The Royal FamilyGet to know the fascinating family headed by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and comprised of her four children, eight grandchildren, and nine great-grandchildren—some of whom may someday become the King of England.
Queen Elizabeth II's husband, whom she met and fell for as a young girl, built a reputation for his lack of filter, seeming ignorance, and vocal personality.
The Disabled Didn't Get A Pass From Philip's 'Jokes'
In 2009, Prince Philip deeply shocked the family of teenager Stephen Menary, a young man who was blinded in an IRA bombing. When the queen asked Menary about the state of his vision, Philip piped in that the teen couldn't have "a lot" of sight, "judging by the tie he's wearing."
Menary's mother told the press: "My whole family were just shocked. We knew he has a reputation for putting his foot in his mouth so we didn't take offense, but mocking the sight of a blind boy is something, even by his standards."
At a meeting of the World Wildlife Fund in 1986, Philip said, “If it has got four legs and it is not a chair, if it has got two wings and it flies but is not an aeroplane, and if it swims and it is not a submarine, the Cantonese will eat it.”
He also made an offensive comment about Chinese people's eyes to British students studying in China.
He Joked About Education To A Young Woman Who'd Been Shot Trying To Obtain It
Malala Yousafzai took Prince Philip's comments in stride when the 16-year-old education advocate met him in 2013. Yousafzai had been shot in the head in Pakistan for advocating for education for women. When Philip met her, however, he provided some cultural perspective.
Philip said, “There's a thing about children going to school - they go to school because the parents don't want them in the house.” In response, Malala giggled.
He Endorsed Dictatorial Rule And Disappearing People
Afredo Stroessner was the dictatorial president of Paraguay from 1954 to 1989. When Prince Philip met him, he quipped: "It's a pleasant change to be in a country that isn't ruled by its people." Stroessner didn't take this comment as a joke.
As Prince Philip made glib remarks about British democracy, the "torture chambers were crammed and screaming less than a mile away" from the spot he stood in Paraguay, according to Johann Hari's piece in The Independent.
Elton John, who has a house near the royal palace in Windsor, has been on the receiving end of two jabs lobbed by the Duke of Edinburgh. In 2001, Prince Philip remarked to John: “Oh it’s you that owns that ghastly car, is it? We often see it when driving to Windsor Castle.” John drove a gold Aston Martin.
That same year, Philip commented during an Elton John performance, “I wish he’d turn the microphone off.”
Cricket And Guns - Not That Different In The Wake Of A School Shooting
In 1996, an armed shooter entered a grade school in the small Scottish town of Dunblane and killed 16 students, a teacher, and himself, leaving numerous others injured. This incident initiated a campaign to change British gun control laws, which culminated in a 1997 ban on the ownership of handguns.
After the massacre, Prince Philip had a unique take on calls to ban firearms: "If a cricketer, for instance, suddenly decided to go into a school and batter a lot of people to death with a cricket bat, which he could do very easily, I mean, are you going to ban cricket bats?" These remarks were received by more than a few people as insensitive given what had happened.
