Impostor syndrome can strike anybody — even the royals. The Duke of Edinburgh has spoken of the “weight of expectation” that he feels holding his late father’s title and revealed that he is still not accustomed to it one year on.
In an interview to mark his 60th birthday today, Prince Edward paid tribute to his “extraordinary” father, Prince Philip, who held the dukedom for 74 years until his death aged 99 in 2021.
Edward, who was granted the dukedom by the King last year for his 59th birthday, said: “It’s just the weirdest feeling. You walk into a room and, particularly still today, there are name places on a card and I still look around going, ‘Yes, but where am I sitting?’”
On taking Philip’s title two years after his death, Edward said: “It was a huge privilege but also quite a lot of weight of expectation as well … there’s an awful lot of legacy that came with that title and everything that my father had done. Especially when you’re not inheriting it, this is a choice … that comes with all the expectations people have.”
To mark his brother’s 60th, Charles has appointed Edward to the Order of the Thistle, the highest honour in Scotland.
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Speaking to Alan Titchmarsh for the gardener’s Love Your Weekend programme on ITV on Sunday, Edward described Philip as “just an extraordinary man”. He said: “He was the Prince Albert of our age. He had an extraordinary mind. He loved design, he loved innovation.”
Addressing Philip’s reputation as one of the royal family’s most forthright members, which often led to accusations of him being gaffe-prone, Edward said: “He was brilliant with all sorts of people. Sometimes it didn’t necessarily come across that way but he was actually brilliant with people. He was always, always encouraging everybody. You sort of needed to get to know him.”
Edward described the Duchess of Edinburgh, 59, as his “absolutely brilliant rock” whose “critical” support he compared to that provided by Philip to the late Queen Elizabeth.
The couple will celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary in June (Edward is the only one of the late Queen’s four children not to have got divorced).
He said: “I’m incredibly lucky that I found Sophie and that she found me. Hopefully we’ve been a really brilliant partnership. We’re very lucky, we’ve got two of what we would think are particularly brilliant children, who are forging such different paths for themselves.”
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Lady Louise Mountbatten-Windsor, 20, is in her second year reading English at St Andrew’s University and James, Earl of Wessex, 16, is studying for his GCSEs.
During an engagement in Leeds with Edward on Friday, Sophie gave an emotional speech to mark his milestone birthday, describing him as “the best of fathers, the most loving of husbands and still my best friend”. In her tribute, which left Edward tearful, she said: “Like my father-in-law, my husband never seeks compliments for himself. So when acknowledgment has come his way it has always been a total surprise to him … I am so proud of the man he is.”
Sophie also joked that “he gives any energy he has left to our exhausted dogs or laying waste to the garden”. In three new birthday portraits by the photographer Chris Jelf, Edward is pictured with their black labrador, Teal, a cocker spaniel named Mole and a new labrador puppy, Teasel.
Edward, who is patron of the Duke of Edinburgh’s Awards, founded by his father in 1956, also recalled how Philip, a competitive carriage driver, had passed on his love of the hobby to both Sophie and Lady Louise.
He helped teach both to drive and his granddaughter has inherited one of Philip’s carriages and two of his Fell ponies. “It was entirely off her [Louise’s] own bat. I mean, you know, just one day, ‘Can I go out with you and go sit on the boxes?’ He was like, ‘Absolutely.’ He never was going to say no.
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“He took her out with the team and I think it was only the second time, he was driving along and he said, ‘Do you want to have a go?’, and she didn’t have time to even answer the question, he just handed the reins across.”
Remembering spending previous Mothering Sundays with Queen Elizabeth, Edward said: “Those days were, and these days are really important to remember some very, very special people in our lives.”
The full interview with The Duke of Edinburgh is on Love Your Weekend with Alan Titchmarsh on Sunday March 10 at 9:30am on ITV1 and ITVX
