Prince Philip Jokes About 'Sponger' Women

Ah, Prince Philip.

Just when you thought the grand old man of British plain speaking couldn't get any more forthright, here he goes again.

This morning, the patron saint of outrageous outspokenness met a group of female community workers and asked them: “Who do you sponge off?”

Then a few seconds later, he turned to a professional fundraiser and inquired: “Do you have any friends left?”

His comments came just days after he was caught on camera urging a photographer who he thought was not moving quickly enough to “just take the f***ing picture”.

He was visiting Chadwell Heath Community Centre in the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham when he met members of the Chadwell Heath Asian Women’s Network.

Nusrat Zamir, who founded the organisation, told the Daily Telegraph: “The Duke said to us ‘Who do you sponge off?’ We’re all married, so it’s our husbands.

“He was just teasing and it’s similar to what I call my husband—the wallet.”

Is there ever a bad moment to recall the 94-year-old Duke’s best gaffes? We think not.

— On seeing an exhibition of “primitive” Ethiopian art in 1963, he opined: “It looks like the kind of thing my daughter would bring back from her school art lessons.”

— “I would like to go to Russia very much, although the bastards murdered half my family.”

— To a British student back from trekking in Papua New Guinea: “You managed not to get eaten then?”

— To Elton John: “Oh, it’s you that owns that ghastly car, is it? We often see it when driving to Windsor Castle.”