As part of our obituary coverage marking the death of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, the Royal Central team are reliving some of their favourite moments involving His Royal Highness. In this article, Deputy Editor Brittani Barger talks us through her most memorable moment.
Over the course of his 99 years, the Duke of Edinburgh had many memorable moments, and picking one was difficult. However, I kept going back to the one moment that has stuck in my mind for years – when he walked his sister-in-law, Princess Margaret, down the aisle in 1960.
The reason I chose this moment is that this was not something he had to do. He didn’t have to walk Princess Margaret down the aisle that day, but he stepped in since her father, King George VI, had died in 1952. It was a heartwarming gesture for a brother-in-law to make and showed how close he was with his sister-in-law. There’s no doubt that The Queen was moved by her husband, and I’m sure it touched The Queen Mother’s heart, as well.
Embed from Getty ImagesBy that time, Philip was a father of three: Charles, Anne and Andrew. There’s no way of knowing, but I’d like to think that the Duke of Edinburgh also walked Margaret down the aisle that day because it is what he would have wanted for Anne if he was not around. We even saw Charles take a page out of Philip’s book in May 2018 when he walked his future daughter-in-law, Meghan, down the aisle. In 2016, when Alexandra Knatchbull got married, the Prince of Wales stepped in for her ill father (Lord Norton Brabourne, who happened to be Prince Philip’s godson and Lord Louis Mountbatten’s grandson) to walk her down the aisle, as well. Prince Philip showed his sons what a caring man and father should do in such an instance back in 1960.
Princess Margaret married Antony Armstrong-Jones on 6 May 1960 at Westminster Abbey. The pair had two children, David and Sarah, but divorced in 1978.
