Prince Philip: Duke of Edinburgh made alarming mistake on Canada royal tour (Image: Getty Images)
Prince Philip has famously made some brazen comments in the past that have caused consternation. On one royal visit to Canada, the Duke of Edinburgh came out with one particularly poorly thought-through remark. It was such a blunder that Queen Elizabeth's husband himself admitted he had put his foot in it. The comment came at a time in 1969 when the royal family was encountering some financial concerns.
Prince Philip: Duke of Edinburgh made alarming mistake on Canada royal tour
Royal author Sarah Bradford described the awkward episode in her book Queen Elizabeth II: Her Life in Our Times.
“The year 1969 was a key one in the history of the monarch,” Bradford said.
“‘Cynics,’ Ben Pimlott wrote, ‘detected [a] motive behind Buckingham Palace’s sudden interest in raising the monarch’s public profile: money.’
“On [the] North American tour Prince Philip produced a spectacular example of what he himself called ‘dontopedalogy’ (putting his foot in his mouth), inadvertently focussing the spotlight on a subject both the Palace and the Government would have preferred to remain in the dark: the royal finances.
“In an interview on NBC’s Meet the Press, Prince Philip announced that the monarchy was broke or about to be so: ‘We go into the red next year, now, inevitably if nothing happens we shall have to - I don’t know, we may have to move into smaller premises…
“‘For instance, we had a small yacht which we had to sell, and I shall have to give
