Is it normal to be sad at prince phillip’s death (even though he was flawed)

55% Normal

As you can probably imagine I never met Prince Phillip, he was just a public figure to me but I feel genuinely sad to hear of his death.

His marriage to the Queen was strangely comforting, seeing how they had been together for 73 years. It made me feel young to know that a couple older than my grandparents were still alive.

Watching The Crown got me more emotionally invested, learning about his early life and how he didn’t really understand what he was marrying into and the attention and restrictions involved made him an interesting person to me.

I’m aware he had many flaws, he lived a life of unfair privilege, probably had at least one affair and would make offensive comments to foreign people. But I’m not sad at the loss of a shining example of morality, I’m more saddened by the Queen losing her husband.

These feelings are likely heightened for me as I’ve recently watched my father’s friend die and leave behind his wife who had spent nearly her whole adult life with him, as the Queen had with Prince Phillip. So does anyone else feel sadder than they feel they “should” about the Duke’s passing? Or perhaps you felt this way about another celebrity death?

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55% Normal

Based on 29 votes (16 yes)

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Comments ( 58 )

Boojum

2 years ago | pl

Phillip was a dickhead. He had the good fortune to be born to a privileged family, he grew up amongst the social elite, and he was in his mid-twenties when he decided to marry Elizabeth - old enough to know exactly what he was getting into.

It's true that his family had to deal with serious upheaval when he was young, but their problems were trivial compared to those suffered by the families of Greek and Turkish soldiers killed and wounded in the aggressive war promoted by Phillip's father which resulted in the family being kicked out of Greece.

A load of BS is talked about the "gilded cage" of the British royal family. That gets a huge boo fucking hoo from me. The British tabloid press is uniquely vile and intrusive, but that's the sea that the British social elite and celebrities choose to swim in. There are other royal families in Europe which managed to negotiate the move to a lower profile in the twentieth century while still holding on to their unearned, elevated social status and a very comfortable lifestyle. Elizabeth and Phillip chose not to go that route, and the consequences are entirely on them.

The most damming thing about Phillip is that he was a huge failure at the most important job a man can ever have: he was very obviously a crap father.

All his children are fucked up in various ways and to varying degrees, and three out of four of them have had serious problems with their personal relationships. (It could be four out of four: Edward is such an inconsequential dweeb that nobody pays much attention to him, so even though he's been married for more than twenty years to the same woman, who knows what the hell he gets up to in private.)

I simply don't care that he's died. He was a very old man who was given many opportunities in life, screwed up repeatedly, and clearly enjoyed acting the arsehole and kicking down. I'm sure there were countless people who died yesterday tragically early through no fault of their own, and whose passing will make the world a much less enjoyable place for those who knew them. I can feel a degree of detached sympathy for their family and friends, but I really don't give a shit about how the British royals are feeling today.

The only thing that does matter to me is that it seems highly unlikely that Britain will now descend into the ridiculous collective hysteria that followed the death of bloody stupid Diana.

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- Anonymous Post Author
  
  2 years ago
  
  I acknowledged he was flawed, I even thought the tributes to him were awkward to watch as they painted him as someone he wasn’t.
  
  I’m not sad because I think he was an exemplary person but because he represented another part of my grandparents’ generation dying and the situation of the Queen being widowed echos a situation I’m seeing in my own life.
  
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- nopurpose
  
  2 years ago
  
  It's cool that your have republican (anti-monarchist) views. I share them too. But what need of name-calling and bashing the deceased? Especially that they have not wronged you personally in any way. Especially if they have not done any major harm to anyone.. The rant makes you sound like an asshole. Can a father really account for his children's relationship problems? Do you even have any of your own to judge?
  
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  - Anonymous Post Author
    
    2 years ago
    
    I think he’s mistaken me for a royalist and wanted to goad me into an argument. If he had bothered to read the post, or even the full title, perhaps he would have realised that I’m really just an interested observer watching my real life sorrows echoed in the royal family.
    
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- megadriver
  
  2 years ago
  
  A Brit who doesn't consider the death of someone from the royal family an apocalyptic catastrophe and can speak badly of the royals?
  
  You're alright in my book.
  
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  - SwickDinging
    
    2 years ago
    
    Almost all Brits dislike the royal family. It's more unusual to hear one of us say something positive about them.
    
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    - bigbudchonger
      
      2 years ago
      
      That's just plain not true. https://theferret.scot/ffs-explains-how-popular-royal-family-monarchy/
      
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      - SwickDinging
        
        2 years ago
        
        Maybe I just never moved in those circles so I was never exposed to them, but I lived in the UK for almost 25 years and I never heard anything but negative comments about the royal family, apart from the occassional thing from a very elderly person.
        
