For the last years of Prince Philip’s life, it was well-known that he had a special friend. That friend? Penny Knatchbull, or Penny Brabourne (she goes by both). Penny and Philip had been special friends for years, but when he retired and moved to Wood Farm, Penny was his near-constant companion. It was well-known in royal circles and royal-media circles, the fact that Philip and Elizabeth lived separately and that Penny stayed with him at Wood Farm all the time. There was gossip about how much time they spent together back in 2019, and following his death this year, the Daily Mail euphemistically wrote about how Penny was “mourning privately.” Meaning, Philip’s mistress also mourned the great man. Penny was/is close to the Queen as well, and Penny was invited to Philip’s funeral and she attended. All of this is common knowledge. And The Crown is going to cover it???
The creators of The Crown are set to enrage the Royal Family by delving into the relationship between a high society beauty and Prince Philip. The Queen’s husband, who passed away in April aged 99, was close to aristocrat Penny Brabourne, who will be played in the Netflix show by Natascha McElhone. But the Duke of Edinburgh spent huge amounts of time with her during the Nineties – the decade covered by season five of the drama – despite the 32-year age gap.
A TV insider said: “This is a relationship which naturally raised a few eyebrows and sparked quite a few whispers, but Philip and Penny maintained they were just friends. The makers of The Crown believe it is a relationship worthy of exploring and casting a veteran actor like Natascha is a reflection of how high profile the role is. But the highly personal relationship is unlikely to be welcomed as a storyline by Her Majesty or the rest of the Royal Family.”
The Crown attracted controversy in series two for portraying Prince Philip as a flirtatious man with an eye for the ladies, in particular Russian ballerina Galina Ulanova. The show also sailed close to the wind in series two and four by looking at the Queen’s friendship with Lord Porchester, who was portrayed as carrying a torch for Her Majesty.
In the new series, which is currently being filmed and is set for release in 2022, the Prince will be played by Jonathan Pryce, 74, opposite Imelda Staunton, 65, as a more mature monarch.
Penny, whose father Reginald Eastwood founded the Angus Steakhouse restaurants, became close friends with the royals after marrying Norton Knatchbull, 3rd Earl Mountbatten of Burma, in 1979. Philip’s beloved uncle, Lord Mountbatten, was Norton’s grandfather and Philip was Norton’s godfather.
I expect that like everything else, The Crown will get the broad strokes right and the royal press will nitpick and say “it didn’t happen exactly that way.” The Crown isn’t pretending to be a documentary. Again, for the millionth time, The Crown fictionalizes and condenses events and Peter Morgan’s aim is merely to get the broad strokes right. Philip was a serial philanderer. It was well-known. Philip was very close to Penny. It was well-known. The Queen accepted Penny and they were friends too. Still, I like the fact that Peter Morgan isn’t worried about going there. Jonathan Pryce looks nothing like Philip, but Natascha McElhone is a GREAT hire for Penny.
Photos courtesy of Getty, WENN and Avalon Red.
Ooooohhhh the next season of the Crown is going to be good!! I am glad its not just going to be focused on diana and charles.
cue meltdown from the royal family in 3…..2….1…
YUP, and my thought was: ANOTHER attack on the Petty Betty. Baw hahaha. Guess it sucks to see your life replayed in front of you and not liking what you see. To most that would be a wake up call.
@Seraphina I almost (almost!) feel sorry for her exactly because of your last sentence. Even if it were to give her a wake up call, it’s too late for her to do anything about it. The damage to that family is done and she is either responsible for or enabled most of it. Oh well. Maybe if she wasn’t such a garbage person, it would be a more pleasant viewing experience for her!
You just know that Charles will throw a MASSIVE tantrum through in the press through “friends”. Not necessarily about his father’s infidelities but about the mess that was his marriage to Diana (and his own adultery).
Season 5 is going to be fire and I’m so ready. I can’t wait for all the meltdowns. And they thought Harry and Meghan were the problem. *grabs popcorn and comfy chairs*
Lolololol
That family is a raggedy ole mess.
And I oop!
😂
I am glad that Philip had someone like Penny, who is family, in the last the years of his life as a friend who could be there when he did not want to be a alone. This is not a role that QEII, or any sitting monarch for that matter, could have fulfilled.
Lol. “Family” and “friend”. Sure.
Honestly, are we sure Penny Knatchbull is not his daughter? I know all these aristos are inbred, but she and Phillip have very similar facial features to me. It would be funny if we were all assuming one “scandalous” thing, but it turned out to be another!
I hate to say this none of Phillip’s children would look that aesthetically pleasing just from the shallow genetic pool he comes from.
Just look at the known examples for comparison.
BayTampaBay, wives can/do fulfill the role of friend as well as lover. But perhaps Philip didn’t want that from Queen E.
