{"id":203629,"date":"2026-04-20T18:36:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T18:36:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/203629\/"},"modified":"2026-04-20T18:36:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T18:36:12","slug":"prince-philips-1-companion-amid-retirement-at-andrews-exile-home-and-it-wasnt-the-queen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/203629\/","title":{"rendered":"Prince Philip’s 1 companion amid retirement at Andrew’s exile home – and it wasn’t the Queen"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Prince Philip<\/a> retired from public life in 2017<\/a>, he moved from Windsor Castle<\/a>, which remained the Queen’s primary residence, to Wood Farm on the Sandringham estate<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Though Philip and Queen Elizabeth had lived together since their wedding on 20 November 1947, they started to live separately during the week upon Philip’s retreat from public life, as the monarch had to retain her base at Windsor Castle to conduct official duties.<\/p>\n

\"Prince\u00a9 Getty ImagesThe Queen and Prince Philip lived apart during his final years<\/p>\n

To keep him company, Philip had a regular visitor at his solo retirement home, according to a new book. “He was at his happiest at Wood Farm, and he more or less settled there. In the course of the next two and a half years, that was his home.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“He enjoyed his carriage-driving, read voraciously and painted a little,” writes Hugo Vickers in his new book, Queen Elizabeth II: A Personal History.<\/p>\n

Recommended videoYou may also likeWATCH: The Queen and Prince Philip’s enduring love story<\/p>\n

“From time to time, [the Queen] went up by train to Norfolk to stay the weekend. Once again, she gave him a loose rein. In a sense, they separated. Penny Romsey, the new Countess Mountbatten, often stayed with him there.”<\/p>\n

Who is Penny Romsey?<\/p>\n

Penny Romsey, or Penelope Knatchbull, Countess Mountbatten, as she is more commonly known, is the wife of Norton Knatchbull, 3rd Earl Mountbatten of Burma, the grandson of Philip’s uncle, Louis “Dickie” Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Penelope\u00a9 GettyPenelope Knatchbull was one of Prince Philip’s closest friends <\/p>\n

The pair tied the knot in 1979 at Romsey Abbey in Hampshire, and King Charles served as best man to the groom. The Earl and Countess share three children \u2013 Nicholas Knatchbull, Lord Brabourne, 44, Lady Alexandra Hooper, 43, and the late Leonora Knatchbull, who passed away aged five from kidney cancer.<\/p>\n

\"Penelope\u00a9 Getty ImagesPenelope Knatchbull is married to the grandson of Philip’s uncle, Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma. <\/p>\n

Her mother set up the Leonora Children’s Cancer Fund in her daughter’s memory, and the organisation merged with The Edwina Mountbatten Trust, a charity for the support of nurses, in 2010.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Philip’s closest confidante<\/p>\n

Since 2010, she has served as High Steward of Romsey, a ceremonial role that supports the town, the town’s mayor and its charitable endeavours.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Prince\u00a9 Andrew Matthews\/PA Images via Getty ImagesPrince Philip pictured driving a carriage in 2019<\/p>\n

As a result of her marital connection to the royal family, Penelope has previously been invited as their guest to the Royal Windsor Horse Show and used to participate in carriage driving competitions with Prince Philip.<\/p>\n

One of Philip’s closest confidantes, Penny, was in attendance at Philip’s funeral in 2021, as well as the state funeral of Queen Elizabeth on 19 September 2022.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Prince Philip retired from public life in 2017, he moved from Windsor Castle, which remained the Queen’s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":203630,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[1432,2419,9,24,63,3994,122,124,123,2421,1431],"class_list":{"0":"post-203629","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-queens","8":"tag-british-royals","9":"tag-homes","10":"tag-new-york","11":"tag-new-york-city","12":"tag-nyc","13":"tag-prince-philip","14":"tag-queens","15":"tag-queens-headlines","16":"tag-queens-news","17":"tag-royal-homes","18":"tag-royalty"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203629","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=203629"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203629\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/203630"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=203629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=203629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=203629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}