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Queen Elizabeth and the late Prince Philip have four children: Prince Charles, Princess Anne, Prince Andrew and Prince Edward.
The Queen rarely speaks publicly about her family, although in her wedding anniversary speech in 1972 she said: “If someone asks me how I feel about family life after 25 years of marriage, I can respond with so much simplicity and conviction, I am for. .
From the duty-driven heir apparent Charles, to the hard-working Princess Anne, to the “sensitive” Edward and the scandalous Andrew, get to know the four adult children of Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip.
Prince Charles
Born at Buckingham Palace on November 14, 1948, Prince Charles is the eldest son of the Queen and Prince Philip and heir to the British throne. At the age of 9, Prince Charles was made Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester.
Prince Charles studied archaeology, anthropology and history at Trinity College, University of Cambridge, becoming the first royal heir to earn a university degree. He then served in the British Royal Navy in his twenties, like his father before him, and then became a helicopter pilot. He retired from military service in 1976 as Commander of the HMS Bronington and later founded the charity The Prince’s Trust.
He began his relationship with Diana Spencer in the summer of 1980 and in February 1981 the couple got engaged. They married on July 29, 1981 and welcomed their first son, Prince William, the following year. In 1984, Prince Charles and Princess Diana welcomed their second son, Prince Harry.
Charles and Diana admitted their infidelity in their marriage and the couple announced their separation in 1992 and finalized their divorce in August 1996. Diana tragically died in a car accident a year later.
The royal then quietly dated Camilla Parker Bowles, whom he dated before marrying Diana, and they eventually married on April 9, 2005.
Prince Charles is a dedicated philanthropist who focuses on environmentalism and the fight against global climate change, with his wife Camilla calling him a “workaholic”. In his free time, he likes to paint. Charles also has five grandchildren: Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis, of William and Kate Middleton, and Archie and Lilibet, of Harry and Meghan Markle.
On May 10, 2022, Prince Charles delivered the speech for the first time at the official opening of Parliament on behalf of his mother, who was unable to attend. He jokingly acknowledged his position as future king, telling an audience that when he visited a TK Maxx, “I remember there was a huge number of people trying to get in, because they were waiting for me to out! of my life.”
Princess Anne
Princess Anne was born on August 15, 1950 in London. Prince Philip once said of his only daughter, an avid equestrian: “If she doesn’t fart or eat hay, she’s not interested.” This lack of frivolity also extends to her fashion sense: Princess Anne is also known to recycle her wardrobe, sometimes wearing the same outfits more than 30 years apart.
To show how small royal circles are, Princess Anne dated Andrew Parker Bowles in 1970 before he married his first wife, Camilla. In 1973, Princess Anne married Olympic gold medalist Captain Mark Phillips, just four months after her split from Parker Bowles, with whom she remains friends today.
On March 20, 1974, Princess Anne was the target of a kidnapping plot. Would-be kidnapper Ian Ball swerved past Princess Anne’s chauffeur-driven Rolls Royce and fired six shots, injuring four people. Ball tried to drag the princess out of the car, to which witnesses said she replied, “Not really at all!”
In 1978, Princess Anne recalled the events in a TV interview and downplayed her own bravery with wry humor. “He opened the door and we kind of had a ‘discussion’ about where or not we were going to go,” she said of Ball. “I said I didn’t think I wanted to go. I was scrupulously polite because I thought it was silly to be too rude at this point.”
Princess Anne became the first British royal to become an Olympian, competing in the 1976 Montreal Olympics as an equestrian athlete. She placed 24th overall, while Great Britain came in 9th place in the Games.
Anne and her first husband welcomed son Peter in 1977 – making her the first royal to give birth in a hospital – and daughter Zara in 1981 and chose not to give her children royal titles. The Princess and Phillips separated in 1989 and divorced in April 1992 following infidelity on both sides. In December that year, Princess Anne married Sir Timothy Laurence, with whom she had had an affair during her first marriage.
The Queen’s daughter remains one of the busiest members of the Royal Family, having attended more than 500 events in 2018 alone. Anne joked that she was “the boring old fuddy-duddy at the rear saying ‘Don’t forget the basics’ to the next generation of royals.
Prince Andrew
Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip’s third child and second son, Prince Andrew, was born on February 19, 1960. Like his brother Charles, Prince Andrew served in Britain’s Royal Navy after completing his education and eventually received wings of the Royal Air Force by his father, Prince Philip.
In 1986, Prince Andrew married Sarah “Fergie” Ferguson and the Queen named him Duke of York. They welcomed their daughters, Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie, before separating in 1992 and divorcing in 1996, although they remain close friends and still live together.
Andrew is now infamous for his friendship with late sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. In 2011, Prince Andrew resigned after a decade as the UK’s special representative for international trade and investment over his relationship with Epstein.
In 2019, a survivor of Epstein’s trafficking ring, Virginia Giuffre, accused Prince Andrew of sexual abuse and filed a civil suit against him, alleging she was forced to have sex with him at three times between 1999 and 2002. Prince Andrew has always denied any wrongdoing. , most famously in a disastrous BBC interview in November. The palace stripped Andrew of his military titles and royal patronages in January 2022, and he and Giuffre reached an undisclosed settlement a month later.
Although Prince Andrew can no longer use the title ‘His Royal Highness’ or attend public events as a royal, he still attends family events.
Prince Edward
Prince Edward is the youngest child of Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip, born March 10, 1964 at Buckingham Palace.
Although the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh’s ‘most charming and sensitive son’ goes largely unnoticed, he made waves in 1987 when he resigned from the Royal Marines at the start of his training – apparently much to the chagrin of his father.
Prince Edward was close friends with model Romy Adlington at the time, who told reporters: “Edward has been through a terrible ordeal and has no one to speak for him. As one of his friends the closest ones i want the audience to know that he is a normal human being who has to make an important decision, he does not have the same responsibility as his brothers [they are closer in the line of succession], but he still can’t leave and do what he wants. He often asked me, “How does it feel to go for a walk alone in the park?” How does it feel to be able to walk into a store without everyone looking at you? That’s all he wants to be able to do.”
After leaving the Marines, Prince Edward worked for composer Andrew Lloyd Webber before launching his shuttered film production company Ardent Productions.
Despite being relatively far down the royal line, Prince Edward actually had a shot at becoming king – of Estonia. When the country became independent after the fall of the Soviet Union, the Estonian Royalist Party reportedly approached him in 1994 to lead the nation. He politely declined.
On June 19, 1999, Prince Edward married public relations executive Sophie Rhys-Jones in what was described as a “casual” royal wedding, and the couple became the Earl and Countess of Wessex. They share daughter Lady Louise and son James, Viscount Severn. The couple chose not to give their children HRH titles. Since Prince Philip’s death, Prince Edward has taken on many patronages and responsibilities from the late Duke of Edinburgh.
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