Queen Elizabeth II Refused to Give Prince Edward’s Wife Sophie What She Wanted on Her Wedding Day
A royal wedding doesn’t mean the bride gets whatever she wants. Such was the case for Prince Edward‘s wife, Sophie. Yes, marrying a prince who’s part of Britain’s royal family is a pretty big deal. But because of specific traditions and protocols in place for centuries, the bride often compromises.
When she was alive, Queen Elizabeth II first had to approve a number of marriages before they could happen. She then picked the venue, and the ceremony was choreographed down to every minute. So when Sophie (formerly the Countess of Wessex) also wanted something on her big day, the late monarch would not grant it.
What Sophie wanted to receive on her wedding day that the queen denied her
When each of her sons married, Her Majesty gave them and their brides another title. So when Sophie wed Prince Edward on June 19, 1999, she knew she wasn’t going to have a duchess title added to her name. That’s because the queen’s youngest son did not want a duke title. Edward was supposed to become the next Duke of Cambridge, but he opted not to take a dukedom. Instead, he requested to become an earl and became the Earl of Wessex.
Royal author Katie Nicholl claimed that Sophie then wanted the title of “princess.” However, Queen Elizabeth said no to the higher-brow title for her daughter-in-law and gave Sophie the title of “countess” instead.
“[She] had wanted to be known as Princess Sophie, but the queen would not allow it,” Nicholl wrote in Vanity Fair.
Express noted that “the queen’s reported dismissal of Sophie’s request appear[ed] to align with the correct usage of titles within the royal family. Only women born into the royal family may be known as princess.” Examples of this include Princess Anne, Princess Beatrice, and Princess Charlotte.
Sophie was Queen Elizabeth’s favorite in-law
Prince Edward’s wife is not one of the most visible members of the royal family. However, she stands as one of the most trusted, and the queen valued her dedication. She was even called Queen Elizabeth’s favorite in-law over Camilla and the Princess of Wales (formerly Kate Middleton).
“She [was] trusted and relied on by the queen in a way I couldn’t say applied to the [now-queen consort and the new Princess of Wales],” a senior royal aide previously told The Sun. “She [was] like another daughter to Her Majesty, they [were] that close. She talk[ed] to Sophie in the way she used to talk to Princess Margaret. Sophie had filled a terrible gap in the queen’s life that was left when her sister and the Queen Mother died in 2002.”
“[The countess] is probably the best example of an outsider coming into the family and learning on the job,” royal biographer Robert Jobson added via The Telegraph. “She [was] very much the queen’s favorite.”
But just because she was the monarch’s favorite doesn’t mean she got everything she wanted on her wedding day.
Prince Edward is the only one of the queen’s children still married to his first spouse
Prince Edward met Sophie in 1987. She was working at Capital Radio and he was dating her friend. They met again years later and began a relationship. The royal couple’s engagement became public in 1999. Prince Edward and Sophie are still married. That makes him the only one of the late queen’s children who is not divorced.
“I think we forget that Sophie is the middle generation — Sophie is the only royal bride of that generation that had any Teflon about her,” body language expert Judi James during an episode of the Pod Save the Queen podcast. “She is the only one that stuck. Windsor men are notoriously difficult to be married to.”
Edward and Sophie have two children together. They welcomed a daughter, Lady Louise Windsor, in 2003 followed by their son, James, in 2007.
Editor’s note: On March 10, 2023, King Charles gave Edward the Duke of Edinburgh title, making Sophie the Duchess of Edinburgh
