The Duchess of Edinburgh’s daunting task of meeting the late Queen for the first time during the early days of her relationship with Prince Edward is covered in a royal biography
Long before Sophie, the Duchess of Edinburgh, earned her reputation as one of the most dependable members of the Firm, she faced the nerve-wracking challenge of winning over the Royal Family during the early stages of her romance with Prince Edward.
During the couple’s courtship in the late 1990s, Edward brought Sophie to Windsor Castle to be introduced to his mother, the late Queen Elizabeth.
As the two women came face to face for the very first time, Her Majesty made a candid remark about her future daughter-in-law, according to a royal book — though the comment ultimately proved to be a compliment in disguise.
Royal author Sean Smith shed light on Sophie’s first encounter with the late Queen, claiming how the monarch’s impression of the Duchess was actually a veiled reference to another member of the Royal Family.
The writer pulled back the curtain on the Windsor Castle visit in his biography of the Duchess, simply titled Sophie, writing how Edward’s valet Brian offered an ‘anxious’ Sophie guidance to help her steer clear of the usual blunders visitors tend to make when meeting the royals for the first time.
Sophie was then immediately thrown in at the deep end when she joined Queen Elizabeth II for lunch, after the book says that Brian had told her a ‘white lie’ that the meal would take place in a grand dining room with very little one-on-one time with the Queen.
Smith wrote: “The room was tiny and the Queen was certainly not a speck at the other end of the table. The big moment arrived. Edward introduced Sophie to the Queen and the brief handshake and curtsy were over in the blink of an eye: all that practising at home had been worth it.”
After the meal concluded, and any blunders had been sidestepped, Smith compared the entire experience to a dental appointment. “Never as bad as you think it is going to be and something you feel pleased with yourself for having done,” he said.
Following the lunch, it is claimed Sophie then accompanied the Queen in a more informal setting as they spent time with the Queen’s young grandchildren Princess Beatrice and Eugenie. “For the first time she chatted politely, if a little stiffly, with Edward’s mother. The ice was broken,” said Smith.
After Sophie’s initial meeting with the Queen had concluded, the book says someone reportedly overheard the late Queen describing Sophie as “someone you wouldn’t notice in a crowd”.
While the remark may sound critical of Sophie’s character, Smith says it was actually meant as more of a compliment, as the most recent additions to the royal family at the time – Princess Diana and Sarah Ferguson – were, according to Smith, “tabloid gifts that kept on giving”.
“It was greatly to Sophie’s advantage to maintain a low profile,” Smith wrote. “She would have to face intense media scrutiny in the future, but for the moment she could quietly establish herself as a dependable presence.”
In the years that followed, Sophie and Edward’s romance flourished, prompting the prince to get down on one knee in 1998, with the couple tying the knot a year later at St George’s Chapel in Windsor.
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