This whole family is a mess, for people ordained by God they sure are trash. They are as dysfunctional as reality tv stars but because they are white with fancy crowns most people over look the clown show.
They are all characters in the world’s longest running soap opera.
So I’ve started watching the crown finally. But I started with season 4 and have now gone back to watch the earlier seasons. Has anyone else realized this is a villain origins story!!
It’s been interesting seeing it in reverse with the Queen have little real feeling for Diana’s position only to then see how she herself struggled with Philip.
This show is really presents an argument that the institution of the Crown warps the people who embody and support it. I find it rather brilliant but you have to have patience because it unfolds its argument slowly, not just with Liz but also with Charles. I read an interview with Josh O’Connor and he said that they told him that they would make Charles sympathetic in season 3 and then go to town on him in season 4 (and that’s pretty much the reason why O’Connor took the part).
So this show is really hammering home how both heirs, spares and spouses are either warped by the Crown or sacrificed on its altar. It is too bad that they won’t continue because the current drama with William and Harry and Sussexit really illustrates the way the British monarchy is managed by its members and the grey men inflicts generational pain on its members.
@ArtHistorian I have my fingers crossed that Peter Morgan revisits it after some time has passed. Netflix has a habit of doing that; it released a new season of Arrested Development something like a decade after the show originally aired. Same with Gilmore Girls.
After the Queen passes away it will take a long while for the dust to settle, I imagine. But I really hope he comes back to cover William & Kate, Andrew’s mess, and the Sussexes.
I am exactly of the same mind. I’m hoping the Meghan and Harry nonsense will convince him that he needs to bring the royal family full circle.
Natascha McElhone is perfect for this role!
The Crown is not going to outright say that Penny was Philip’s lover but they will portray a very close relationship between the two that will lead the audience to form their own conclusions. I think it’s an open secret that the Queen and Philip were separated for at least 3 decades, that Penny was his girlfriend and that the Queen accepted that. Why else would she be invited to his funeral?
Was she not the representative for the Mountbatten line? I could be wrong but I think each of Phillip’s “family lines” had a representative except the Greek line.
@BayTampabay: She was married to a Mountbatten. The Mountbatten side was represented at the funeral by the two relatives from Germany. Penny was there as his long-time companion.
Rumour has it that Prince Philip, in his plans for his funeral, had made it clear that Penny should be there. At the funeral she was seated close to another of Philips rumoured lovers.
@Amy Bee, she’s the Countess Mountbatten of Burma. That part of his family was not represented by his relatives from Germany. Those were the children/grandchildren of his sisters, the ones who married minor German royals.
The fact that she was invited to the funeral clearly shows they had some dysfunctional old school arrangement. The younger generation wont accept such dynamics easily thats why Kate failed in trying to excommunicate Rose.
It’s going to be like when they covered Philip’s cheating in the first 2 seasons. They never outright confirmed it but it was more “you as the audience can come to your own conclusion”. I agree that they’ll do the same with Penny.
My cackle upon reading this was unseemly, I’ll admit.
And I’m sure it’ll all be Harry and Meghan’s fault.
Oh yeah, cue the “Million dollar Netflix deal!” and “How could they do this to the Queen when she’s in mourning!” outrage in 3,2,1…..
I did and said the same! Season 5 will be lit!
Including Penny at Philip’s funeral was the type of public acknowledgment of her status that probably made Morgan decide to go ahead and include that story. I think it is a fascinating move. The majority of royal fans don’t know about Penny and this is going to burst a lot of bubbles for all those who really thought the Queen and Philip were in love and at each other’s sides daily until they were tragically parted by death.
@Harper: How can any royalist believe that the Queen and Philip were still happily married when for the last few years of his life, he wasn’t living with her and was only made to move back in with her because of Covid? But I can’t wait for their outrage when the new season comes out.
Royal fans are all the People magazine readers and the folks on Twitter posting crying emojis with a pic of Liz & Phil who don’t look too closely at their fairy tales. Royalists are more like us here on this site, who participate in an intensive, daily study of the Windsors’ hypocrisy and failings and enjoy doing so!
Ha, I was having this convo with my best friend over the weekend, she asked if I thought the queen would decline quickly now that the love of her life was gone and I was like….”so…let me tell you about Penny Knatchbull…..”
I pointed out to my parents that the mistress attended his funeral because they were unaware of her as well and my dad then turned to my mom and said “see I’m a good husband because I don’t have a mistress”. And my mom said “and if you did we would now be going to your funeral “
@Nic legit LOL over here. Good response from your mom.
NIC919 legit cackling madly here 🤣🤣🤣
Your mum is a riot lol
Oh wow, mom is not playing Nic919 LOL
Yes, there is so much hypocrisy within the royal family, it must have been awful for Meghan.
