Prince Philip's will to be secret for 90 years

[HotChoc10]

'to protect the Queen's dignity,' apparently..

Why the secrecy do you think?

"To protect the Queen's dignity."

That sounds odd.

It’s not down to use we have absolutely no say in what the RF do.

Aren't they normally secret? I agree that they shouldn't be, but I don't think continuing the standard practice indicates anything shady about Philip specifically.

I doubt he left the Queen anything other than some personal mementos. She has a much larger personal fortune than he does, so what would be the point?

I assumed it would be made available to the family, just not public knowledge for 90 years. I don't really care. Surely most of the assets are not his to give anyway, so I imagine it is private. I also read it is not just to protect the queen, but to protect the royal family as a whole.

I don't see any conspiracy.

@thetigerthatcamefortea

Illegitimate children?

Wait - he had other children????

Surely it wouldn’t have to be kept secret for 90 years to protect the queen’s dignity. I mean she’s not immortal.

Although you hardly need to see his will to know he’s repulsively wealthy.

He had lots of affairs so there may well have been other children. His mistress came to the funeral. I agree that it's a disgrace to treat their will's differently. It isn't a standard thing as they need a separate court order each time.

Sorry autocorrect made wills into will's.

@pastabest

Well of course. We plebs have to have our wills made public, but they can hide theirs until almost everyone alive today is dead

I assume we plebs can also apply to the court (as the royal family do in these situations) for it to be kept private if we feel our wills are interesting enough to the wider public to do so.

I bet his will is as boring as horseshit anyway, this is just a distraction from other stuff.

How many wills are actually made public anyway? I've never heard about what was left to anyone of my acquaintance other than if they told me or if I was directly involved myself.

Maybe he’s cut Andrew out and left it all to Harry and Meghan. That would be amazing.

To protect the Queens dignity? No need to wait 90 years, she’s 95!

Who actually cares about the contents of other people's wills?

@HarebrightCedarmoon you can pay £1.50 to get a copy of anyone's will if you wanted to find out the contents www.gov.uk/search-will-probate

We know the tabloids and 'news' media would be all over the will for weeks, speculating about what he had to leave and how he had acquired it, as well as who it was left to. Meghan inherits X! Etc. I assume the queen just doesn't need the constant fuss.
But it does give the option of 90 years of speculation, and hope that it is interesting or in some way revealing eg. Did he leave her his second best bed?

@Willowowisp

He had lots of affairs so there may well have been other children. His mistress came to the funeral. I agree that it's a disgrace to treat their will's differently. It isn't a standard thing as they need a separate court order each time.

Where is your evidence for 'he had lots of affairs'? Newspapers and people love to say things like that and I always wonder if they judge other people by their own standards. He once had lunch with a woman called Helene or Charlotte Cordet (not the one who stabbed Marat). There was some sort of coy remark in the newspaper write-up, the sort of 'friend' remark that would have the gossip-mongers going nudge nudge wink wink. In fact, his family had been friends with hers since the days when they lived in France and he was godfather to one or more of her children.

@Theunamedcat

Who actually cares about the contents of other people's wills?

Nobody with a life. We all know he left a lot of money to other people who also have a lot of money.

Well of course. We plebs have to have our wills made public, but they can hide theirs until almost everyone alive today is dead.
A) you can get a court order for your own will if you want to keep it a secret too.
B) a huge number of the public and press don’t care about your will. They won’t be having a good old nose and gossip about it.

I think it’s to hide how much money he is. There are rumours that he owns most of the rental properties in zones 1 and 2.

The rest of us do not have the option to seal our wills because they are a public document

We do. It’s just such a faff nobody would bother.

There are rumours that he owns most of the rental properties in zones 1 and 2.

That’s a different duke. The Duke of Westminster.

Not standard practice or they wouldn’t have to apply to the High Court.
To protect Queen as Philip was not the father of one of her children.
90 years is odd - why not 100 , Maybe because no one lives after 120 to protect those now in their 30s
I expect the truth will come out long before then anyway.

It’s been standard practice for the last 111 years, the high court application is clearly a rubber stamping exercise.

@HeyGirlHeyBoy

Or maybe he didn't cut Andrew out Preparation..

Precisely - maybe he didn't cut Harry out either - pointless remark really as there are probably a few names anyone could Slot in there as a wild guess!

@Willowowisp

He had lots of affairs so there may well have been other children. His mistress came to the funeral. I agree that it's a disgrace to treat their will's differently. It isn't a standard thing as they need a separate court order each time.

Your privy to his personal life?

Aww dammit! So I have to wait until I’m 125 before I find out what he didn’t leave me? FFS