This year, the Queen and Prince Philip celebrated their 71st wedding together after tying the knot in Westminster Abbey on November 20, 1947.
The couple have overcome many adversities together and their marriage is the longest of any British sovereign.
The duo first met when Elizabeth was just eight, at the wedding of Princess Marina of Greece and Denmark (Philip’s cousin) and Prince George, Duke of Kent (Elizabeth’s uncle) in 1934.
However, they crossed paths again five years later and it was on this day that the then heir-to-the throne fell in love with her future husband.
When Elizabeth was 13, she visited the Royal Naval College in Dartmouth with her sister Margaret and her parents.
Speaking on 9Honey’s The Windsors podcast, royal commentator Victoria Arbiter says: “[The princesses] were escorted around the property by an 18-year-old blonde-haired blue-eyed midshipman, Prince Philip, who was charged with taking care of the girls while the royal parents were off doing duties.”
“She was totally in lust, I think,” says Juliet Rieden, author of The Royals in Australia.
“He was devilishly handsome. People at the time said that he looked like a Greek God, this shock of blonde hair, he was very tall, he was very muscular.”
On the weekend of the royal family’s Dartmouth visit, Philip joined them for dinner on their yacht.
Elizabeth’s infatuation with the officer was noticed by Lord Louis Mountbatten, an aide to the King who was also on the trip.
It was several years before the couple dated because of Elizabeth’s age, however, Arbiter believes that moment was when their relationship began.
“Of course, she was only 13 and he was 18, so they wrote letters to each other while he was off on naval service. They were writing to each other all the time.”
In 1946, Philip asked King George VI for permission to marry his daughter and the future Queen.
The King agreed on the condition that the official announcement would not be made until Elizabeth turned 21 the following April.
Article created in partnership with Over60.