A Royal Romance for the Books: See Late Queen Elizabeth and Husband Philip’s Relationship Timeline

There will never be another love story like Queen Elizabeth and her husband Prince Philip‘s. The pair met at the Duke of Edinburgh’s cousin Princess Marina of Greece and Denmark’s wedding when Elizabeth was just 8 years old. Although they didn’t know it at the time, they would go on to become one of the most powerful couples in the British royal family. Though the pair have both passed on, their love story lives on.

The royal family announced Elizabeth’s death on September 8, 2022, at the age of 96.

“The Queen died peacefully at Balmoral this afternoon,” a statement on the official Twitter account of the royal family read. “The King and The Queen Consort will remain at Balmoral this evening and will return to London tomorrow.”

Prince Philip died at age 99 in April 2021. Up until the very end, the pair were inseparable.

“He has, quite simply, been my strength and stay all these years, and I owe him a debt greater than he would ever claim, or we shall ever know,” Elizabeth once said of her husband.

After meeting at the wedding, the duo didn’t cross paths again until Elizabeth was 13 years old. They ran into each other at Dartmouth, a.k.a. the Royal Naval College, in 1939 when the queen was visiting her family. At the time, Philip was still a cadet, but he remembers that day being very special.

“Well, we’d met at Dartmouth, and as far as I was concerned, it was a very amusing experience, going on board the yacht and meeting them, and that sort of thing, and that was that,” he previously told biographer Basil Boothroyd about spending the day with the queen and her family. However, Philip wasn’t the only one who had feelings. Elizabeth did too.

“This was the man with whom Princess Elizabeth had been in love from their first meeting,” King George VI’s official biographer, Sir John Wheeler-Bennett once said of their relationship. The monarch’s governess Marion Crawford added, “She never took her eyes off him the whole time.”

The two lovebirds later got married in November 1947 at Westminster Abbey in London. In November of that following year, they welcomed their first child, Prince Charles, and then their daughter, Princess Anne, in August 1950. Elizabeth and Philip didn’t have any more children until their son Prince Andrew came around in February 1960. Then, they welcomed their last child, Prince Edward, in March 1964.

Though Elizabeth and Philip juggled their lives as parents and members of the royal family together up until Philip’s death, their dedication to each other has never wavered over the years.

Scroll below to see Elizabeth and Philip’s relationship timeline.