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  - Boojum
    
    2 years ago
    
    We're not all that rare.
    
    Last night, after the usual national and regional news broadcasts from 6:00 to 7:00 pm (a lot of which was about Phillip), the BBC scrapped all scheduled broadcast on all of it's channels to broadcast three hours of programmes about Phillip's life, his contributions to the country, his good works, how wonderful he was to stand by the queen so faithfully, and blah, blah, obsequious white-wash bullshit, blah.
    
    So many people were pissed off that the complaints page on the BBC website crashed or something, and they set up a page where people are just asked to fill in their email to register their objection to how the Beeb handled things, with the promise that they'll eventually get the official response.
    
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- dude_Jones
  
  2 years ago
  
  Thanks for the inside view. I'll just say that grandson Harry seems to be enjoying the fresh air in LA. Occasionally, people give him an egalitarian nod and he acknowledges with half a smile.
  
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  - nopurpose
    
    2 years ago
    
    'I'll just say that grandson Harry seems to be enjoying the fresh air in LA.'
    That is, until Meghan farts in the bedroom. And calls him racist if he doesn't appreciate black customs. He's probably well used to these now.
    
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  - Anonymous Post Author
    
    2 years ago
    
    Apparently when Prince Phillip passed his title of Captain General Royal Marines (which he had held for 48 years) onto Harry his advice was “Don’t cock it up!” Harry was stripped of the title less than 4 years later.
    
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    - dude_Jones
      
      2 years ago
      
      I suspect that the Honorary Command of a bunch of cocks caused Harry become disinterested in his own cock rising to the occasion. There's plenty of other cocks anyway. The Royal Marines will do just fine.
      
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      - Anonymous Post Author
        
        2 years ago
        
        I didn’t think this comment section would arrive at Harry’s penis. How naïve of me.
        
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        dude_Jones
        
        2 years ago
        
        That's the "Royal" penis, my friend. *stiffens_upper_lip*
        
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SwickDinging

2 years ago

Very normal for the death of a high profile person to make you see things differently, if you had taken a particular interest in them.

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- Anonymous Post Author
  
  2 years ago
  
  Thank you for being the only on-topic response. “Taken an interest in” is a good description of how I felt, I feel some people are misinterpreting that I was a “fan” of his. People have told me I shouldn’t care as they don’t perceive him to have been a good person but it’s not so much about him as a person but what he represented to me.
  
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hauntedbysandwiches

2 years ago

I know what you mean. It's sad to see older generations pass away.

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ellnell

2 years ago

It was a bit sad seeing as I take interest in the british royals though i'm not a fan of them. Not really surprising though, dude looked like he'd been dead for years already.

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- Anonymous Post Author
  
  2 years ago
  
  I read someone describe it as “not surprising but still shocking” we knew it was coming but a part of me kind of thought he would never die. Like he was her Majesty’s horcrux.
  
  It’s nice to hear from someone else who finds them interesting but isn’t a “fan”, a lot of people assume I’m a royalist just because I know a lot about them. I feel as I pay for them anyway I may as well pay attention.
  
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bigbudchonger

2 years ago

Yeah, as a patriotic Brit, I was sad too.

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- Anonymous Post Author
  
  2 years ago
  
  It’s the end of an iconic marriage and a very sad time for the Queen. I considered making the trip to Buckingham Palace but my safety concerns around the trains and crowds won out.
  
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GuvnorsOtherWoman

2 years ago

As an Irishwoman and someone who doesn't believe in the monarchy or privilege by birthright, I can honestly say that the Prince's death doesn't bother me. But to feel sad at his death is normal. I felt the same way when David Bowie died, also a soccer player called Martin Peters (who was my first celebrity crush). I shall feel the same when my current celebrity crush does the same.

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- Anonymous Post Author
  
  2 years ago
  
  I remember being sad at David Bowie’s death, I was never a particularly dedicated fan but he represented self-expression and defying the norm. It was the loss of a living legend.
  
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  - GuvnorsOtherWoman
    
    2 years ago
    
    Very true, my friend.
    
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nopurpose

2 years ago

Well. No person is eternal. In a mundane sense. If you believe in eternal life of the soul and reincarnation it will make it easier to accept such occasions as part of a natural process.

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[Old Memory]

2 years ago

The queen was about to send him a letter for his 100th however…

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- Anonymous Post Author
  
  2 years ago
  
  That would have been funny, probably the only one to be hand delivered.
  
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  - [Old Memory]
    
    2 years ago
    
    yup
    
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Grunewald

2 years ago

Yes, it's normal. Collective grief is a thing.

