Prince Philip was raised in a problematic home. As a child, Prince Philip was separated from Princess Alice. He did not see her again until five years later. Prince Andrew, his father, left him alone after shutting down the family house and going off with a woman who eventually ran off with him.
When he died, the only things his soninheritedwere his debt, a shaving stick, and a signet ring. Despite this, Prince Philip would become the man who married Queen Elizabeth. These are the details.
PRINCESS ALICE’S MENTAL DETERIORATION
Prince Philip was born to Princess Alice, sister of Earl Mountbatten and Prince Andrew of Greece, son to King George I of Greece.
Aside from him, his parents also had four other girls, all of whom Andrew did not consider when he left the family to be with his mistress Andrée. He left after Alice, his wife, was taken to a Swiss sanatorium and treated by Sigmund Fréud proteges.
She had been born deaf, and her mental health had been slowly deteriorating for years, but it was decided she could no longer be left alone after she startedclaimingthat she was in direct contact with Jesus Christ and Buddha.
In 1930, she suffered a severe nervous breakdown, was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and was quickly sent off to two sanatoriums. Freudsuggestedthat her religious ravings resulted from her overactive sex drive and recommended that her ovaries be X-rayed.
Philip never saw her again after she was taken. Andrew last saw her in 1938 at the funeral for Cecilie’s daughter Cecilie who was killed in a plane accident with her husband and their children.
Their family lived in a borrowed house in Paris until Alice was institutionalized. Andrew quickly closed the house and moved to the south of France. He left Philip and his four sisters behind.
By that time, Andrew, a failed army officer whose negligent battlefield conduct cost lives, had already met Andrée.
PRINCE ANDREW’S LIFE AFTER HE RAN
In his defense, Prince Andrew did not also have an easy life. Prince Andrew lived in Greece for a while until his brother-in-law, King Constantine I (of Greece), was forced to abdicate him in a military coup. The coup was led by those who believed Andrew was responsible for the defeat against the Turks.
As a result, Andrew was court-martialed, and when it was suspected that his life was in jeopardy, he wasevacuatedfrom Greece along with his family on a British cruiser, the HMS Calypso.
The year was 1922, and the unfolding of eventstraumatizedAndrew deeply. When he met Andrée later, she was already famous, not only for her talent as an actress but also for her striking good looks.
For Andrew, who did not have a lot going for him, Andrée was the perfect trophy, and she was fine with it because she saw him as the best substrate from which she could grow to fulfill her ambitions.
Andrew agreed to give up his day with her. He never worked again in his entire life. He wrote his last book in defense of his actions in 1930.
After that, all he did was loaf around in the Riviera sun supported by his affluent friends and serenaded by Andrée, who remained by his side, reportedly mooching off him till he passed.
Andrew also picked up a skill many princelings from failed European royal houses had sharpened during the interwar years — how to sing to get fed.
Gilbert Beale was one of his first patrons. He was a wealthy bachelor who could afford a lavish lifestyle thanks to his family’s Carter’s Tested Seeds business.
Beale funded Andrew and Andrée’s lifestyle by making them permanent guests on his luxury steam yachts named Angela and Susanna Jane.
PHILIP LOVED HIM ANYWAY
Despite his selfish actions, Andrew somehow aged to remain within his son’s good graces. According to one biographer Philip truly loved his father and respected him.
Philip was a good-natured man who anticipated his few interactions with his father, even though he spent most of his childhood being passed around to relatives. How could he have known that Andrée, who always received him with warmth, was slowly sucking his father dry?
Andrée made enough from her lucrative acting career, but that did not stop her from taking more from Andrew, which made her even more affluent. It all went to her head and one day, overcome with self-importance, she reinvented herself as Comtesse Andrée de la Bigne.
Valtesse Delabigne, her grandmother, was a prostitute who rose to fame and became a celebrated courtesan. Her vain desire to be equal to her lover, who, despite his faults, was still a Prince, inspired this act.
Andrew passed away in his sleep on December 3, 1944, after returning from a party in Marseilles. Heart failure was the cause of his death. Philip was 62 years old at his death and had not seen him in five years.
Although Philip’s difficult childhood hurt him, he didn’t let it affect him. He became one of the most extraordinary men who ever lived and even developed a belief that disregards therapy. If he could survive his ordeals without it, then anyone could.