How Queen Elizabeth Supported Prince Philip’s Stance Amid Arguments Over Princess Diana’s Funeral

Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip were on the same page when it came to Princess Diana’s funeral in 1997. But the same cannot be said about the “presumptuous” Tony Blair.

In the book “Tony’s Ten Years: Memoirs of the Blair Administration” by Sky’s political editor Adam Boulton, it was revealed that Her Majesty and Prince Philip had a disagreement with Blair.

During a confrontation, the Duke of Edinburgh cursed after the government spin doctors tried to dictate what role Prince William and Prince Harry should play at their mom’s funeral service. The Queen and Prince Philip also wanted the funeral to be a private affair, but Prince Charles sided with Blair in making it a public one.

“The events of that week in September 1997 were very sad, but as the spinners from Downing Street came to Buckingham Palace and started to kick around what roles Harry and William should play in the funeral, the Queen had relished the moment when Philip had bellowed over the speakerphone from Balmoral: ‘[expletive] off,’” he said.

Prince Philip told the person that he was talking to that they were talking about two boys who just lost their mother. And once the arrangements were sorted out, Blair read his lesson melodramatically that day in the Abbey.

The author said that Blair was helpful in reading the public mood when Diana died but he was also presumptuous.

Meanwhile, it has been revealed that it was also Prince Philip that convinced his grandkids to walk behind Princess Diana’s coffin at the latter’s funeral service. The Duke of Edinburgh told Prince William and Prince Harry that he will walk with them that day, and they agreed.

In the YouTube documentary “Prince William at Thirty,” the Duke of Edinburgh was credited for his gesture of true solidarity and love. Lady Elizabeth Anson, the Queen’s cousin, said that Prince William must have thought that the gesture was such a wonderful thing for his grandfather to do.