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GOING DUCH
Inside Sophie Wessex’s 60th birthday – black-tie bash with Kate at 120-room estate, honour from King & celeb guests
The royal has been a huge support to Princess Kate with her cancer treatment last year
WHEN it comes to parties, the Duchess of Edinburgh is not known for hogging the limelight.
But Sophie - who turns 60 today - will very much be the centre of attention for a celebration party organised by her husband Prince Edward to mark her milestone birthday.
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The dinner and dance will be at Bagshot Park, the grand house in Berkshire which Edward and Sophie moved into shortly after their wedding in 1999.
The mansion was rebuilt in the Victorian gothic style in 1879 and is owned by the monarch. Unlike Royal Lodge, which Edward’s controversial brother, Prince Andrew, is under pressure to vacate, Bagshot is on a very long Crown lease, which was recently renewed at Edward’s request.
This means the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh are staying put and have no plans to move for some time yet.
Grand birthday bash
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Yet despite its grandeur, 120-room Bagshot has rarely been used by Edward and Sophie for formal entertaining.
More on Sophie
But they will open up their home for Sophie’s black-tie bash, to which all members of the Royal family have been invited.
Staff for the party will be borrowed from nearby Windsor Castle as the Edinburghs do not lead an ostentatious life.
Their only everyday employees are a butler (whose actual job title is Household Manager) and a housemaid/cleaner.
“Neither Sophie or Edward are what you might call big party animals,” says a source close to the family.
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“Bagshot may look very grand - there’s a huge drawing room and morning room and a lavish dining room, a lovely conservatory and wood-panelled his and hers studies - but a lot of the rooms are usually closed off.
“The family only uses six of the 12 bedrooms.”
Sophie Wessex weeps as she meets women raped in exchange for food & water on harrowing trip to war victims in Chad
Celeb guests
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Joining the King and Queen, the Prince and Princess of Wales and other royals for the party will be many of the couple’s friends, such as the composer Andrew Lloyd Webber (who gave Edward his first job in the theatre) and former colleagues of Sophie’s at Capital Radio, where she worked as a press officer.
There will also be friends Sophie made from the PR companies where she worked before setting up her own agency, and chums from the time she spent in Switzerland as a ski company rep.
High on the list will be Sophie’s father, Christopher Rhys-Jones, a retired tyre company executive who is still very active at 93, and has lived on his own in Kent since the death of his wife Mary in 1995.
Also joining will be Sophie’s brother David, 61, who is said to be ‘very entertaining - as you might expect for a man who made a mid-life career change from being a publican to running his own funeral business.’
Family at the centre
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Naturally included for the celebrations will be the Edinburghs’ son James, Viscount Severn, 16, who is studying for his A-levels at the all-boys boarding school Radley, and daughter Lady Louise, 21, who is reading English at St Andrew’s University.
The party could be the last big royal get-together for a while for Louise, who is planning to taking a gap year at Macquarie University in Australia with her boyfriend, Felix Da Silva-Clamp, who is also a student at St Andrews.
Lady Louise fell for Felix, who was raised in Melbourne, during her third year at St Andrews. He won the approval of Sophie’s parents when she introduced him at the Sandringham Horse Trials, where Louise won a silver medal for her skills in carriage driving.
Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh's births
The Duke and Duchess have two children Lady Louise Windsor and James, Viscount Severn.
In December 2001, the Countess was taken to the King Edward VII Hospital after feeling unwell, before discovering that she was suffering from an ectopic pregnancy and the foetus had to be removed.
Two years later, on November 8, 2003, she prematurely gave birth to their daughter, Lady Louise, resulting from a sudden placental abruption that placed both mother and child at risk.
The Duchess had to undergo an emergency caesarean section at Frimley Park Hospital, while Edward rushed back from Mauritius.
She returned to Frimley Park Hospital on December 17, 2007, to give birth by caesarean section to their son, James Viscount Severn.
The all-action royal was recently seen on an exercise for Army officer hopefuls — and could be the first female royal since 1945 to serve in the military.
St Andrews has, of course, got form when it comes to royal romances.
Prince William began his relationship with Kate Middleton at the Scottish university, where he was studying Geography and she was an art history student.
The party at Bagshot will not be the only way Sophie is to celebrate her 60th.
King Charles' birthday treat
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King Charles, who is a great admirer of his daughter-in-law’s pragmatic, no-nonsense attitude, has granted her a special favour, allowing her to host her own shoot on the Windsor estate.
Sophie, who is said to have a very good eye for game shooting, has given a coveted invitation to ten friends (including her husband) to join her for a day of pheasant shooting.
“I envy anyone getting an invitation to shoot at Windsor,’ says one source close to the royal family.
Sophie and Prince Edward's royal romance
When Sophie met Edward in 1987 she was a PR for Capital Radio, but it was six years before they started dating.
They then began a romance in earnest, but went to great lengths to avoid photographers, especially when Sophie began staying overnight at Edward’s three-room apartment in Buckingham Palace. When calling Sophie at her office, the Prince would use the name Richard — not that he fooled her colleagues for long.
Six years after they started going out, Edward proposed, with a £105,000 ring from Crown jewellers Garrard.
The family were popular with the late Queen, before her passing.
Between the first and second lockdown during Covid, Edward, Sophie and their children were among the first to stay with the Queen and Philip at Balmoral, and the last to leave.
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“It’s beautifully run, and often produces higher bags [number of pheasants killed] than the shoots at Sandringham or Balmoral.’”
