Princess Diana and Prince Philip's special bond may have been constantly changing but the incredible support he showed her should always come before any talk of a falling out, a royal expert says.
Their ultimately bittersweet relationship, it has been claimed in biographies, turned sour towards the end of Diana's life.
But what came before should override any bad feeling before Diana's tragic death in Paris is 1997, a leading commentator feels.
Joe Little, the Managing Editor of Majesty magazine, says there was a unique understanding and friendship between the pair.
He told the Mirror that the Prince felt desperately sorry for Diana before and during her marriage to his son Prince Charles.
As Charles and Diana's relationship began to fall apart, the Duke of Edinburgh, who died one year ago, pledged to "do his utmost" to help.
Mr Little believes Philip had a lot to do with their engagement.
"It is misleading to say there was an issue between the two of them, for most of the years they knew each other there was a genuine connection," Mr Little said.
"If you say something often enough it becomes true but make no mistake - the bond was very strong, he knew the pressure she was feeling and felt for her.
"He was on her side. Philip became exacerbated with his son and want him to make up his mind about the engagement.
"It goes some way to shedding light on the theory that Charles was almost forced into the whole thing.
"The Duke saw that Diana was battered and bruised by the marriage and was a support to her."
Heavily censored letters between the two of them adds weight to the claim they were on good terms when she split with Charles in 1992.
The letters showed that Diana affectionally referred to the Duke as her "Dearest Pa".
In one letter, revealed during an inquest into the deaths of the Princess and Dodi Al Fayad 10 years after the crash, the Duke said he would do all could to help the couple, with the Princess replying: “You really do care."
But a few years later, it was alleged that Diana had told friends she disliked the Queen's husband.
Mr Little says while there is some truth in the suggestion that they didn't see eye-to-eye on matters in the years before the car crash that cost Diana her life, it must not define their relationship.
The Duke of Edinburgh allegedly regarded her as a "loose cannon" following her infamous 1995 BBC Panorama interview with Martin Bashir.
But Mr Little says it was her professional relationship with writer Andrew Morton that started to see things deteriorate.
The royal author's biography 'Diana: Her True Story' was a New York Times bestseller when it was published in 1992.
It was her apparent involvement in the book that first made the Duke change his mind about her, Mr Little said.
Mr Little said: "Towards the end, they did take a dislike to one another.
"Philip wasn't happy with a number of things, especially the Andrew Morton book, her denials of involvement which it was soon discovered were inaccurate.
"Diana also revisited her opinion of the Duke in the final years of her life, I think that is fair.
"But to suggest a special bond didn't exist between them, and they couldn't stand each other, is just not true."
Another letter from Diana included her telling Philip: "I would like you to know how much I admire you for the marvellous way in which you have tried to come to terms with this intensely difficult family problem.”
Lord Justice Scott Baker, the coroner at the inquest, said he had read the letters in full and there was nothing “unpleasant, nasty or insulting” in them.
However Simone Simmons, Diana’s healer, alleged there were more letters from 1994 or 1995 which featured a "different tone" that made the Princess of Wales furious.
Prince Philip went on to deny there was any animosity between him and Diana in a shock statement released in 2002.
He claimed there was never “curt or unfeeling” in his letters to Diana and any suggestions he wrote derogatory terms were a “gross misrepresentation” of his relationship with his daughter-in-law.
