Prince Edward’s wife, Sophie, emerged from the shadows of the minor royalty and revealed herself as Queen Elizabeth’s “royal rock.”
Sophie, the 56-year-old Countess of Wessex, is married to the queen’s youngest son, Prince Edward, 57, and is said by those inside the royal to have a close connection with Her Majesty.
“The Queen is trustworthy and relies on her in a way that I can’t say was applied to the Duchess of Cambridge or the Duchess of Cornwall,” a UK expert told Express. “She is like another daughter of Her Majesty – they are so close.”
A courtier explained: “If you ask who is Her Majesty’s favorite child, she is not one of them, she is her daughter-in-law.”
It is said that the queen often asks her daughter-in-law to accompany her in the car before going to church, because “she finds Sophie’s presence reassuring”.
Sophie was the first member of the family to speak publicly about the death of her father-in-law, Prince Philip. At a special church service honoring the Duke of Edinburgh, Sophie described her last moments emotionally.
“It simply came to our notice then. It was so gentle, “she said. “It was as if someone took his hand and left. Very, very peaceful and that’s all you want for someone, isn’t it? ”
Prince Edward began dating Sophie Rhys-Jones, who grew up in a middle-class family in 1994. Her father is a retired sales manager for a tire and rubber company, and her mother was a charity worker. and secretary. Her godfather is actor Thane Bettany, her father’s stepbrother and the father of “WandaVision” actor Paul Bettany.
Sophie’s pre-royal career was in public relations, as she met Prince Edward. The two began dating in 1993 and married in June 1999.
But like many members of the royal family, she was not immune to the scandal. In 2001, she was founded by a tabloid reporter posing as an Arab sheikh, who is supposed to be courting his PR company. In their secret conversation, Sophie called Prime Minister Tony Blair’s wife Cherie “absolutely horrible, horrible, horrible.”
The following year, it was announced that Sophie would give up “day work” to focus more on royal activities and social commitments.
Sophie and Edward’s path to their parents was not easy. In 2001, Sophie was diagnosed with a life-threatening ectopic pregnancy that required emergency surgery. Two years later, she became a mother when she gave birth to her daughter Louise prematurely through an emergency cesarean section after a placental abruption, which caused severe blood loss to both mother and baby.
Due to premature birth, Louise was born with esotropia, an eye condition in which one or both eyes turn inward. She underwent two surgeries to fix the problem. In 2007, Sophie gave birth to her son James, Viscount Severn, who at the age of 13 was the youngest attendant at his grandfather’s funeral service on Saturday.
Clearly, Sophie is not a diva: in a 2012 cost-cutting measure, her full-time police protection details have been reduced and are now only used when she is in the royal service. Edward was said to have been livid about the decision, but his wife was pleased.
A friend told The Sun: “He preferred not to have a police presence 24 hours a day. It meant that he could gather the children from school alone, without any agitation ”.
Sophie and Edward’s children have no royal titles. They could have been awarded the titles of princess and prince, but their parents decided otherwise.
“We’re trying to get them to understand that they’re very likely to have to work for a living,” Sophie told The Sunday Times. “Therefore, I decided not to use HRH titles. They have them and can decide to use them [when they turn] 18, but it is very unlikely ”.
“I’m going to a regular school,” Sophie continued. “They go to friends for sleep and parties. On weekends, we do a lot of dog walks and stay with friends. I don’t think everyone’s grandparents live in a castle, but where you go is not the important part or who they are. When I’m with the queen, she’s their grandmother. ”
Louise is said to be the queen’s favorite, and Prince Philip had a close relationship with his niece. They both loved horseback riding, and Prince Philip allegedly left Lady Windsor with two of his ponies and Notlaw Storm, the four-wheeled carriage that was seen during the televised funeral last Saturday.