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    Queen Elizabeth "Flushed Scarlet" Following One Comment From Prince Philip, According to Royal Biographer

    "They never completely softened with old age."

    Amy Mackelden's avatar
    By Amy Mackelden
    Published 3 May 2026 In News

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    Queen Elizabeth II wears a bright pink suit with matching hat and Prince Philip smirks during The Patron's Lunch celebrations for The Queen's 90th birthday at The Mall on June 12, 2016
    (Image credit: Jeff Spicer/Getty Images)
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    Queen Elizabeth's love story with Prince Philip is one for the ages. The pair tied the knot on November 20, 1947, and remained married until Prince Philip's death on April 9, 2021. And according to those who knew the couple, there was heat between them throughout their long marriage.

    According to royal author Ian Lloyd, in his book The Queen: 70 Chapters in the Life of Queen Elizabeth II, "The Queen lit up when [Prince Philip] was around, when he walked into a room or when he paid her a compliment." Basically, the couple stayed very much in love through the decades.

    Per Lloyd, "Once, her dress designer, the late Ian Thomas, was making some adjustments to the hemline of her dress when Philip happened to walk past the open door and he said, 'Hmm, nice dress.'"

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    The royal author continued, "Thomas said The Queen 'flushed scarlet’ at the compliment. They never completely softened with old age."

    Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip at Balmoral, Scotland, 1972. (Photo by Fox Photos/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

    "Philip happened to walk past the open door and he said, 'Hmm, nice dress.'"

    (Image credit: Getty Images)

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    Lloyd also shared that Queen Elizabeth looked to her husband for advice throughout her life.

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    "Elizabeth was to rely on [Philip] even more as the touchstone for the values she grew up with: duty, self-sacrifice, service to Queen and country," the biographer explained. "They spoke every day on the telephone from wherever they happened to be."

    Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip were thrown together for an extended period of time during the COVID-19 lockdown in 2020.

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    "Philip left Wood Farm and joined The Queen at Windsor and over the summer at Balmoral," Lloyd noted. "It was the longest the two had been together, apart from their early tours and their time in Malta as a young naval couple, and was no doubt a consolation to her following his death just 12 months later."

    Prince Philip attends Meghan Markle and Prince Harry's wedding at St George's Chapel in Windsor Castle in May 2018

    "The Queen 'flushed scarlet’ at the compliment."

    (Image credit: Getty Images)

    Although Elizabeth and Philip weren't big on PDA, they seemingly had a very flirty relationship in private, which is endearing.

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    Weekend Editor

    Amy Mackelden is the weekend editor at Marie Claire, where she covers celebrity and royal family news. She was the weekend editor at Harper’s BAZAAR for three years, where she covered breaking celebrity and entertainment news, royal stories, fashion, beauty, and politics. Prior to that, she spent a year as the joint weekend editor for Marie Claire, ELLE, and Harper's BAZAAR, and two years as an entertainment writer at Bustle. Her additional bylines include Cosmopolitan, People, The Independent, HelloGiggles, Biography, Shondaland, Best Products, New Statesman, Heat, and The Guardian. Her work has been syndicated by publications including Town & Country, Good Housekeeping, Esquire, Delish, Oprah Daily, Country Living, and Women's Health. Her celebrity interviews include Jennifer Aniston, Jessica Chastain, the cast of Selling Sunset, Emma Thompson, Jessica Alba, and Penn Badgley. In 2015, she delivered an academic paper at Kimposium, the world's first Kardashian conference.

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