Netflix’s ‘The Crown’ Season 2 Will Delve Into Rumors Of Prince Philip And Infidelity

The countdown is on for those awaiting Netflix’s The Crown Season 2 on Friday, but fans should know that Peter Morgan, creator of The Crown, hasn’t glossed over rumors of Prince Philip’s infidelity. Claire Foy, who plays Queen Elizabeth, said it wouldn’t be realistic to act as if Prince Philip was totally devoted to the Queen and that rumors of infidelity hadn’t persisted for much of their marriage. The Crown Season 2 will explore what makes Prince Philip tick and the emasculation he felt being married to Queen Elizabeth.

It’s no secret that Prince Philip had a rough upbringing that was somewhat transient, especially for a royal, and it is thought that his unstable family life led to Prince Philip being one of the more eccentric royals as portrayed in Netflix’s The Crown Season 2 by Matt Smith.

Royal chef Darren McGrady said for a while, he didn’t realize that Prince Philip was Prince Philip due to his casual dress and habit of dropping by the kitchen unannounced.

“He came into the kitchen and I thought he was the gardener. He was this old man in tatty old clothes, he had a jumper on with the arms hanging out at the elbows—all tattered and worn. I looked and thought, ‘Oh, it’s the gardener.’ It was only after I looked closely that I saw it was Prince Philip.”

The Crown Season 2 will show that Prince Philip had a weekly escape from the palace and Queen Elizabeth with a weekly visit to a gentlemen’s club in the Soho area of London, according to Vanity Fair. Peter Morgan, the creator of The Crown, says that he has no interest in creating friction in the marriage of Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip, but it would be disingenuous to skip over the rumor that Prince Philip had a wandering eye.

Prince Philip’s club of choice was called the Thursday Club (which is featured in Season 2), and a surviving member, Miles Kington, explained what it was like to hang out there with Prince Philip and his crowd back in the day.

“On an average night of the Thursday Club, there would be 10 or 15 members present. There would be Lord Louis Mountbatten, Arthur Koestler, Prince Philip, Cecil Beaton, and little Larry Adler playing his mouth organ in the corner, and maybe one or other of the Kray brothers. There would also be the ladies, whose names I remember as Flo, Loulou, Beryl, Gertie, Simone, Pat, and one or two others. To begin with, I puzzled over their presence there.”

Kington said he remembered saying to Lord Mountbatten that all of the men in the club were so distinguished, but so were the girls at the Thursday Club.

“But these girls. These girls are all great ladies in their own right. The Duchess of Northumberland, the Percy, the Lady Devonshire…”

The interviewer asked if those were the titles of the ladies that Prince Philip knew.

“No. They are the pubs they work at.”

Recent documentaries, like Inside Buckingham Palace, have worked to support The Crown to provide additional historical insight into the story of Queen Elizabeth. A voiceover in the series validated that rumors ran rampant at different points in the marriage of the Queen and Prince Philip.

“Royal aids panicked as rumors grew about Philip having affairs. The affairs were denied and there was no evidence. But rumors persisted. Action was needed. In 1956 the queen was advised to let Philip go away on a long overseas tour which should keep him out of trouble.”

One of Queen Elizabeth’s biographers, Sarah Bradford, stated that Prince Philip had affairs and not just flirtations with various women.

“The Duke of Edinburgh has had affairs… full-blown affairs and more than one. He has affairs and the queen accepts it. I think she thinks that’s how men are… He’s never been one for chasing actresses. His interest is quite different. The women he goes for are always younger than him, usually beautiful, and highly aristocratic.”

And Bradford did what most were not willing to do and named names of Prince Philip’s girlfriends. Penny Brabourne, who was 30 years younger than Prince Philip, was one, and another was a British actress named Pat Kirkwood. The Crown Season 2 will stick with suggestion and flirtation and not show Prince Philip with a woman other than Queen Elizabeth.

Harper’s Bazaar UK says that in The Crown Season 2, there is an outright admission via a letter from Prince Philip’s personal secretary, Commander Michael Parker, that Prince Philip stepped out during a Commonwealth tour he went on without Queen Elizabeth.

Commander Michael Parker wrote a letter back to the Thursday Club on behalf of Prince Philip to say that what happens in the Commonwealth tour stays in the Commonwealth tour. He also says that the women of New Guinea are “sweeter than those of Ceylon.”

“Philip is a work-hard-play-hard man who would never stand in the way of a bit of fun. And in New Guinea it turns out, there’s no such thing as infidelity. Men are expected to indulge… I think by the end of this tour, we’ll be able to make a qualitative assessment about where the finest women in the world come from.”

The long-awaited Netflix series The Crown Season 2 will start streaming on Friday, December 8.