{"id":204277,"date":"2026-04-21T03:29:49","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T03:29:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/204277\/"},"modified":"2026-04-21T03:29:49","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T03:29:49","slug":"queen-elizabeth-iis-husband-prince-philip-was-very-close-to-penny-knatchbull-before-his-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/204277\/","title":{"rendered":"Queen Elizabeth II\u2019s Husband Prince Philip Was \u2018Very Close\u2019 to Penny Knatchbull Before His Death"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Devoted Queen Elizabeth II was brutally betrayed by husband Prince Philip when the once-dashing consort retreated to a remote cottage near the end of his life and enjoyed the company of a much younger countess, sources tell Globe.<\/p>\n

\"\" Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were very close,\u201d a royal insider spills, referring to Philip\u2019s scandalous friendship with Penelope Knatchbull, Countess Mountbatten of Burma, who is known as Penny. \u201cShe spent more time with him than his wife!\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\" Getty Images<\/p>\n

The beautiful aristocrat, who\u2019s 32 years younger than Philip and the wife of his first cousin once removed, was reportedly given the nickname \u201cAnd Also\u201d<\/a> by staffers because whenever the notorious skirt-chaser was creating an invite list for a royal party, he\u2019d always end with \u201cand also Penny.\u201d<\/p>\n

Philip\u2019s secret arrangement is laid bare in the book Queen Elizabeth II by Hugo Vickers, who reveals how the handsome Duke of Edinburgh quit his royal duties in August 2017 and began living at Wood Farm at the Sandringham estate, while the monarch lived at Windsor Castle roughly 130 miles away, People<\/a> reported.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe queen let the duke do exactly as he pleased,\u201d Vickers writes, via People. \u201cHe enjoyed his carriage-driving, read voraciously and painted a little. 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 had separated.\u201d<\/p>\n

Philip died on April 9, 2021, just two months before his 100th birthday.<\/p>\n

During her lifetime, Elizabeth<\/a>, who passed away at age 96 in 2022, had publicly ignored talk that her husband was cheating. She even brushed off such rumors when they first swirled shortly after their wedding on Nov. 20, 1947.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut that doesn\u2019t mean she wasn\u2019t hurt \u2014 or furious \u2014 over his flings,\u201d the insider tells Globe. \u201cBut she\u2019d never show it. She refused to let herself, and the monarchy, be humiliated.\u201d<\/p>\n

Insiders claim the queen kept a secret dossier with the names of women in her husband\u2019s life.<\/p>\n

Sources say Elizabeth hit the roof in 2020 when royal biographer Ingrid Seward released the book Prince Philip Revealed, which claimed he fathered two love children with his longtime pal, French actress H\u00e9l\u00e8ne Cordet, who died in 1996.<\/p>\n

\"\" Getty Images<\/p>\n

The duke has been publicly linked to at least 13 women, including the late Susan Barrantes \u2014 the twice-married mother of his disgraced son Andrew Mountbatten Windsor<\/a>\u2019s ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson, Australian outlet Woman\u2019s Day<\/a> reported.<\/p>\n

\u201cPrince Philip usually made a beeline for the prettiest girl on the dance floor,\u201d wrote Sarah\u2019s father, Ron Ferguson, in his memoir, The Galloping Major: My Life and Singular Times, which was released nine years before the former soldier\u2019s death in 2003, according to Woman\u2019s Day. \u201cHe certainly found Susie\u2019s company much more enticing than mine.\u201d<\/p>\n

Philip\u2019s other reported conquests include Hollywood sexpot Zsa Zsa Gabor, actresses Jane Russell and Pat Kirkwood, the queen\u2019s cousin Princess Alexandra, and a bevy of other beauties.<\/p>\n

\"\" Getty Images<\/p>\n

However, Elizabeth may have gotten her revenge.<\/p>\n

Royal biographer Andrew Lownie \u2014 author of the bestseller Entitled: The Rise and Fall of the House of York \u2014 has said that he believes the queen\u2019s son Andrew may have actually been fathered by her longtime horse racing manager, Lord Porchester<\/a> \u2014 and not the duke.<\/p>\n

Tellingly, Philip eventually passed away alone following a morning bath \u2014 without his wife at his bedside.<\/p>\n

Vickers wrote, per People: \u201cShe took the line, I was told, that she was \u2018absolutely furious that, as so often in life, he left without saying goodbye.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Devoted Queen Elizabeth II was brutally betrayed by husband Prince Philip when the once-dashing consort retreated to a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":204278,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[9,24,63,122,124,123,4259],"class_list":["post-204277","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news","tag-royals"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204277","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=204277"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204277\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/204278"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=204277"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=204277"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=204277"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}