One of the peculiar things about their royal marriage is that Her Majesty and the Duke of Edinburgh often spent time apart. During the last years of their life, after Prince Philip retired, they lived in separate residences. But even when the royal couple lived and spent time together, they didn't share a bedroom. That's no indication, however, that the cheating rumors surrounding Prince Philip were true. Instead, it was a question of tradition.
"In England, the upper class always have had separate bedrooms," Lady Pamela Mountbatten told Vanity Fair. "You don't want to be bothered with snoring, or someone flinging a leg around. Then when you are feeling cozy you share your room sometimes. It is lovely to be able to choose."
Some would still argue that separate bedrooms make for a cold or loveless marriage, but it certainly worked for the royal couple. Throughout the ups and downs of over seven decades, nothing broke them apart. On the contrary, time spent alone was valuable to the couple. The Duke of Edinburgh, himself, once told the media that "the secret of a happy marriage [is] to have different interests" (via BBC). As for the queen? "He has, quite simply, been my strength and stay all these years, and I, and his whole family, and this and many other countries, owe him a debt greater than he would ever claim, or we shall ever know," she reflected during her Golden Anniversary speech in 1997.
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