Prince Philip Was So Close to Penelope Knatchbull in Real Life, She Was 1 of the 30 People at the Duke of Edinburgh’s Funeral

The Crown Season 5 highlighted the close friendship of Prince Philip and Penny Knatchbull that blossomed in the early 1990s. The duo bonded over grief and loss, and he introduced her to his love of carriage riding. In fact, they became so close that Penny was one of 30 people allowed to attend the Duke of Edinburgh’s funeral in 2021.

‘The Crown’ Season 5 showed how Prince Philip and Penny Knatchbull became close friends

The new season of The Crown enters a difficult decade for the royal family that saw the marriages of all three of Queen Elizabeth II’s (Imelda Staunton) children end in divorce, a massive fire at Windsor Palace, and the media obsession with Princess Diana that would eventually end with her tragic death. 

While Her Majesty was enduring what she called “Annus Horribilis” in 1992, her husband Prince Philip (Jonathan Pryce) found a new confidante in family friend Penelope “Penny” Knatchbull (Natascha McElhone). 

After the death of her five-year-old daughter Leonora due to kidney cancer, the Netflix series dramatizes how Penny bonded with Prince Philip, who lost his sister in a plane crash when he was a young boy.

Prince Philip and Penny Knatchbull were so close that she attended his funeral

Royal insiders like the queen’s former press secretary Dickie Arbiter insist that the friendship between Philip and Penny was strictly platonic. He told The Sun that any insinuation of an affair is “cruel rubbish,” and The Crown Season 5 did not make that claim. 

Instead, they portrayed Philip and Penny as two people who each needed a friend, and he introduced her to carriage riding — a competitive equestrian sport that he loved and enjoyed — to help her deal with her grief.

Penny first met the royal family in the 1970s during her engagement to Norton Knatchbull, the Earl Mountbatten of Burma and the second cousin of King Charles III. When Norton and Penny tied the knot in 1979, Charles was Norton’s best man. 

According to Harper’s Bazaar, the Knatchbulls were good friends with the Windsors throughout the 1980s. But it wasn’t until after Leonora’s death that Penny and Philip became close. Over the next 30 years, they would become so close that she was one of 30 people allowed to attend his funeral amid the pandemic restrictions in April 2021. 

Will ‘The Crown’ depict the close friendship in season 6?

Penny attended Philip’s funeral as a stand-in for her husband because he was too ill to attend. A source told Express at the time that “she looked heartbroken when she arrived at the funeral and she is heartbroken. She’s lost her best friend.”

Months after the funeral, Penny accompanied Queen Elizabeth to the 2021 Royal Windsor Horse Show — proving she was just as close to the monarch as she was to her husband. When Queen Elizabeth died in September 2022, Penny also attended Her Majesty’s funeral. 

Considering Penny was such a close friend of Philip and Elizabeth’s in their later years, it’s likely she will show up in season 6 of The Crown.

The Crown Seasons 1 through 5 are now playing on Netflix.