ForPrincess Anne, seeing the moment her motherQueen Elizabethsat alone atPrince Philip’s 2021 funeral was a difficult moment.
As part ofa recent conversationwith CBC chief correspondent Adrienne Arsenault, the Princess Royal, 72, discussed how theCOVID-19pandemic affected her family — and, in turn, the memorial services for her father,who died on April 9, 2021,one month shy of his 100th birthday.
“And you saw more of that than we did, [since we were] accompanying the coffin,” Princess Anne told Arsenault during their conversation, which aired Monday right.
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Queen Elizabeth at Prince Philip’s funeral.Jonathan Brady - WPA Pool/Getty
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In an update to her bestselling bookThe Other Side of the Coin: The Queen, the Dresser and the Wardrobe, the Queen’s personal stylist and dressmaker Angela Kelly recalled how “no words were spoken” between herself and the monarch followingPrince Philip’s funeral service, adding that after she helped the Queen take off her coat, the monarch “walked to her sitting room, closed the door behind her, andshe was alone with her own thoughts.”
Kelly recalled that staff “stood to attention” as they watchedPrince Philip’s coffin be placed in the specially designed Land Rover that the Duke of Edinburgh had a hand in creating.
“You could see theexpression of sadness on everyone’s facesto see such a great and well-respected man making his last journey,” she said. “Their thoughts, I’m sure, were for The Queen, knowing she had lost a husband and a best friend. The nation shared the grief and their hearts went out to Her Majesty.”
Many ofPrince Philip’s pages and valets walked behind his coffin.
Tim Rooke/Shutterstock
Inher interview with Arsenault, Princess Anne reflected on feeling that even aside fromhis pared-down funeral, COVID “stole a bit from [her] father” in the final year of his life.
“I suppose I tend to think it stole a bit from my father, who lost a lot of the people who would’ve gone to see him and talk to him and had those conversations that kept him interested. And he lost all of that,” she said.
The royal added, “I’m sure there are lots of families that would tell you the same thing — that, for the older generation, losing those contacts … online didn’t do it for everybody.”
source: people.com
