The royals - Kitty Kelley [102]
“Look into that story,” advised Peter Evans, a prominent British journalist, “and you’ll probably find a suspicious birth nine months after the Duke’s departure.”
“One of Philip’s three illegitimate children is supposed to be the daughter of an Argentine polo player,” said his biographer Tim Heald, “but I don’t know the details.”
It just so happens that the Duke of Edinburgh was blamed for a love affair he never had and a love child he never fathered.
“I didn’t even know Philip until the Ambassador called and asked me to be his hostess,” said Mrs. de Blaquier, whose vast estate, La Concepcion, is ninety miles from Buenos Aires. “I was called because my estancia is very secure and large enough to contain three polo fields. The government needed to get Philip out of Buenos Aires because there was so much danger. They couldn’t take him any place within the city during that crisis, so he came to my estate in the country.
“He did not speak Spanish and I did not speak good English, so we conversed in French. He speaks the language fluently, like a Frenchman. I had been married thirty years when my husband died in 1960 in an airplane crash. We had nine children. Philip stayed with me and the children at the farm, and the couple who care for us. He was very simpático— very funny, nice, easy. He played cards with the children in the evening, and I organized four polo games for him at the level he could play. He’s not a very good player, but he’s passionate about the game. Passionate. He plays with a ten handicap, which is not very good, at least by Argentine standards, and I did not want him to feel slighted; so I found him players who would play his kind of polo, and he was very happy.
“During that time, he had three private meetings with Frondizi. Philip stayed with us six days and then was taken to the airport and flown to Britain. He did not allow any photographs during his visit, so I don’t have pictures, but he did send me a very beautiful letter thanking me for his stay. I never more see him again for thirty-two years until I go to a polo game in Paris. I sent word to him that I was there with my sons and grandsons. He came over.
“ ‘Are you the person who was my wonderful hostess?’ he asked. I said yes, and he presented me to the Queen. He also introduced me to Prince Charles, who said, ‘What did you do to my father? Whenever South America is mentioned, the only place he loves is Argentina because of the wonderful treatment you gave him at La Concepcion.’
“The reason, you see, is because of my polo fields. Philip said you can visit castles in Europe, but you can’t play polo there. For polo—real polo—you must go to Argentina. That’s why he loves our country so much. And Mexico, too.”
In his role as Britain’s goodwill ambassador, Philip took every opportunity to return to Argentina to play polo. He also visited Mexico several times, and again people assumed the magnet was a mistress—the beautiful Merle Oberon, who owned a sumptuous villa in Acapulco, a palace in Cuernavaca, and a huge estate in Mexico City. Married to the multimillionaire industrialist Bruno Pagliai, the former film star was celebrated in magazines as an international hostess who regularly entertained the ex-King of Italy, Greek shipowners, and Saudi Arabian princes. Her favorite royal guest was the Duke of Edinburgh.
“The Queen’s husband was Merle’s boy,” said New York society columnist David Patrick Columbia. “He was her big social ticket. I had dinner with her at her Malibu Beach house in California with Luis Estevez, her favorite couturier, and she had framed pictures of really famous people all around. The pride of place was reserved for the personally inscribed eight-by-ten photograph of Philip, which she had in a large silver frame. She was always talking about ‘when Philip visited us in Mexico,’ and ‘when Philip introduced me to the Queen,’ and ‘Philip