After a month of treatment, Prince Philip was seen leaving a London hospital on Tuesday. Queen Elizabeth II’s 99-year-old husband was treated for an infection and underwent a heart procedure while he was hospitalized at two separate facilities over the past few weeks.
Philip was first admitted to a London hospital on Feb. 16. He was transferred to a different hospital for the heart procedure and afterward went back to the first hospital for a total of 28 days hospitalized, his longest stay ever. Buckingham Palace, which has not given any official word on Philip leaving the hospital this week, announced on March 4 that he had undergone a successful medical procedure on a heart condition.
Videos by PopCulture.com
Following the heart procedure, Philip’s daughter-in-law, Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, shared that the royal family heard “that he’s slightly improving,” which was “very good news.” She added that he “hurts at moments” and that the family kept their “fingers crossed” for his recovery. Camilla, who is married to Philip and the queen’s oldest son Prince Charles, commented during a visit to a COVID-19 vaccination center in South London.
His hospitalization coincides with a tumultuous time for the royals. His grandson Prince Harry, together with his wife Meghan Markle, spoke publicly with Oprah Winfrey about their reasons for stepping away from their roles as senior royals and their reasons for leaving the U.K. Harry said an unnamed royal insider — though admittedly not Queen Elizabeth or Prince Philip — had conversations with him about how dark his and Markle’s children’s skin might be. Markle also revealed she had suicidal thoughts during her time as a royal.
Buckingham Palace released a short statement two days after the interview detailing that the royal family was “saddened” to learn the full extent of Harry and Markle’s last few years. In his first public comments about his brother’s interview, Prince William denied that Britain’s royal family was racist.
With her husband in the hospital, the queen, 94, has carried on with her own royal duties, speaking last week with scientists and school children during British Science Week. In a video released by the palace, she recalled meeting the first human to travel into space, Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, in 1961.
The queen and Philip married in 1947, just before Elizabeth took the throne. They share four children — Prince Charles, Princess Anne, Prince Andrew and Prince Edward. Philip retired from public life in 2017 and has been spending time at Windsor Castle amid the coronavirus.
