Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh
Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh, is a member of the British royal family. She is married to Prince Edward, Duke of Edinburgh, the youngest sibling of King Charles III.
Sophie grew up in Brenchley, Kent, and later attended West Kent College, training as a secretary. She then worked in public relations, representing firms across the UK, Switzerland and Australia before opening her own agency in 1996. She met Edward in 1987 while working for Capital Radio; they began dating in 1993. Their engagement was announced in January 1999, and they married on 19 June at St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle. The couple have two children: Lady Louise Mountbatten-Windsor and James Mountbatten-Windsor, Earl of Wessex, who are respectively 17th and 16th in line to the British throne.
In 2002, Sophie closed her business interests and began full-time work as a member of the royal family. She is the patron of over 70 charities and organisations, including Childline and the London College of Fashion. Her charity work primarily revolves around people with disabilities, women's rights, avoidable blindness and agriculture.
Early life and career
Sophie Helen Rhys-Jones was born on 20 January 1965 at Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford, into a middle-class family. Her father, Christopher Bournes Rhys-Jones, is a retired sales director for an importer of industrial tyres and rubber goods. Her mother was Mary, a charity worker and secretary. She has an elder brother, David, and was named after her father's sister, Helen, who died in a riding accident in 1960. Her godfather, actor Thane Bettany, was her father's stepbrother; both men spent their early life in Sarawak, North Borneo, then a British Protectorate ruled by the White Rajahs.She descends from King Henry IV of England and is a direct descendant of Robert Molesworth, 1st Viscount Molesworth through her grandmother, Margaret Patricia Rhys-Jones who was the great-granddaughter of the Rev. John Molesworth. One of the guests at Rhys-Jones's wedding to Prince Edward in 1999 was Robert Molesworth, 12th Viscount Molesworth.
Rhys-Jones was raised in a four-bedroom 17th-century farmhouse in Brenchley, Kent. She began her education at Dulwich Preparatory School, before moving on to Kent College, Pembury, where she was friends with Sarah Sienesi, with whom she subsequently shared a flat in Fulham and who later became her lady-in-waiting. Rhys-Jones then trained as a secretary at West Kent College, Tonbridge.
She began a career in public relations, working for a variety of firms, including four years at Capital Radio, where she was assigned to the press and promotions department, as well as public relations companies The Quentin Bell Organisation and MacLaurin Communications & Media. She also worked as a ski representative in Switzerland and spent a year travelling and working in Australia. In 1996, Rhys-Jones launched her public relations agency, RJH Public Relations, which she ran with her business partner, Murray Harkin, for five years.
Prior to her marriage, Rhys-Jones lived at Coleherne Court, London.
Marriage and children
While working at Capital Radio, Rhys-Jones met Prince Edward, the youngest son of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, for the first time in 1987 when he was dating her friend. She met him again at a promotion shoot for the Prince Edward Summer Challenge to raise money for charity in 1993, and the two began their relationship soon afterwards. In December 1993 and amid growing speculation about whether they were planning to marry, Edward wrote a letter to newspaper editors, in which he denied any wedding plans and asked the media to respect their privacy. Edward proposed to Rhys-Jones at a vacation in the Bahamas in December 1998 and their engagement was announced on 6 January 1999. Edward proposed to her with an engagement ring featuring a two-carat oval diamond flanked by two heart-shaped gemstones set in 18-carat white gold. The ring was made by Asprey and Garrard and is worth an estimated £105,000. Rhys-Jones, who was reportedly close to the Queen from the beginning of her relationship with Edward, was allowed to use the royal apartments at Buckingham Palace prior to her engagement.The wedding took place on 19 June 1999 at St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, a break from the weddings of Edward's older siblings, which were large, formal events at Westminster Abbey or St Paul's Cathedral. On the day of their marriage, Prince Edward was created a hereditary peer as Earl of Wessex with the subsidiary title of Viscount Severn, the latter of which derived from the Welsh roots of his wife's family.
The couple spent their honeymoon at Balmoral Castle. Following their union, the Earl and Countess of Wessex moved to Bagshot Park, their home in Surrey. While their private residence is Bagshot Park, their office and official London residence is based at Buckingham Palace.
In December 2001, Sophie was taken to the King Edward VII Hospital after feeling unwell. It was discovered that she was suffering from an ectopic pregnancy and the foetus had to be removed. Two years later, on 8 November 2003, she prematurely gave birth to her daughter, Lady Louise, resulting from a sudden placental abruption that placed both mother and child at risk, and the Countess had to undergo an emergency caesarean section at Frimley Park Hospital, while the Earl of Wessex rushed back from Mauritius. Sophie returned to Frimley Park Hospital on 17 December 2007, to give birth, again by caesarean section, to her son, James.
Public life
Sophie's first overseas tour after her marriage was to the Canadian province of Prince Edward Island in 2000.In December 2011, the Countess of Wessex joined her husband visiting troops in Afghanistan. On the same trip, the royal couple visited Bahrain, and received two gifts of jewels from the Bahraini royal family and Prime Minister.