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- Anonymous Post Author
  
  2 years ago
  
  I hadn’t heard that term before but looking it up lead me to a Marie Curie article that articulated my feelings perfectly. Thank you.
  
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  - Grunewald
    
    2 years ago
    
    No problem.
    
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DADNSCAL

2 years ago

It’s a perpetuation of the privileged property class. They’re parasites that live off the commoners, who pay some of the highest taxes in the world to support them.

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- Anonymous Post Author
  
  2 years ago
  
  I’m aware, it’s watching another part of my grandparents’ generation die and seeing another woman lose the partner she’s spent most of her adult life with that’s upset me.
  
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  - DADNSCAL
    
    2 years ago
    
    That’s very true. My mother lost my stepdad after 58 years, and it’s sad, even though I couldn’t stand him.
    
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a-curious-bunny

2 years ago

Why do they even still have a royal family?

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- JellyBeanBandit
  
  2 years ago
  
  Yeah, but then it's cool the way that tradition still survives from medieval times. Like she's a real life queen in the modern day, not just a fictional or pretend queen. I'm not mad about the royal family like some people, but I still think that's pretty cool.
  
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  - a-curious-bunny
    
    2 years ago
    
    It is it really is It just amazes me they are able to live life doing anything they want because 9f their blood line
    
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    - SmokeEverything
      
      2 years ago
      
      Because they managed to pull off maintaining the luxuries of royalty better than other families who all got their heads chopped off. Its easy to hold onto power that people aren't aware you have.
      
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      - Anonymous Post Author
        
        2 years ago
        
        It’s because in the early 20th century when it was fashionable to get rid of greedy European monarchies our King George V seemed too unassuming and well-mannered to be de-throned.
        
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- [Old Memory]
  
  2 years ago
  
  Idek anymore
  
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- Anonymous Post Author
  
  2 years ago
  
  To attract tourists and justify incest. And make me sad when they die apparently.
  
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  - LloydAsher
    
    2 years ago
    
    So what? I don't give a shit about royalty.
    
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    - Anonymous Post Author
      
      2 years ago
      
      You don’t have to but plenty of rich tourists love them. Went I went to Madame Tussaud’s in London a few years ago there were no queues for photos with any of the statues except the royal family set up, that had its own roped off queuing section.
      
      The monarchy, at least as we know it, may not last my lifetime but as a nation we should cash in on our royals while we can.
      
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fatok

2 years ago

Bet Charles was pissed it wasn't the Queen. His years as king are getting short

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- Anonymous Post Author
  
  2 years ago
  
  Hopefully she will outlive him or he will renounce the crown, I don’t think either is likely though and we will have to sit through a decade or two of King Charles III.
  
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Tinybird

2 years ago

I'm British and I'm pretty indifferent towards it. Never knew anything about him as a person, just another mortal human who I never knew.

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megadriver

2 years ago

Royalty has no place in the modern world. It's a thing that died off a long time ago and a thing that should die off in England too.

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- Anonymous Post Author
  
  2 years ago
  
  In the words of the Sex Pistols, “God save the Queen because tourists are money.”
  
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Meowypowers

2 years ago

Is he the one that spent time on that child rape island and was photographed alongside Epstein and Bill Clinton?

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- Anonymous Post Author
  
  2 years ago
  
  No, that was his son Prince Andrew. Prince Phillip was the Queen’s very elderly politically incorrect husband.
  
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  - Boojum
    
    2 years ago
    
    Charles is borderline bonkers and totally up his own arse, but Andrew is - as they say in Britain - a real piece of work.
    
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    - Anonymous Post Author
      
      2 years ago
      
      I agree. I only hope that either Her Majesty outlives him so the crown will pass to William, or that Charles will renounce it, neither of which seem likely.
      
      I have no respect for Prince Andrew.
      
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  - Meowypowers
    
    2 years ago
    
    So the queen and her husband aren't the parents of Charles?
    
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    - Anonymous Post Author
      
      2 years ago
      
      They are, Charles is the oldest then they had Anne, Andrew and Edward.
      
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      - Meowypowers
        
        2 years ago
        
        It's normal to feel sad. I shed a few when George H.W. Bush was put to rest, despite his many flaws. It was nice to see all his children, George jr, Barry, and Hillary together during his services. I know its not exactly the same as the royal family, but I can understand.
        
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        Anonymous Post Author
        
        2 years ago
        
        Thank you for sharing your experience, it’s good to know that other people can too be saddened by the deaths of controversial public figures.
        
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Somenormie

2 years ago

Why didn't anyone say " FUCK YEAH " the guy is dead?

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Are You Normal?

Is it normal to be sad at prince phillip’s death (even though he was flawed)