The Crown: Who Was Philips ‘Good Friend’ Penny Knatchbull?

A new name and a new face in season five of The Crown: Penny Knatchbull. A close friend of Charles and Diana who becomes so close to Prince Philip this season that they had to deny that anything was going on between them all his life.

In episode two, we get to know Penny as a royal friend who loses her daughter and is given a new hobby by Prince Philip, her husband Norton’s godfather. His beloved carriage rides.

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Also later in season five, Penny returns, always in the wake of Philip and also at the side of Queen Elizabeth. But… how about that really?

Provided: it always remained rumors when it comes to Prince Philip and Penny, who is more than 30 years younger. She was known as his good friend and ‘keeper of secrets’. Although their friendship, certainly because of the age difference, raised a lot of eyebrows.

That she was one of the thirty in attendance at the Prince’s pandemic funeral (she was also at Queen Elizabeth’s funeral, by the way) speaks volumes about how close the bond between the two was. They were often called best friends.

But of course, many people suspected that there was more to it. And yes: there is also in The Crown hinted a bit. Striking is the moment when Philip pushed his wife and ‘second wife’ (as Penny was also often called) towards each other. It was about time they were seen together in public.

That certainly partly silenced the rumors of a romance in Britain at the time. And the fact that the queen was still spotted in the company of Penny after Philip’s death was also a big headscratcher.

We may never know what really happened between Philip and Penny, or certainly not for many years to come. But it is certainly intriguing, the bond between the prince and the much younger countess.