Whether it is the King or her husband who leads the toasts to Sophie at her party, they will be made not just in celebration of her birthday, but also as an acknowledgement of how much she is appreciated by the Royal family.
In particular over the last year, she has been a pillar of support at a time when the Family was hit by two alarming developments - the news that the Princess of Wales was suffering from cancer which had been discovered after she had abdominal surgery - and the shock announcement shortly afterwards that King Charles was also being treated for cancer.
Kate's helping hand
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Kate’s diagnosis last March was naturally upsetting not just for her but also for William, with the future Sovereign admitting that he had experienced 'the hardest year in my life'.
William especially was grateful that the moment she heard of Kate’s condition Sophie was in touch to see how she could help.
When Kate stepped back from public life, Sophie was the first to take on some of her engagements.
“That sort of pragmatism, a genuine desire to help and support someone who has been knocked off kilter, is pure Sophie,” says a senior royal source.
“It really helped William and Kate, obviously in a practical way, but also knowing Sophie could always be relied upon to give her support whenever it was needed.”
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And that support was extended to the Wales’s children, with ‘Aunt Sophie’ arranging picnics and playdates at Bagshot for George, Louis and Charlotte, during the times when Kate needed to rest after her debilitating sessions of chemotherapy.
Despite their 18-year age gap, Sophie’s relationship with Kate - which has always been warm - has deepened in the last year.
Her support for the princess was evident on Remembrance Sunday, when Kate looked to be on the verge of tears at the end of the service at the Cenotaph.
Sophie simply placed her hand on Kate's shoulder as the pair made their way from a balcony.
The warmth of her gesture displayed not just the comfort from a family member, but also the empathy of a compassionate friend.
Meghan Markle tea
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While Sophie is held in high affection within the Royal family, she is said to be disappointed that her efforts to welcome Meghan Markle into the fold when she married the Duke of Sussex did not help what was to become a bitter estrangement between Harry and his brother William.
When Meghan was finding her feet as a new member of the royal family, the late Queen, to whom Sophie was particularly close, suggested that Meghan might benefit from some gentle advice from Sophie, of whom she said fondly ‘had weathered plenty of storms and come out smiling through the other side.”
The royal source says that Sophie promptly followed the Queen’s suggestion, and was one of the first to extend an invitation to talk about how Meghan was coping with her new position - or not - over afternoon tea at Bagshot.
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“They got on perfectly well, but Sophie could sense they were never going to become the best of friends,’ says a royal source, “Let’s just say that Meghan seemed to have her own agenda and was not in the market for advice, however well-intentioned.
“Sophie concluded that Meghan was ‘not a team player’ - an appraisal which proved astute - and sadly Meghan and Harry were, as later proved, seemingly bent on a course of destruction as far as their relationship with the royals were concerned.
“Sophie’s view was that her well-meant offer of friendship had effectively been rebuffed, and that Meghan was, as she put it politely, ‘very much her own woman.’
“There has been no personal contact between the two since then.”
Sophie's royal legacy
While Sophie may not have succeeded as a family peacemaker, she has been more than successful on a professional level.
She is patron of nearly 80 organisations and last year carried out some 250 official engagements.
She has embarked on high-profile solo trips, including a much-lauded trip to bring attention to sexual violence against women and girls.
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She was the first member of the royal family to visit the Ukraine since the Russian invasion two years ago.
Charities who have benefited from the duchess’s support are full of praise for her efforts. Such as Wellbeing of Women, of which she became patron in 2021, following in the gilded footsteps of Princess Diana, who championed the organisation under its former name, Birthright.
“The Duchess is totally natural,” says Wellbeing’s chief executive Janet Lindsay. “Women’s issues and rights are very much one of her key areas, and she has a natural empathy with everybody she talks to.”
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“She is viewed with great affection by the family,’ says a courtier who has worked with Sophie for years and seen her “blossom.”
He sums her up as a “true professional - very well organised, incisive, self-assured and empathetic - and absolutely charming.”
Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh's 'humble' start in life
UNLIKE Prince Edward, Sophie comes from humble beginnings.
The daughter of a tyre salesman and a secretary, she was working in PR at Capital Radio when they met in 1987.
Edward was dating her friend at the time, but six years later they got together after a charity event.
Sophie continued to work for a few years after they got married before finally becoming a full-time royal in 2002.
“I remember our first meeting many years ago when she was just becoming known as Edward’s girlfriend,” former BBC royal correspondent Jennie Bond said.
“I was lunching at The Ritz with one of the Queen Mother’s ladies in waiting when I saw Sophie at a nearby table. I seized the moment and introduced myself which was probably very annoying for her, but she was charm personified, and we chatted for a few minutes.
"And I really don’t think she has changed much since then.
"Yes, she and Edward live in a mansion, have titles and huge privilege, but Sophie has known a life outside those cloistered palace walls and she has kept her sense of perspective.
“For example, she has told her children that, titles or no titles - and they have chosen thus far not to use their HRH status - they should expect to have to earn a living.
"Sophie was happy for her daughter to take on a seasonal job at a garden centre for less than £7 an hour.
"And during the pandemic Sophie served as a volunteer with the Royal Voluntary Service, talking with people on the phone to help them combat the feeling of isolation - and she carried on talking with some of them after the pandemic ended.
“She will also often travel under the radar to places like Malawi, Botswana or Ethiopia to visit projects dedicated to promoting eye health and preventing blindness, and she does this from the heart after her daughter Louise was born with a squint.
“Sophie is one of the strengths of the new monarchy – elegant, engaging and empathetic. I think people have really taken her into their hearts.”
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