Say what you like about Prince Edward, but he has never usually been one for stepping into the limelight – in contrast to his siblings and nephews. Yet, during the course of his two-day official visit to South Africa, the Duke of Edinburgh made some remarks that attracted international media interest.
Speaking at the British High Commission in Pretoria on Monday, Edward – commonly acknowledged as the most low-key senior member of the Royal Family – said: ‘I know the world is not in a happy place at the moment. If I can be quite frank, men aren’t doing a very good job at the moment. So therefore I am not particularly happy about standing up here and speaking [as one].’
Certainly, Edward has, as they say, ‘gone on a journey’ over the past few decades
It says a great deal for the times we live in that these reasonably innocuous remarks, which were taken to refer to everything from the current violence in the Middle East to the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, were met with surprise and faint confusion.
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