There was a special thing Duchess Sophie sacrificed for royal life in the early days and she missed it “badly” afterwards.
In the years since she married Prince Edward in 1999, the Duchess of Edinburgh has become one of the most prominent members of the Royal Family. She regularly undertakes engagements in the UK and abroad and in recent weeks has travelled solo to Ethiopia and attended a Buckingham Palace reception alongside King Charles and Queen Camilla. However, royal life isn’t free from compromise and Duchess Sophie sacrificed something a few years after her marriage that she took a “while” to stop missing.
Getting candid with Harpers Bazaar in 2015, the Duchess of Edinburgh spoke of how difficult it was to give up her own PR business to embrace life as a full-time working royal, saying, “I did miss it very badly for a while”.
However, instead of letting her PR skills lie, Duchess Sophie focused on using them in her royal work “without overburdening the organisations [she’s] involved with”. Noting her “opinion is only one opinion”, the Duchess revealed that the late Queen Elizabeth taught her a great deal about royal life and how to approach her new job.
“It doesn't matter how tired you are – carry on,” she said, reflecting on what she learnt from her beloved mother-in-law. She added that in the “early days” she used to “rush around”, however watching how “measured” Queen Elizabeth was, Duchess Sophie shared that she’s come to do things in a “slightly more elegant way”.
She launched her business in 1996, but in 2001 Duchess Sophie walked away from it after being covertly recorded by undercover reporter Mazher Mahmood. From this point onwards, the Duchess of Edinburgh focused on royal duties and according to Channel 5’s documentary, Prince Edward: Will He Change the Royals?, Queen Elizabeth was very much in favour of this move.
Whilst it might have been a sacrifice on Duchess Sophie’s part, royal journalist Emily Andrews alleged, “The Queen effectively asked Edward and Sophie to give up their careers and become full-time working royals. As an effective sweetener, she gave them £250,000 in compensation.”
Comparing them to Prince Harry and Meghan, Emily described the Edinburghs as “forerunners of trying to balance their royal career with actual money-making careers”. Meanwhile, the BBC's former royal correspondent Jennie Bond claimed to OK! that this made “perfect sense”.
“At the time, Sophie and Edward were seen as very junior members of the Royal Family, and it’s quite understandable that they wanted to pursue their careers,” she shared.
As a working royal, Duchess Sophie likely continues to apply her PR experience in some ways at royal engagements and public appearances and is dedicated to her royal duties and over 70 patronages. She also previously revealed during an interview with The Sunday Times that she and Prince Edward are raising their children Lady Louise Windsor and James, Earl of Wessex to prepare to pursue private careers of their own as they likely won’t be following in their parents’ footsteps as working royals.
“We try to bring them up with the understanding they are very likely to have to work for a living,” she declared.
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