Former Palace Bodyguard Says Prince Philip Driving Alone Is ‘Crazy’ — ‘He Does Not Wear a Seatbelt’

Sounds like someone needs company! Prince Philip may really be up there in age, but he’s still going out and driving all alone even after recently being in a car crash — a bold move that former royal protection officer Ken Wharfe has deemed “crazy.”

On January 17, Philip, 97, was involved in a pretty scary accident, where, thankfully, no one was seriously injured. While the Duke of Edinburgh did overturn his Land Rover during the collision with a Kia driven by a 28-year-old woman with a 48-year-old woman and a 9-month-old baby as passengers, he somehow had an “astonishing escape” and was uninjured.

But according to Wharfe, things could have been a lot worse. “People have played the accident down a bit — this could have been a quadruple fatal accident,” he told People in a new interview. “Had his car stayed upright, surely the driver in the Kia would have died.”

The officer also revealed that Queen Elizabeth‘s husband is a “difficult person to work with,” based on the fact that he simply likes to do things his own way. In fact, while Philip has a team of royal bodyguards at his disposal, none were present at the time of the accident. “To go on his own and not wear a seat belt and not take a bodyguard is crazy,” Wharfe added.

“Had the bodyguard been there, with experience, this accident would never have happened. The bodyguard would have said, ‘Hang on, sir, watch the car.’ He would have blown a gasket, but he wouldn’t have hit the car,” he continued. And this officer isn’t the only person who is not a fan of Philip’s driving situation — the Queen, 92, isn’t about it either. “He always drove really fast, and she hated it, and he would say, ‘If you don’t like it, you can get out,'” royals author Ingrid Seward recently said of the couple’s relationship after 71 years of marriage.

No word yet if the Duke’s recent car crash will make him re-evaluate his decision to keep driving alone, but we hope he does for his sake.

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