The creators of Netflix’s “The Crown” are reportedly set to infuriating the royal family, with next season exploring the relationship between Prince Philip and aristocrat Penny Knatchbull, who was 30 years his junior, and who was supposedly the second most important woman in his life.
Actress Natascha McElhone will play Penny, 68, with Jonathan Pryce playing the Queen’s husband, Prince Philip, who died in April at age 99, while Imelda Staunton will put on Her Majesty’s shoes.
The royal family is reportedly unlikely to welcome the exploration of the relationship between Philip and Penny.
A source told the British tabloids: “This is a relationship that naturally raised a few eyebrows and provoked quite a few whispers, but Philip and Penny kept that they were just friends. The creators of The Crown believe it’s a relationship worth exploring, and picking a veteran actor like Natascha is a reflection of the high profile the role has.”
They added: “But It is unlikely that His Majesty or the rest of the Royal Family will welcome the relationship as personal as a story.” Representatives at Buckingham Palace have declined to comment, and may not do so until the series airs.
Who is Penny Knatchbull?
Penny was considered a constant confidant of Prince Philip, a faithful companion and “guardian of secrets”. While much has been said about their shared passion for the sport of carriage driving, their ties were deep and went back decades.
Penny is believed to have met Philip in 1974 when she was dating Norton Knatchbull, now the third Earl Mountbatten of Burma, one of Prince Charles’ closest friends at Gordonstoun School in Scotland.
She is the only child of Reginald Eastwood, a butcher turned businessman, who was educated in Switzerland before graduating in business administration from the London School of Economics.
Earl Mountbatten, 73, whose family seat is Broadlands in Hampshire, where the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh spent their honeymoon, is the grandson of Lord Louis Mountbatten, Prince Philip’s beloved uncle.
When he married Penny in 1979, with Prince Charles as godfather, it was just two months after Mountbatten was assassinated by the IRA. The Earl also lost his brother Nicholas and his grandmother, Lady Brabourne, when a bomb, placed on the family’s fishing boat, exploded in County Sligo.
Until 2005, the Countess was known as Lady Romsey and later as Lady Brabourne until she assumed her current title following the death of her husband’s mother in 2017.
The Knatchbulls were always close members of the royal circle, but tragedy united Penny and Felipe when, in 1991, their youngest daughter, Leonora, died of kidney cancer at the age of 5.
After Leonora’s death, Philip began inviting Penny for a ride in his carriages and she became passionate about driving carriages, a sport one assistant described as “one of the great loves of her life after the Queen”.
The Duke and Penny used to be together at events like the Royal Windsor Horse Show, sometimes in matching mini-bikes as they rode the course that they would then follow in their carriages.
Penny took over the management of the eighteenth-century 60-room mansion during her husband’s absence and continues to manage the house and estate today.
She allowed her husband to move back into the ‘big house’ after he was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. The Earl has not been seen in public for several years and his daughter Leonora is buried on the 86-acre grounds of Broadlands and Penny has dedicated her life to raising money for a charity on his behalf.
The last two series of “The Crown” will cover the history of the royal family throughout the 1990s and into 2003, however, it is not yet known what moments will be seen.
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