, saying: “[Philip] is someone who doesn’t take easily to compliments. But he has quite simply been my strength and stay all these years, and I, and his whole family, and this and many other countries, owe him a debt greater than he would ever claim or that we shall ever know.”

Both great-greatgrandchildren of Queen Victoria and therefore distant cousins, the couple first met in 1934 at a family wedding when Elizabeth, then the Princess of York, was 8.