Philip's 'passion' revealed

2004-09-06 10:36

London - Prince Philip had a "passionate friendship" for years with a younger woman but was never unfaithful to his wife, Queen Elizabeth II, according to excerpts published on Sunday from a new book about the royal couple.

Sacha Hamilton, the duchess of Abercorn, 58, was quoted as saying she had an intense friendship with Philip, 83, from the late 1960s through the late 1980s.

"Our friendship was very close," she was quoted as saying in excerpts carried by The Sunday Telegraph newspaper from the forthcoming book Philip & Elizabeth: Portrait of a Marriage, by Gyles Brandreth.

"The heart came into it in a big way. There's a hugely potent chemical reaction in him. It's a highly charged chemistry. We were close because we understood one another," the duchess reportedly said.

"It was a passionate friendship, but the passion was in the ideas. It was certainly not a full relationship. I did not go to bed with him. It probably looked like that to the world. I can understand why people might have thought it, but it didn't happen. ... He isn't like that," she was quoted as saying.

The duchess, the daughter of Lady Kennard, reportedly one of the queen's closest friends, married her husband, James, the duke of Abercorn, in 1966. He was appointed Lord Steward to the Royal Household in 2001.

Buckingham Palace declined to comment on the report. A spokesperson said Brandreth's book was not officially sanctioned and that he had been given no special access to the royal household and did not interview Philip.

Brandreth reports in the book that Philip has never been unfaithful to the queen.

The two have been married for 56 years. Brandreth quotes the duchess as saying she is no longer in contact with Philip.

- AP