Why Prince Philip Wasn’t Ecstatic About Queen Elizabeth’s Pregnancy With Prince Andrew

Prince Philip wasn’t ecstatic when he found out that Queen Elizabeth was pregnant with Prince Andrew. In fact, he also uttered withering words after his third child was born.

In the 1991 book “Sarah, HRH The Duchess of York,” royal author Ingrid Seward talked about Prince Andrew’s childhood. She said that the Duke of York was born opportunely at the end of a period that saw the Duke of Edinburgh subjected to severe public and Parliamentary criticism.

After Prince Philip opened the Olympic Games in Sydney in 1956, he decided to fly back to London one year later. His decision to go on a cruise of the South Atlantic on board the Royal Yacht Britannia provoked rumors of a rift between him and the Queen.

But the speculations about the royal couple’s feud ended after it was announced the Her Majesty was expecting her third child in 1959. However, what should’ve been happy news became the opposite because of what Prince Philip said.

“People want their first child very much. They want the second almost as much… If a third comes along, they accept it as natural, even if they haven’t gone out of their way for it,” he said.

But despite Prince Philip’s unenthusiastic statement about the Queen’s pregnancy and Prince Andrew’s arrival, the latter’s birth still marked history. Prince Andrew was the first royal baby to have been born to a reigning monarch since Queen Victoria.

It took the Queen and Prince Philip 10 years to have a third child after the birth of Princess Anne. Royal experts claimed that Her Majesty may have had to wait for a few years to have more children because she had to prioritize her duty as a monarch.

But royal expert Sally Bedell Smith, said in the book “Elizabeth the Queen,” that the wait had more to do with the fact that the monarch and Prince Philip couldn’t decide on what surname their children should have.