Did Prince Philip Really Have an Affair With a Russian Ballerina Like ‘The Crown’ Alludes?
The Crown presents itself as historical fiction — an “imagining” of what possibly could have happened in the royal family. They dramatize actual historical events from the late Queen Elizabeth II’s 70-year reign, but at the same time use plenty of creative licenses to tell the Mountbatten-Windsor family story.
Some of those creative choices have prompted fans to ask what’s really true and what’s not. For example, season 2 implied that Prince Philip (Matt Smith) had an affair with a Russian ballerina. Did that really happen?
Did Prince Philip have an affair with a Russian ballerina as implied in ‘The Crown’ Season 2?
In the season 2 premiere of Peter Morgan’s The Crown, a young Queen Elizabeth (Claire Foy) is told “you married a wild spirit, trying to tame him is no use.” This advice came after the queen found herself repeatedly humiliated due to Prince Philip’s rumored indiscretions with other women early in their marriage.
In that episode titled “Misadventure,” Elizabeth attempts to remain optimistic about her relationship when she sends her husband on a five-month tour on the royal yacht Brittania. But when she attempts to sneak a gift into his briefcase before he leaves, she finds a photograph of a beautiful Russian ballerina named Galina Ulanova.
The episode ended with the queen attending a performance of Ulanova’s Giselle — intently watching the woman she thought could be having an affair with her husband — then refusing to meet her.
There is no evidence that Prince Philip had an affair with Galina Ulanova
As Vanity Fair notes, there isn’t any evidence that the late Duke of Edinburgh actually cheated on the queen with Ulanova. It’s true that she did perform in London in 1956. And it’s also true that there were rumors about Philip’s infidelity in the 1950s. But, whether or not they actually had an affair remains unknown.
Morgan chose to implicate Ulanova as Philip’s mistress to represent those real-life cheating rumors instead of inventing a character who would have been an amalgamation of all of his rumored love interests.
Ulanova was considered one of the finest ballerinas of the 20th century, and her performances in London made international headlines. The New York Times reported that Ulanova “riveted the Western world when she traveled with the Bolshoi Ballet to London’s Royal Opera House. There she astonished critics and fans alike with her performance of Juliet and Giselle.”
It was the Bolshoi Ballet’s first season outside of Russia, and people were waiting in line overnight for tickets. Ulanova’s star quality “was such that she was fawned over by the press for the duration of the visit.”
When she died in 1998, The Independent wrote in her obituary that she was rumored to have had several husbands and lovers before “ending up with a female companion who guarded her and served her needs.”
Prince Philip was linked to another dancer not mentioned on ‘The Crown’
What The Crown didn’t mention in its first two seasons was that Prince Philip was actually linked to a dancer named Pat Kirkwood, per Vanity Fair. He met her in 1948 in the dressing room of the Hippodrome Theatre, where she was headlining the Starlight Roof revue.
Philip reportedly dined with Kirkwood alone — and then they danced until dawn at a London nightclub — while the queen was eight months pregnant with then-Prince Charles. Philip and Kirkwood allegedly met up at least six more times and exchanged letters. Kirkwood denied the affair repeatedly, and was angry that the palace never issued an official statement about it.
“A lady is not normally expected to defend her honor,” Kirkwood said, per The Daily Beast. “It is the gentleman who should do that. I would have had a happier and easier life if Prince Philip, instead of coming uninvited to my dressing room, had gone home to his pregnant wife on the night in question.”
The Crown Season 5 drops on November 9 on Netflix. Seasons 1 through 4 are now playing.
