Kym Marsh recalls meeting Prince Philip at his 80th birthday party

Kym Marsh fondly recalled the time she met the late Duke of Edinburgh during Tuesday’s edition of Morning Live.

Chatting to her co-host Gethin Jones, Kym recounted Prince Philip’s 80th birthday party in 2001, when her former pop group Hear’Say performed.

Reminiscing about meeting the Duke – who died last Friday aged 99 – Kym, 44, said: ‘Hear’Say played his 80th birthday, can you believe. Rather unlikely!

‘I’m not sure he even knew who we were to be perfectly honest.’

She went on to recount an awkward moment between the Duke and fellow bandmate Myleene Klass.

‘We were having a photograph with him and Myleene had her microphone in her hand and she went to put her arm around him and remembered you’re not meant to touch a member of the royal family,’ Kym told.

‘She tried to get the microphone away and poked him with it in a rather unusual place. And he went: “Oh steady on girl!”‘ 

This follows the news that the Queen stoically returned to royal duties on Tuesday.

The monarch, 94, hosted a retirement ceremony for the former Lord Chamberlain Earl Peel after her husband’s death at Windsor Castle four days ago. 

As touching tributes flooded in from across the nation for the duke, including flowers left at residences such as Windsor and Buckingham Palace, the family announced a two-week period of royal mourning.

Members of the family are ‘continuing to undertake engagements appropriate to the circumstances,’ a royal official said.

In a move that typifies the Queen’s deep sense of duty, she returned early to bid farewell to Earl Peel – a key royal aide who is retiring after 14 years of service.

Earl Peel was the Lord Chamberlain, which is the most senior officer role in the royal household. He had been overseeing arrangements for the duke’s funeral – known as Operation Forth Bridge.

Prince Andrew, The Duke of York, recently said his mother is bearing up stoically and the family have been rallying round to support her.

And Prince William, the Duke of Cambridge, has pledged to uphold his grandfather’s wishes and continue to support the Queen and ‘get on with the job’. 

The Princess Royal, Prince Anne, took part in her first official event since the death of her father.

She joined, via video-link, the Royal College of Emergency Medicine’s Spring Conference in her role as the organisation’s patron.