On Monday afternoon, the paper published an article about the prince in the newspaper’s online Obituary section.
The article, titled ‘Prince Philip Through the Years’, has now been deleted and redirects to a 404 link. It seems likely that the piece was a pre-written obituary in case of the Duke’s death, though it could potentially have been an article published in the wrong section of the paper.
Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, was admitted to hospital in London last week. An official statement from Buckingham Palace originally assured the public that the hospitalisation was simply a precaution, and that the Duke was expected to stay in hospital for a “few days of observation and rest.”
He and the Queen received their first COVID-19 vaccine in mid-January, and it has been reported that the hospitalisation is not COVID related.
In an updated statement released on Wednesday, Buckingham Palace again said that Philip was “comfortable and responding to treatment but is not expected to leave hospital for several days.”
Prince Philip is ninety-nine, and is rarely seen in public after having retired from public duties in 2017.
Sydney Morning Herald’s blunder was spotted by a Twitter user, who told Yahoo that the article, “consisted of a series of photos detailing Prince Philip’s life from infancy, school years, war service, marriage, the coronation, family life, royal duties to his wedding anniversary last year.”
“It was very comprehensive.”
According to the Twitter user, the article was published at 5pm and they spotted it at about 9pm. Within half an hour of the mistake being tweeted about, the article was removed.
Feature Image: iStock
