The Queen and Prince Philip’s sweetest photos together
Seventy years ago today, the Queen married the love of her life in a lavish Westminster Abbey ceremony. Now, as they celebrate their platinum anniversary, we’ve scoured the archives to find out a little more about this incredible couple.
1. They’re related – Both are great-great-grandchildren of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, making them third cousins.
2. It was love at first sight – For Elizabeth, at least, who was 13 when she met the 18-year-old Prince. “She never looked at anyone else,” her cousin Margaret Rhodes told Vanity Fair.
3. The Queen’s parents didn’t approve – And neither did her royal advisors. He was considered a poor foreigner, and it didn’t help that his sisters had married German noblemen linked to the Nazis. When Philip proposed, the Queen accepted immediately without consulting her parents.
4. Her parents tried to break them up – The King and Queen mother took their daughters on a four-month trip to South Africa to (reportedly) set Elizabeth up with a more eligible suitor. But it didn’t work. As soon as she returned to the UK, the engagement was announced.
5. The wedding cake weighed 227kg – The four-tiered dessert stood at nine feet tall. One tier was saved for Prince Charles’ christening and another was sent to Australia, from where the ingredients had been sourced.
6. Their marriage was purely based on love – Despite the disapproval of those closest to her, the Queen never regretted her decision. “Philip is an angel – he is so kind and thoughtful,” she wrote to her parents, and Philip once wrote to her, “Cherish Lilibet? I wonder if that word is enough to express what is in me.”
7. Their relationship is as strong as ever – “He is someone who doesn’t take easily to compliments,” the Queen said. “But he has, quite simply, been my strength and stay all these years, and I and his whole family, in this and many other countries, owe him a debt greater than he would ever claim or we shall ever know.”
Scroll through the gallery above as we take a look at their most beautiful photos together. The way they look at each other hasn’t changed since they first became engaged – pure love.