Oh my God, Ingrid Seward is just going to keep on talking, isn’t she? These royal commentators and royal biographers, they just love to appoint themselves the gatekeepers of royalty and the only drivers of royal narratives. Ingrid Seward is using her book about Prince Philip (Prince Philip Revealed) to furiously attack the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. If you told me that Ingrid and Angela Kelly are the same person, I would completely believe you. So, are you interested in Seward’s “take” on the Sandringham Summit? You know, the one where Harry and Meghan forced the Windsors to acknowledge the harassment and hate campaign against them and negotiated their exit from the family?
Queen Elizabeth II came up with a plan to stop showdown talks with Meghan Markle and Prince Harry getting to her husband, a new book claims. The Monarch asked Penelope Knatchbull, Countess Mountbatten of Burma, to take Prince Philip, then 98, for a drive during a crisis summit with the young royals, Ingrid Seward writes.
The knife edge meeting came after the Duke and Duchess of Sussex announced their plans to leave royal life, giving Elizabeth, 94, just ten minutes’ notice, according to biography Prince Philip Revealed. The book describes how the queen knew they were unhappy but had not been aware of their intention to live “half in, half out” of the royal family, which Philip believed was “impossible.”
Seward writes: “The queen refused to allow their shenanigans to get to her husband. So, when she called an emergency summit at Sandringham on January 13, attended by her son the Prince of Wales and grandsons Prince William and Prince Harry, as well as their senior advisors, she asked one of her house guests, Countess Mountbatten, to drive him away from the house at least for the duration of the meeting. While they sat in the long library on the ground floor and thrashed out a solution that would allow Harry and Meghan their freedom without bringing the royal family and the Crown into disrepute, Philip remained out of the way.
“Buckingham Palace later released an unusually personal statement from the Queen saying that the family were entirely supportive of Harry and Meghan’s desire to create a new life as a young family.”
What is even the purpose of this information? Is this just Seward using the Queen as a prop to express displeasure with the Sussexes for forcing the moment to its crisis? Why in the world would the Queen need to send Penelope Knatchbull out to “drive” around with Prince Philip during several hours of the summit? A summit which, you know, lasted DAYS. This actually made me think of the Prince Andrew situation last November/December – when the Queen wouldn’t listen to reason, Charles apparently appealed to his father, and Prince Philip had a little “summit” of his own. So… again, what is the purpose of this information? Prince Philip is strong and tough enough to say that Andrew should be fired from the Firm for his Jeffrey Epstein mess, but Philip is too weak and fragile to be around for the Sussexes’ exit negotiations?
Penelope Knatchbull…
Photos courtesy of WENN, Getty.
Is Penelope Knatchbull his purported longtime live-in girlfriend? Oops… I meant Lady in Waiting? I’ve heard the rumors he has one but haven’t ever seen her actually named.
I believe so, long time companion I understand…
One and the same, @vavakaboom. My thought is that PP probably has quite a temper (and we wonder from where PWT gets it) and literally had to be driven around and talked down while other people discussed the matters. I get the feeling if he had been at the meetings he would’ve made some derogatory comments about actresses and English roses, with a few racial epithets mixed in.
So was his absence to protect him or to keep him from running his mouth and alienating Harry even more?
I agree, although I think in this case is was less the Queen requested he be gotten out of the way and more Prince Phillip has enough emergency summits and demanded to be gotten out of the way because he doesn’t want to deal with anything anymore. His sons, he may feel obligation to, but his grandson, granddaughter-in-law and the firm? He’s out.
equality, I think it was to keep him from alienating Harry. I think Phillip would have insulted Harry to his face and the queen did not want that to happen. She still wants Harry to visit her. Or at least Facetime.
Wow, she’s the Countess Mountbatten of Burma. Apparently he’s still keeping it in the family, but at least this one isn’t actually biologically related.
It hold be great if you could stop using some of the titles that these arrogant and pathetic wannabe imperialists style for themselves. Burma, now Myanmar, kicked the British out many years ago. I assure you that they want nothing to do with the Mountbattens.
The only reason I mentioned her title is because it includes “Mountbatten” and that’s how I realized they were actually related. I 100% agree that it’s frankly disgusting how hard these exiled “royals” cling onto their meaningless titles. Especially when they had no right to such a position in the first place.
Imagine dedicating the entirety of your life to Dumb Shit…. and then some charming young upstart comes along, repping a whole new world and connects with the spare prince and suddenly the conversation is constantly about how you do Dumb Shit…
Yes, Penelope is the purported current and longtime “confidant” of Prince Philip. Also, Penelope has always been big plutonic buddies with Charles since before she married the current Earl Mountbatten of Burma.
Penelope Knatchbull has been through quite a lot in her life.
I have the strange feeling that if I met her I would really like her.
That last picture, holy hell, weekend at Bernie’s or what…
IKR? I can’t stop laughing at Phillip’s expression. He looks like he’s wondering “who has my teeth”. 😂😂
Edna, thank you for giving me a much needed laugh this morning.
Yes!
It’s half lecherous, half pitiful.
I was wondering who he was leering at, too.
Also known as Penny, she is the “official”carriage companion driver in the carriage competitions Phillip and she competes in.
Together for a very long time. I think I would also like her if I met her too!!
The royals have all kind of properties and they just had to have this meeting where Phil was staying? There were no other options if they wanted a meeting without him?
Meh. He lives on the estate at Wood Farm. All he had to do was stay put.
I call BS and made up fan fiction on the whole thing. That old hag Ingrid just wanted to take another swipe at H&M. These RRs are bigly mad and salty about the Sussexes leaving.
Which I never understood since they ran a 3 year smear campaign against them and regularly suggested they leave if they didn’t like it.
That’s exactly what this is.
I think I’d enjoy hearing about her life, but I’m not sure I could really like someone so willingly involved with such an unrepentant mysogonistic racist.
Ingrid Seward knows she can only sell her book on Philip by talking about the Sussexes. That’s all it is. I think most people “in the know” are aware that Penelope is Philip’s girlfriend.
Sasha Phillips-Hamilton, the Late Duchess of Abercorn, was another long term confidant in a long line of long term confidants..
Wasn’t Phillip already living at whatever its called Farm? It’s on the Sandringham estate but it’s not like he’d have been in the main building wandering into the summit asking if anyone wanted a cuppa. If he even knew/cared what was going on – doubtful.
Betty didn’t decide anything. Philip probably told her, you mucked this up, so you fix it, then went out with his girlfriend as was previously scheduled.
I doubt the drive even happened, but she wants to insert Philip into this piece of history.
“Betty didn’t decide anything. Philip probably told her, you mucked this up, so you fix it, then went out with his girlfriend as was previously scheduled.”
I believe Lemons’ comment above is exactly what happened.
Can I just say that I think the Queen chose Penny to be his caregiver/mistress?
True dat.
I take back my theory. This is absolutely what happened.
I like her hair. That’s all I’ve got.
They kept Phil out for good reason. He may be 99 but they probably kept him away to keep him from telling off Harry and making a “sensitive” situation worse.
Edit: This was my theory before I saw what Lemons wrote. I think Lemons has the right of it. 😆