LONDON (UK) – Prince Philip, Queen Elizabeth’s 99-year-old husband, spent a second night in a London hospital after feeling unwell at Windsor Castle. The Buckingham Palace said it was a precautionary measure.
Philip, the monarch’s dutiful consort who turns 100 in June, felt ill and got a doctor’s consultation before he was taken to the King Edward VII Hospital in London. He walked without any aid into the private hospital and he does not have COVID-19.
Buckingham Palace said, adding that he was expected to remain in hospital for a “few days of observation and rest”. “The Duke’s admission is a precautionary measure, on the advice of His Royal Highness’s Doctor, after feeling unwell.”
A royal source emphasised that the admission was not an emergency and said that the queen, 94, continued to be at Windsor where they have stayed during the pandemic. Both had received their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine in January.
Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, has been known for helping Elizabeth – and the British monarchy – on the way through the political and social upheaval of the 20th Century.
Philippos Schleswig-Holstein Sonderburg-Glucksburg is a descendant of Elizabeth’s great-great-grandmother Queen Victoria and his wife’s third cousin.
He is now the longest-serving consort of any British monarch – a distinction previously held by Queen Charlotte, George III’s consort, so far.
He withdraw from official engagements in August 2017 after completing more than 22,000 solo events and thousands more alongside the queen.