Will AK 47 the brawler also be covered? Hey,why should boys have all the fun?
As a Harry Potter fan, I can’t get Imelda Staunton as Umbridge out of my head. It’d be interesting to see her being Betty 😜. One of the most evil character,a serious competition to Voldemort. When Netflix first released the look, I immediately thought of Umbridge without pink 🤭 but still she looks like Betty.
I most remember her as the “silly” wife in Sense and sensibility. Her voice might be on par with Elizabeth’s though. I
If you get a chance, watch “Vera Drake,” in which she plays a woman who provides illegal abortions in 1950s London. Her performance was heartbreaking. She also played a gay rights activist in “Pride,” and the military-style nurse in “Nanny McPhee.” Her range is incredible. And for some reason, I just love that she’s married to Jim Carter, who plays Carson the butler on “Downton Abbey.”
They had me at “Jonathan Pryce.”
I’d be enthralled watching him read Camilla’s tampon box.
I loved him in the Two Popes, but I’m having trouble wrapping my head around him as Philip. But he’s a good enough actor that I’m certainly looking forward to it!
Same. He played Professor Higgins when I saw My Fair Lady in London and I’ve loved him ever since.
Whenever I hear the name Jonathan Pryce I remember Miss Saigon, the Mickey Rooney casting scandal of the nineties. Or, for the children in the audience, just substitute Scarlett Johansson or Emma Stone and you’ll pretty much have it.
I can’t help, for me he will always be Juan Perón in Evita…
Bwahaha…2022 is shaping up to not be a good year for the RF.
Oh wow. Didn’t think they would. I wonder if they’ll cover Philip’s other “friendships” too?
I started watching The Crown and then after all the H&M nastiness, I stopped. Life is way too short to watch scores of hours a family learning nothing and being unstintingly cold hearted over 6 decades. Nothing changes. Great actors, great sets, same grinding meanness. Bleh.
I hope they cover the friendship(s) with convicted child rapists by the Princes and all the other nasty choices this family makes with the protection of the Crown and Press.
I’m sure the royal handwringers will handwring.
Honestly, though, this doesn’t seem particularly dysfunctional, which is kind of notable in this incredibly dysfunctional family. If people who have been together 40 years want to see other people and live separately but also want to stay married and attend family events together, that seems like it’s fine. It’s not the kind of abusive cheating that’s occurred in some of the other royal marriages.
Blaming Harry and Meghan for something in 3,2,1…
Penny is just stunning.
Other than Porchie, was the Queen never interested in someone?
From what I’ve read, he was interested in her, she, not so much.
It been reported that the crown will cover Diana’s panorama interview but has anyone heard or read whether or not they will cover Charles’s authorized biography and documentary with Dimbleby. I think that gets overlooked. That Charles’s “revelations” came first.
I haven’t heard anything obviously, but I bet they will cover that. the Crown has done a good job thus far of both making Charles look sympathetic (particularly in season 3) and reminding people what an ahole he was to Diana.
And Charles caused much attention with that interview. Confessing his involvement with Camilla in book and interview and saying scathing things about his parents through his authorized biographer, Dimbleby. I read that book ages ago and he was decidedly not kind to his parents. I hope that is covered because Charles siblings even went to the media to defend their parents.
Wiliam’s head will surely explode by including the Panorama interview. Didn’t he never want it to be seen again? I wonder if Morgan will go there by including the teen-aged Wiliam’s angry reaction to the interview with Diana.
Now I can’t wait to watch. Lol. These people are such jewelry encrusted trailer trash
“Jewelry encrusted trailer trash” omfg this is the best description of the BRF that I’ve ever seen 😭
I am so glad they are covering this but it’s definitely a touchy subject. I learned in the comments here that she might be his daughter? Would be so gross if they conflated that into an affair.
I don’t know if it’s so much as learning as speculation. I’m one who has speculated on that and still leans in that direction. I’d have to poke around to see video of their interactions to maybe see things differently. To me, they just seem to have a more familial vibe. There are a lot of facial structures the same along with similar physiques. Who knows.
What let me hesitate for a moment are her eyes. Both have/had a very flashy blue. But generally I would rule this theory out.
But Penny isn’t an aristocrat, I thought? She married an aristocrat, but wasn’t sure described as “the butcher’s daughter” around the funeral times?
She is an aristocrat by marriage, not by birth though.
Interesting how Penny wasn’t staring straight at the camera in these photos. She actually looked sad and in mourning. That said her outfit was classic and you can tell she is a beautiful woman without the obvious posing.
