Duchess Sophie once gave a 10-word heart-wrenching statement about becoming a member of the Royal Family.
The Duchess of Edinburgh is a beloved member of the Firm with her role becoming even more prominent recently as she has been providing vital support to King Charles following his cancer diagnosis.
Many people have hailed Sophie as one of the Royal Family’s “secret weapons” due to the public’s affection for her, especially after the monarchy’s slimmed-down state has been put to the test following the royal health bombshells involving the monarch and the Princess of Wales, leaving only a handful of senior working royal to juggle the workload.
But it hasn’t always been easy for Sophie who came from a relatively modest background before marrying into the Royal Family in 1999.
The Duchess used to work in the Public Relations business before she stepped down and she and Edward became full-time working royals in 2002.
But in 2020, the royal reflected on her transition to becoming a full-time royal.
She told the Sunday Times: “Certainly it took me a while to find my feet.”
Sophie went on to add she had to adjust her expectations of what she could actually do.
She explained: “I couldn’t turn up at a charity and go, ‘right, I think you should be doing this’, because that’s what I was used to doing in my working life.
“I had to take a really big step back and go, OK, they want you to be the icing on the cake, the person to come in to thank their volunteers and funders, not necessarily to tell them how to run their communications plan.”
Sophie’s popularity with the public extended to within the Firm as well as Prince Phillip and also Queen Elizabeth were very fond of her.
Royal author Ingrid Seward previously told the publication: “She got on very well with Philip.
“The Queen always found that a bit of a relief, if female members of the family knew how to handle Philip.
“She made him laugh and was not fazed by his abruptness. She would not let him bully her.”
The couple are also known to be close to the Prince and Princess of Wales, with the group being dubbed the “new” ‘Fab Four’ following Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s departure in 2020.
