The advice Prince Philip gave to Kate Middleton, according to author

Eight years ago on this day, Prince Philip undertook his last official public engagement after 70 years of service to the Firm.

Before retiring on August 2, 2017, he attended a parade at Buckingham Palace marking the finale of the Royal Marines 1664 Global Challenge.

It was an emotional event as the Duke of Edinburgh bowed out of public life to cheers and a rousing rendition of For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow played by the band of the Royal Marines. 

Stepping down at the age of 96, he was the longest-serving consort in British history and served as patron, president or a member of more than 780 organisations.

The prince of Greece – with Danish, German and Russian blood – was viewed as an outsider when he first joined the institution, but quickly became known as the Queen’s strength and stay.

This made him arguably the best person to advise newlywed Kate Middleton as she entered the Firm aged 29.

According to royal author Gyles Brandreth, who became a friend of Philip through his work for the National Playing Fields Association, the Duke of Edinburgh was ‘relieved’ that his grandson Prince William had found ‘such a level-headed girl’ in Kate.

But nonetheless, Philip apparently worried the popularity which comes with being a royal could go to her head so he offered her some of his advice, as he famously gave Diana. 

Brandreth wrote in his biography Philip The Final Portrait: ‘One of the things that saddened – and worried – the Queen and Prince Philip about Diana, Princess of Wales, was not that she was popular, but that she allowed her popularity to go to her head.

‘Once upon a time Philip and Elizabeth were seen as characters from a fairy tale.

‘The difference between them and Princess Diana, I think, is that they did not take it personally.’

He wrote that Philip said: ‘If you believe the attention is for you for your personally, you’re going to end up in trouble.

‘The attention is for your role, what you do, what you’re supporting.

‘It isn’t for you as an individual. You are not a celebrity. You are representing the Royal Family. That’s all.

‘Don’t look at the camera. The Queen never looks at the camera. Never.

‘Look at who you are talking to. Look at who you’ve come to see. Diana looked at the camera.’

Brandreth added: ‘I have been on walkabout with Duchess of Cambridge. She never looks at the camera.’

Kate likely understood the magnitude of what Philip was saying to her as William’s grandfather acted as a mentor to him after he lost his mother.

At Philip’s funeral, William paid tribute to his grandfather, saying his ‘enduring presence’ guided him ‘both through good times and the hardest days’. 

This ‘enduring presence’ as well as his caring, grandfatherly nature was shown clearly during Diana’s funeral cortege on September 6, 1997.

Initially there had been no plans for Philip to walk behind Diana’s coffin, as this role was intended for immediate family only.

But after conversations with his grandson, who asked to walk beside him in support as they followed the hearse, Philip could not refuse. 

The Duke of Edinburgh joined his son Prince Charles, William and Harry as well as Diana’s brother Charles, 9th Earl Spencer, behind the coffin during her funeral on September 6, 1997, when the young royals were only 15 and 12.

Brandreth revealed in the ITV documentary Philip: Prince, Husband, Father: ‘It wasn’t his idea, but there was a tradition at royal funerals of members of the royal family walking behind the hearse.

‘There was no plan originally for Prince Philip to be part of that. Philip said to Prince William, if it would help, I could walk alongside you.

‘So, he volunteered to do that, William accepted the invitation, so far from being what was being reported, it was an act of grandfatherly kindness to try and offer support to William.’ 

Many observers believe William and Kate modelled themselves directly on the Queen and the late Duke of Edinburgh, who were married for 73 years.

Brandreth wrote that William and Kate lived ‘a relatively normal young officer’s life’ while he was training with the Search and Rescue force in north Wales – ‘not dissimilar to the experience enjoyed by Philip and Elizabeth when the Duke of Edinburgh was a young officer serving in the Royal Navy in Malta sixty years before’.

The royal author recalled when Philip was ill in the summer of 2012, as vice-president of the National Playing Fields Association, he spent a day watching Kate and William.

He wrote: ‘I watched them “doing their thing” on a playing field in Nottingham – meeting and greeting, walking and talking, making a speech, playing with some children – and they did not put a foot wrong.

‘At all times their focus was entirely on the people immediately in front of them. Not once did either of them play to the cameras – or even acknowledge them.

‘And I noticed too, that just as the Duke of Edinburgh, in more than 70 years of royal duty, never once put himself above, before, or ahead of his wife and sovereign.

‘Philip would take no credit for the successful way in which Catherine has merged into the Royal Family – becoming a star, but somehow managing not to behave like a celebrity. 

‘She appeared to have learnt all the lessons that Philip could have taught her.’ 

It seems Kate respected her husband’s grandfather enough to know that he was speaking from a position of knowledge and experience.

She clearly holds his advice dear, even after his passing.  

Behind the scenes of Prince Philip’s shock retirement

The Duke’s decision to stand down from the front line had been unexpected an followed a top-secret meeting attended by other royals, including his children.

In a later statement, Buckingham Palace said: ‘The Duke of Edinburgh has decided that he will no longer carry out public engagements from the autumn of this year. In taking this decision, The Duke has the full support of The Queen.

‘The Duke of Edinburgh is Patron, President or a member of over 780 organisations, with which he will continue to be associated, although he will no longer play an active role by attending engagements’.

Prince Philip took a characteristically irreverent view on his retirement, as he told one man who said he was sorry he was standing down: ‘Well I can’t stand up for much longer’.

The Prince’s retirement was well-earned after decades of dedicated service to Britain and Her Majesty, who gave him her ‘full support’ to step down.

The difficult decision was made by Philip himself, who decided to step back just before he and the Queen reached their 70-year platinum wedding anniversary in November of the same year.

Back in 2017, his life-long friend and relative, Lady Myra Butter, 92, told the Mail: ‘He always used to say, quite openly, I’m past my sell-by date’.

The Queen decided to continue her public engagements alone she had always vowed to serve her country for as long as she lived – and true to her word she remained until her death on September 8, 2022.

For the remainder of his life, before he passed in April 2021, the Duke continued to accompany his wife to some events and was involved with organisations and charities close to his heart.