The royals - Kitty Kelley [218]
The Palace did not challenge the published statement, and neither did Philip. When his silence became uncomfortable, Rocco moved on.
“The third myth is a rumor that you once had an affair with Valéry Giscard d’Estaing [former President of France],” she said.
Philip laughed. “Oh, Giscard is a delightful old boy, but I never stayed at the Elysée Palace when he was President. I would stay there when [Vincent] Auriol was President [1947– 1954], and he was a frightful buggerer.”
The reporter laughed, too, as if to acknowledge that her impertinent question deserved no more than his mischievous answer. A few days later a courier knocked on her door with an envelope. The thick heavy white stationery from Windsor Castle contained a curt message from HRH Prince Philip: “Do not use the Auriol anecdote on your tape.” And her editor received a call from the Queen’s press secretary, complaining about the reporter’s impudence. Both journalists were summoned to the Palace for a meeting with Prince Philip’s private secretary, Sir Brian McGrath. He reminded them he had provided the names and phone numbers of people whose recollections lent credibility to the profile. “At least, while those recollections remain on the record,” said the courtier. The implication was clear. If the journalists used Philip’s tape-recorded comment, they would lose their sources, who had agreed to be quoted because Philip gave permission. Without named sources, the journalists knew the profile would lack punch.
They argued that the anecdote about the late President of France showed Prince Philip’s sense of humor. The Palace was not to be conned. A deal was struck: the newspaper would not use the anecdote, and the Palace would not withdraw their sources.
Afterward Philip said he would never give another interview to a British reporter. But by then his personal life, once off limits to the press, had become vulnerable. The Independent on Sunday reported that he and the Queen slept in separate bedrooms. Vanity Fair said he kept a mistress. The New Yorker said it was a “succession of actress-mistresses who regularly appeared on television, prompting viewers in the know to smile and say, ‘She’s one of his.’ ” For those not in the know, the Tatler published “The Royal Collection,” which provided the names, biographies, and photographs of thirteen women described as “the Duke of Edinburgh’s fan club.” The list included minor British stars but omitted major American ones like Jane Russell, Zsa Zsa Gabor, and Shirley MacLaine. The British aristocrats included two Princesses, one Duchess, one Countess, and five titled ladies, including the seventy-year-old wife of one of the Queen’s former equerries. “That’s an appalling image of my mother-in-law—in bed with Prince Philip,” pooh-poohed the woman’s son-in-law. “It’s like Love Among the Ruins.”
“The [Tatler] list was a good lineup but hardly complete,” said the columnist Taki. “Everybody knows that Sasha [the Duchess of Abercorn] is Philip’s mistress…. She’s lasted the longest—six to eight years…. He would take the Britannia to the Caribbean to attend an opening in St. Kitt’s because she would be there.” A private photograph from one Caribbean trip was sold to newspapers, showing Philip with only a towel wrapped around his waist. He had his arm around the Duchess, who was in her swimsuit. Her husband, James, who was standing a few feet behind her, was cropped out of the picture. “James is the nicest man in the world,” said Taki. “He’d have to be to put up with Philip.”
Before he died in 1993, John Barratt, who was Lord Mountbatten’s private secretary for twenty years, also discussed Philip’s extramarital love affairs. “The Duchess of Abercorn is Philip’s now, but Mountbatten had her first—she was his godchild, and he loved her greatly, although she was forty years younger. Then he passed her on to Philip….
“The Queen can be very imperious and cold. Austere, really. So it’s understandable why Philip goes elsewhere, and make no mistake about it, he does. But he hasn’t had as many affairs as people think. Many women are