Remarks on Condoms, Adultery Raise Eyebrows : Philip Adds Color to Parliament Debate

Prince Philip, who has a reputation for not mincing words, has gotten involved in another controversial exchange--this time over adultery--after a few choice comments about colored condoms and suggesting black ones were being worn during mourning.

A bizarre battle of words was triggered at a private meeting Wednesday at the House of Commons when Member of Parliament Anthony Beaumont-Dark demanded to know how the prince could support hunting and yet hold the presidency of the World Wildlife Fund.

Queen Elizabeth’s husband “asked me if I was a vegetarian and I replied that I was not,” Beaumont-Dark told reporters.

“If you eat meat there has to be some form of culling, and it is not a question of pleasure but of culling,” Philip said. “It is the same as saying that adultery is all right provided you don’t enjoy it.”

“You may know more about adultery than I do, but that’s not the question,” Beaumont-Dark shot back, while several fellow Conservative Party MPs listened in disbelief.

“I gather I might be in trouble,” Beaumont-Dark said after he was summoned to the parliamentary whip’s office to explain.

Earlier in the day, Philip suggested in a speech in Parliament that people might be encouraged to use condoms if the contraceptives were produced in different colors.

He said Thailand is encouraging couples to choose condoms in their “lucky color.”

“Now they are trying all sorts of colors for religious festivals,” the prince said. “I found somewhere that they had black condoms. I was told they were for mourning.”