Prince Philip, 99, was forced to give up his title, religion, name and nationality to join the British Royal Family, according to royal experts. Speaking on the Channel 5 documentary ‘Before they were royal,’ royal expert Jenny Bond explained the Duke of Edinburgh had hoped to give his children his family name on Mountbatten. But the Queen and several members of the British Government would not allow this.
Ms Bond said: “There was a big row about it but Philip lost the argument and the Queen’s decreed that her children would be part of the House of Windsor.
“But during the row he said, ‘what kind of a man am I? I’m just a bloody amoeba’.
“It was very, very hurtful to him.”
Royal commentator Dr Kate Williams added: “I think he really felt that if he gave up his title, his religion, his name, his nationality then the actual reward would be that he got to be Philip, the house of Mountbatten.
READ MORE: Meghan and Harry quitting social media is just ‘speculation’
“Not has that made him feel very excluded, very humiliated and it was a very difficult moment for him.”
Despite being defeated over the surname of their children, Philip does hold a higher role than the Queen within the family.
Before the wedding to the Queen, he received the title of Duke of Edinburgh and left active military service when Elizabeth became monarch in 1952.
A royal expert has since revealed how Philip’s public role differs from the one he holds at home.
The Queen ultimately relented on the issue of the surname when she and the Duke welcomed their two younger sons, Prince Andrew and Prince Edward, in the 1960s.
Since then, male descendants of Her Majesty and Prince Philip have been able to use the double-barrelled Mountbatten-Windsor surname whenever required.
Princess Anne and Prince Andrew both signed their marriage certificates as Mountbatten-Windsor and Prince William filed a complaint with a French magazine in the early 2010s with his grandfather’s surname.
Philip and the Queen have been self-isolating during the COVID-19 pandemic.
But the royal couple have since received their first dose of the vaccine.
