The Queen has described the death of her husband, Prince Philip, as “having left a huge void in her life”, according to the Duke of York.
Speaking on Sunday after attending a church service, Prince Andrew likened the death of his father to losing a “grandfather of the nation”.
The duke said: “The Queen as you would expect is an incredibly stoic person. She described his passing as a miracle and she’s contemplating, I think is the way that I would put it.
“She described it as having left a huge void in her life but we, the family, the ones that are close, are rallying round to make sure that we’re there to support her.”
Andrew, who stepped down from royal duties over his friendship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein in 2019, added: “He was a remarkable man. I loved him as a father. He was so calm. If you had a problem, he would think about it.
“That’s the great thing that I always think about, that he was always somebody you could go to and he would always listen so it’s a great loss.
“We’ve lost almost the grandfather of the nation. And I feel very sorry and supportive of my mother who’s feeling it probably more than everybody else.”
Andrew was joined at the Royal Chapel of All Saints at Royal Lodge, Windsor, by the Earl and Countess of Wessex for a Sunday service.
The Queen is “thinking of others before herself”, Sophie said as she left the service.
Edward added that the “wave of affection for him [the Duke of Edinburgh] and just those lovely stories … just mean so much and the tributes have been just fantastic. That’s really, really important and we really do appreciate it.”
Tributes paid to Prince Philip across the UK
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On Saturday, Prince Charles paid tribute to his father for the years of “devoted service to the Queen”.
The heir to the throne said he was deeply grateful for the public’s support following Prince Philip’s death at the age of 99.
“As you can imagine, my family and I miss my father enormously,” he told reporters outside Highgrove, his Gloucestershire estate.
Prince Charles said that his father was “a much-loved and appreciated figure and apart from anything else, I can imagine, he would be so deeply touched by the number of other people here and elsewhere around the world and the Commonwealth, who also I think, share our loss and our sorrow”.
He said: “My dear papa was a very special person who I think above all else would have been amazed by the reaction and the touching things that have been said about him and from that point of view we are, my family, deeply grateful for all that. It will sustain us in this particular loss and at this particularly sad time.”
