After Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Phillip spent the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic crisis together, the monarch and her husband were initially supposed to be separated by their numerous engagements.
The Queen and her 99-year-old spouse were scheduled to leave the Balmoral Castle later in September and head to their private residence in Norfolk, so they could “spend time privately on the Sandringham Estate.”
According to PEOPLE magazine, a representative from the palace recently stated that after visiting Norfolk with Prince Philip, the 94-year-old Queen intended to stay at Windsor Castle so that she could make appearances at Buckingham Palace for “selected audiences and engagements.”
While the monarch is in Windsor, her husband reportedly made the request to retreat to the Wood Farm on the Sandringham estate, where he mostly lives ever since his retirement from his senior royal position in 2017.
A royal source explained: “Philip didn’t want to go to Balmoral and doesn’t want to go to Windsor.”
Philip was hoping that even though they would not be living together, their employees would have done everything to make it possible for the two of them to meet while keeping every safety precaution.
However, the Queen put her foot down, and Prince Philip will not get his way for the following reason: “But there is not enough staff to make two bubbles, so he is being made to go. It makes far more sense to keep them together.”
Instead, the royal couple will be staying at Wood Farm on the Sandringham estate as some kind of a “compromise” before returning together to Windsor. Wood Farm is very special to the Queen.
According to royal expert, Richard Kay, Wood Farm was the “one royal home where the Queen feels she can escape from the pressures of monarchy and being under the spotlight” since there the royal etiquette was not so rigorously kept and that was the one place where “the Queen is likely to be seen in the kitchen.”
Kay wrote in The Daily Mail: “It is certainly true that Wood Farm is the one royal home where the Queen feels she can escape from the pressures of monarchy and being under the spotlight. There are far fewer of the rituals that govern her life: Philip has seen to that. The staff, for example, do not always have to wear royal livery — and it is the one residence where the Queen is likely to be seen in the kitchen.”
Queen Elizabeth and Prince Phillip’s plans to visit Norfolk were quite surprising for many, as the monarch usually went to her residency in Sandringham for the duration of the Christmas holidays, not right after her summer break.
