Body language can reveal many truths about relationships — but only if you know how to read it. In Celebrity Couples: Decoded, an expert interprets A-listers’ interactions to shed light on their IRL dynamic.
Prince Philip, 96, and Queen Elizabeth II, 91, have a storied history: The third cousins (yep) met in 1939 when they were just 18 and 13 and began corresponding via snail mail five years later. In July 1947, they announced their engagement; they married that November. The following fall, they welcomed their son Prince Charles, and their daughter, Princess Anne, came along in August 1950 before Elizabeth took the crown from her late father in February 1952.
More recently, weeks after the royal couple celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary, the second season of The Crown, which depicts a fictional account of the royal couple’s early years, stirred old rumors of Prince Philip’s infidelity. Although there’s no IRL evidence he cheated with the ballerina implicated by Crown writers, Philip may have had “full-blown affairs” with women who were “younger than him, usually beautiful and highly aristocratic,” according to biographer Sarah Bradford, author of Queen Elizabeth II: Her Life in Our Times. The palace has denied it, as have several of the Prince’s alleged mistresses, according to a 2004 investigative report published in The Telegraph. And look — their marriage has endured.
TBH, it’s tough to get a read on what really goes on behind the palace gates — and it’s not just because the couple’s public appearances are carefully orchestrated. “They’re not just royals who have to follow different rules regarding etiquette,” says North Carolina-based body-language expert Blanca Cobb of the queen and her partner. “They’re were raised in a different generation when the kind of PDA you see today might have been less socially acceptable.”
With that in mind, Cobb examines the couple’s interactions over the past seven decades:
Philip reaches out to his bride.
“This isn’t an intimate moment,” Cobb says of this wedding photo, noting the couple’s lack of eye contact and mismatched expressions: She displays a polite smile while he keeps a straight face.
Although it’s tough to tell whether Philip is holding a petal in his bride’s bouquet or her palm, touch is one way to maintain a connection, according to Cobb. Because the queen (then a princess) keeps her left elbow close to her body, rather than jutting it out to distance herself physically (and psychologically), it’s clear she’s welcoming the contact. “She’s letting him in,” Cobb says.