For a lot of people, the word Prince either brings to mind images of the beloved singer who passed away years ago or fairy tales of some sort. However, even though the idea of princes sometimes seems like a relic of the past or something fantastical, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh served in that role for decades.
Over the last several decades, there has been a lot of drama that has surrounded the British royal family. For example, there have been a lot of rumors about Queen Elizabeth’s relationship with Princess Diana and when Prince Harry and Meghan Markle quit the royal family it was shocking. However, when people learn more about Prince Phillip’s childhood, it becomes clear that he went through some difficulties much more serious than any of that drama.
What Happened To Prince Phillip’s Father?
In the grand scheme of things, there is no doubt that Prince Phillip has always been a very fortunate person. After all, he was born into the upper crust of society and he enjoyed living in the lap of luxury for decades before he passed away. As a result, when you compare Phillip’s childhood to millions of people who grew up in poverty, calling what he went through a tragedy may seem insulting. However, given the fact that most people care about their family above all else, there is no doubt that Phillip’s early years would have been extremely difficult for him.
In an ideal world, every child would have a close-knit family to serve as their anchor in the world. Unfortunately for Prince Phillip, however, before he married Queen Elizabeth and had a family of his own, he never experienced stability even though he was born with a silver spoon. For Prince Phillip’s family, the drama began the year after he was born since his uncle Constantine, the King of Greece, was forced to abdicate the throne after the Greco-Turkish War became a disaster.
During the disastrous war that forced his uncle to abdicate the throne, Prince Phillip’s father, Prince Andrew served in the army. Unfortunately, Andrew wound up being accused of disobeying a superior officer’s order. Based on that incident and the royal family being blamed for how poorly the war went, Prince Phillip’s father wound up being accused of treason and sentenced to death. Thankfully for Prince Phillip’s family, his father’s death sentence was commuted to exile from Greece.
While there is no way that Prince Phillip remembered his father’s treason trial since he was one when his dad was sentenced to death, it still would have affected his childhood in a big way. After all, having the patriarch of your family narrowly escape a death sentence and having your clan forced to flee its country would be traumatic for everyone involved.
While it was bad enough that Prince Phillip’s father was shamed and almost executed when he was a baby, Prince Phillip’s life was chaotic throughout his childhood as a result of what happened. The reason for that is once Prince Phillip’s family went into exile, it resulted in his mother and father becoming estranged. With his parents not able to co-exist, Prince Phillip often was packed up and sent off to live with other family members. After continuously being sent to live with other people when he was a child, spending more time with his dad as an adult became impossible for Prince Phillip as his father passed away.
What Happened To Prince Phillip’s Mother?
As this article touched on earlier, Prince Phillips reportedly spent a lot of childhood and youth staying with people who weren’t his parents. One of the main reasons for that is Prince Phillip’s family was separated when he was still young due to his parents’ estrangement. As it turns out, however, there is another reason why Prince Phillip couldn’t be with his mom.
When Prince Phillip was still a child, his mother Princess Alice began having serious mental health struggles. In fact, Princess Alice reportedly began “hearing voices and believed she was having physical relationships with Jesus and other religious figures”. Eventually diagnosed with schizophrenia, Princess Alice was forcibly committed to a sanatorium the same year that Prince Phillip turned nine years old. After she advocated for her own release for two and a half years, Princess Alice eventually was released but Prince Phillip’s family had been torn apart by then.
In this day and age, the world has thankfully learned that there is no shame in having mental health struggles. As a result, if Princess Alice was alive today and diagnosed with schizophrenia, she almost certainly would receive effective treatment, support, and understanding from the world. More importantly, she would be able to maintain a strong relationship with her kids. When Princess Alice was alive, however, her diagnosis made sure that her life never was the same. To Princess Alice’s credit, she devoted most of the rest of her life to performing charity work in Greece which is incredibly admirable.
