The life of a Prince is not always of joy and jest, it is a rigid life and many who believe that it is not are blind to the real story behind closed doors in Buckingham Palace. A memoir for Prince Philip, which will be released this coming November writes about the relationship between the Duke of Edinburgh and his firstborn, Prince Charles.
As the Duke of Edinburgh’s 100th birthday gets closer and closer, chapters of the awaited memoir has been released to tease the royal fans. In an achingly heartbreaking chapter, the author of the book writes about Charles's tense relationship with his father, Prince Philip.
The book writes how Prince Philip has rarely attended Prince Charles's first eight birthdays, that the Duke only attended Charles’ birthday twice in the first eight years of his life. It also accounts for the relentless regimen Prince Philip applied in bringing up Charles. How the Prince made sure that Charles was to grow up very much like him or he was not going to survive.
There were many times as well that Prince Philip was never around Charles growing up, choosing to continue serving in the Navy and getting stationed in faraway places. Growing up, the Prince and soon King-to-be had a strained relationship with his father, which has had a domino effect on his life as an adult.
Princess Anne, the child after Prince Charles was far closer to Prince Philip than Charles was. Royal insiders who saw the two grow together, as they were only 18 months apart from each other, saw how Prince Philip saw his likeness more in the vigorous Princess Anne.
One insider commented that the Duke of Edinburgh laughs heartily with Princess Anne and never with Charles. Prince Charles was even palpably scared of his father, that when the Duke was around, Charles would go silent.
This had led to a leaked conversation of the late Princess Diana and a good friend commenting on the relationship with her then-husband Prince Charles and his father, Prince Philip.
Diana commented that Prince Charles' emotion seemed to have been suffocated from birth. A home that was unloving to him and rigid and cold had made him insensible to his feelings. Diana continued, revealing that the only thing Prince Charles has learned about love was ‘shaking hands’.
This may not come as a shock to people, Prince Philip is known to be a very unbending royal, raised by a demolished royal family who lost everything and had been thrown around royal houses in Europe.
Prince Philip’s upbringing was far way worse than Charles’.