Oh where to start…
I grew up mostly with my grandmother and her royal magazines (We are from Germany, just to clarify; I was born mid 80s) and I was into royality from a very early age on. And I can not remember a time when it doesn’t seemed natural (sorry, it’s not the right expression, but I think you guys get it) to have named them both, “Philip and Penny”. Of course, as a kid you don’t understand that in its entirety or you don’t ask. I didn’t dig deep into that for years because for me it was just as it was – you know that things you grow up with, you don’t question them.
I remember one moment from some years ago, when I talked to my colleague about the royals and Prince Philip in particular and somehow she asked something like “Do you think he had girlfriends?” and I answered, without thinking, just spontaneous, “I don’t know, but ask Penny Romsey.” I just afterwards realized how that had come as common knowledge for me.
Then the funeral came and I was of course not one of the people who were surprised that she was there. My mother saw the list and asked me who the 30th invitee was, and I said, the one who was always around Philip, and she knew.
I won’t say it was not platonic, but I won’t say as well it was. But for me, and I did a WHOLE LOT of research after the funeral, just because she caught my eye again and I started to become interested, for me there were several signs that it was more than friendship.
The most significant sign for me were the pictures when she drove him and tried to hide her face. Or that every time when he was seen after his retirement, mostly somewhere in a car, she was with him. Of course that could only be coincidences, but you see something one time and you brush it aside. You see it a second time and you brush it aside. But when you see it a third time, you start thinking about it and its the same with comments, articles etc.
She drove his car, he drove her carriage.
She went with him to Balmoral and the way the two interacted with his grandson told me the boy was very well used to her being around grandpa.
She disappeared when she was with him and saw cameras.
I found old carriage-event-participating lists and they travelled a lot together, and if one did not take part, the other didn‘t as well (apart from maybe one time in 10 years or something) and she gave it up very soon after he gave it up.
Again, I don‘t want to give a professional opinion about it or say it was this way or that way. I can just tell you what I observed, what my conclusion is – basically a close friendship, but with signs that cannot be denied that it was more.
I also want to say very clear that I don‘t want to judge a possible „more“, on the contrary. What I saw, what I read, what I concluded, I liked. I liked them together.
Seeing Penny together with Her Majesty on the Windsor Horse Show was not shocking, but what was shocking to me was that Penny looked far worse than HM – on the other hand, it wasn‘t shocking given the fact that she even looked more grief stricken than anyone of the family on the funeral day.
And I saw something else on the funeral day. I rewatched it on YouTube, because I had to watch it live on german TV with Mom and wanted to watch it in english later. It was then when I saw that both Harry and Edward looked in Pennys direction when they passed her with the procession (and it was Edward who talked to her after church.) I rewatched it afterwards, just to be sure that Edward doesn‘t look to his own family, but the small look to the side was too early for that.
I‘m not endorsing cheating in generally, but sometimes the normal rules don‘t fly.
I hope I did not freak you out, but as a person who easily notices the smallest interactions between people, it could not be unseen for me. And I am curious what The Crown will make from this.
You are correct of course, it was an open secret. Also Philip didn’t attend the christening of one of his own great grandchildren but in his nineties around the same time became godfather to one of Penny’s grandchildren.
The Queen and Philip have been leading separate lives for decades.
I think you’re spot on. It’s especially telling that they traveled together so often for their carriage riding events, and that if he didn’t go, she didn’t go and vice versa.
Of course, men and women can and often are just friends. I think what makes this different is that neither of them ever really denied anything. And they’d been spending time together for so long, and the Queen and Philip had always characterized their relationship so differently. I think regardless of what the precise nature of it was, and it could probably just very well be platonic on some level too, they shared a close bond, and Philip simply had a different relationship with the Queen than he did with Penny. Life is complicated, things are what they are.
@Muisje: interesting! Do you happen to know which grandson the Balmoral story is referring to?
Sure, it was James, Edwards son. There were pictures.
Fun fact….I visited London in 2016 (pre Brexit thank God) and saw Imelda Staunton & Jim Carter (Mr. Carson of Downton Abbey) while touring Parliament Square. They were on their way to a function at Parliament and I rushed up to say Hi to Jim, I didn’t know who she was at the time but they were both nice. Looking forward to seeing her portrayal.
Well, is it any wonder that Charles thought he could carry on with Camilla having secured the succession. Mummy and Daddy were his “very fine examples” on marriage and parenting. His mummy is a Queen, and she put up with it, no fuss, no muss.
And such is the example Charles set for his heir. The rules don’t apply to these people. Fidelity to one’s marriage vows and spouse, and obeying the law of the land is gauche, and for commoners.
Like a circle in a spiral
Like a wheel within a wheel
Never ending or beginning
On an ever spinning reel.
If i were kate, i will be definitely plan my future differently.
She watched in real life situation how her life will be.
One day, she and willie companions (there must be more than one affairs) will sit together to watch willie’s funeral.
Or maybe not, it is classy when white royals do it.