Queen and Prince Philip read card from Cambridge children as they mark 73 years of marriage

A new photograph of the Queen and Prince Philip showing them reading a handmade card from their great-grandchildren has been released as they mark 73 years of marriage.

The image, taken in Windsor Castle earlier this week, shows the couple sitting together on a grey sofa as they peruse some of the cards they have been sent for the occasion.

The couple appears particularly delighted with the card from three of their great-grandchildren, Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis, the children of Prince William and his wife Kate.

The Queen wears a dress in a surprisingly muted colour for someone who loves brights, as she chose a pale blue double wool crepe dress by Stewart Parvin and a chrysanthemum brooch made from sapphires and diamonds set in platinum. She also has on a string of pearls.

The Duke of Edinburgh, 99, wears a blazer, shirt, tie and trousers.

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The Queen, 94, was photographed wearing the brooch on their honeymoon when she and the duke went to Broadlands in Hampshire, after their wedding in November 1947.

She wore it again in the images released to mark their 60th wedding anniversary in 2007.

Then Princess Elizabeth met Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten when she was just 13 years old, in a set up said to have been engineered by Lord Mountbatten.

She was instantly smitten, according to several biographers including Ingrid Seward, and the pair wrote each other letters.

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They married at Westminster Abbey on 20 November 1947, shortly after the end of World War Two, in which the princess had served. The Queen was 21 at the time.

Their relationship has lasted the longest of any British sovereign and the Queen referred to Philip as her “strength and stay” on their golden wedding anniversary.

The same year he said: “I think the main lesson that we have learnt is that tolerance is the one essential ingredient of any happy marriage.”

He supported her for decades on royal tours and engagements, and is now retired. Though he usually lives in Wood Farm, on the Sandringham Estate, he is with the Queen in Windsor Castle as the nation continues to respond to the coronavirus pandemic.

A photograph of both of them was also released to mark his 99th birthday in June, and he carried out a rare engagement the following month as he handed over one of his roles to Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall.

There are no traditional gifts, jewels or colour associated with the 73rd wedding anniversary in the UK.

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