William, Harry pay tribute to grandfather Prince Philip

LONDON: Princes William and Harry have issued separate statements today (Monday), paying tributes to their grandfather, Prince Philip, who died last week at 99.

On a social media website Twitter, Prince William said that his grandfather was an extraordinary man and part of an extraordinary generation.

William said further said, “Catherine and I will continue to do what he would have wanted and will support The Queen in the years ahead. I will miss my Grandpa, but I know he would want us to get on with the job,” he added.

William and his wife released a picture of Philip with his great-grandson, Prince George, their oldest child. Prince Harry’s office also issued a statement, describing Philip as a man who was “authentically himself.”

“He will be remembered as the longest-reigning consort to the Monarch, a decorated serviceman, a Prince and a Duke,” Harry said.

“But to me, like many of you who have lost a loved one or grandparent over the pain of this past year, he was my grandpa: master of the barbecue, the legend of banter, and cheeky right ’til the end.”

William, who is second in line to the throne, pledged “to get on with the job’’ of serving Queen Elizabeth II as he and his brother became the latest members of the Royal Family to honor Philip’s service to the nation and the monarch.

Rumors of a rift between Harry and William surfaced in the summer of 2019. In June that year, Harry and Meghan confirmed that they were separating from William and Kate’s Royal Foundation charity to start their own initiative, Sussex Royal.

In last month’s interview with Winfrey, Harry said his relationship with his brother was “space” at the moment, but he hoped that “time heals all things.”

On April 9, Prince Philip, Queen Elizabeth II’s husband and the longest-serving consort of any British monarch, has passed away on Friday.

A statement posted on the royal family’s website morning said: “It is with deep sorrow that Her Majesty The Queen announces the death of her beloved husband, His Royal Highness Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.

Born June 10, 1921, on the Greek island of Corfu, he was the only son of Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark, and Princess Alice of Battenberg. Greece’s king, Philip’s uncle, was forced to abdicate when Philip was a baby, and the family fled to Paris, with Philip famously carried to safety in a crib made from an orange box.

At age 7, he moved to England, where he lived at Kensington Palace, now home to Prince William. Philip lived there with his paternal grandmother, Victoria Mountbatten, and later attended Gordonstoun, a boarding school in Scotland.