In February and March 2012, the Earl and Countess visited the Caribbean for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee, visiting Saint Lucia, Barbados, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Grenada, Trinidad and Tobago, Montserrat, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Anguilla and Antigua and Barbuda. Highlights of the tour included the 50th Anniversary Independence Day celebrations in Saint Lucia, a joint address from both houses of the Barbados Parliament and a visit to sites affected by the recent volcanic eruptions in Montserrat. In June 2012, as part of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee celebrations, Edward and Sophie, represented the Queen during a three-day tour to Gibraltar. The couple attended a Queen's Birthday Parade and toured Main Street, in the historic old town.
In 2013, the couple visited South Africa. Later that year, the Countess made solo trips to India and Qatar as the patron of the sight-saving charity Orbis UK. She made a similar visit to Bangladesh in November 2017. Sophie, as Colonel-in-Chief of Corps of Army Music, visited The Countess of Wessex's String Orchestra at the Royal Artillery Barracks, in London. On 3 March 2014, the Queen approved the title of "The Countess of Wessex's String Orchestra" for the new Army String Orchestra in recognition of the Corps of Army Music's Colonel-in-Chief. In November 2014, Sophie was in Zambia representing the Queen at the state funeral of the late president of Zambia, Michael Sata.
On 26 March 2015, Sophie attended the reburial of Richard III of England in Leicester Cathedral. In May 2015, Sophie represented the Queen in the 70th anniversary celebrations to mark the Liberation Day of the Channel Islands. The Countess delivered a message from the Queen, who paid tribute to the island's continued allegiance and loyalty to the Crown. She visited Canada and the United States in November 2015. While in Toronto, she criss-crossed across the city, making stops at the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair and the UHN's Toronto General Hospital and Toronto Western Hospital, of which she is patron. Sophie then travelled to New York City, paying an emotional visit to the National September 11 Memorial & Museum. Sophie also made an appearance at an Armistice Day service at the Queen Elizabeth II September 11th Garden, which was opened in commemoration of the 67 British victims of the attack. The Countess later attended the 100 Women in Hedge Funds Gala dinner in Manhattan.
The Earl and Countess of Wessex toured Canada in June 2016, visiting Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta. The couple visited a variety of places in and around Regina, Saskatchewan before attending the Globe Theatre's 50th anniversary gala.
In March 2017, Sophie embarked on a 4-day visit to Malawi as Vice-Patron of The Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Trust, visiting programmes to end avoidable blindness and champion young leaders. On 9 May 2017, the Countess attended King Harald and Queen Sonja of Norway's 80th Birthday Celebrations on behalf of the royal family. The Earl and Countess of Wessex represented the Queen at celebrations for the Golden Jubilee of Hassanal Bolkiah in October 2017. On 30 November 2017, Sophie visited the 'Making for Change' fashion training and manufacturing unit, a fashion training and manufacturing unit established by the Ministry of Justice and London College of Fashion at HM Prison Downview as patron of the London College of Fashion During her visit, the Countess met staff and prisoners, including female inmates, and awarded participants with certificates as part of their training programme.
An avid supporter of charities that deal with learning disabilities, Sophie made a solo trip to Belfast in January 2018 to visit a number of charities that she had supported through her work over the last decade, including Mencap's children's centre. She also opened the new dementia-friendly unit of Northern Ireland Hospice, the first of its kind in the UK. The Earl and Countess of Wessex visited Sri Lanka in February 2018 to celebrate the 70th Anniversary of Independence, Sri Lanka–United Kingdom relations, the Commonwealth, education and young people. In October 2018, Edward and Sophie toured the Baltic states.
In March 2019, the Countess travelled to New York City to attend the 63rd session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women. The annual event brought together more than 9,000 gender equality representatives from around the world. The CSW is "the principal global intergovernmental body exclusively dedicated to the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of women." From 29 April to 3 May 2019, the Countess, Vice-Patron of the Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Trust, visited India in her final overseas tour as vice-patron ahead of the Trust's planned closure in January 2020. Sophie saw the work the charitable foundation has supported to tackle avoidable blindness and heard about programmes successfully launched by Queen's Young Leaders.
In July 2019, the Earl and Countess visited Forfar on their first official visit to the town since the Queen granted the Earl the additional title Earl of Forfar in March 2019. Later in October, Sophie visited Kosovo to meet victims of sexual violence after the Kosovo War and their families. By the end of 2019, Sophie had completed 236 official engagements.
In March 2020, Sophie became the first member of the royal family to visit South Sudan. During the visit, which was requested by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Sophie met victims and survivors of gender-based violence and promoted their rights by meeting the female political leaders in the country.
In January 2022, the Countess went on a solo visit to Qatar in her capacity as the global ambassador for the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness to support the organisation's '2030 in Sight' initiative and visit projects by the Qatar Fund and Orbis International aimed at improving eye tests and treatments in India and Bangladesh. As a supporter of the Women Peace and Security Network she met with Afghan women refugees who had been evacuated from the country following the 2021 Taliban offensive. In March 2022, Sophie went on a four-day solo trip to New York City, visiting the Queen Elizabeth II September 11th Garden and Consuls General from across the Commonwealth to mark the Commonwealth Day. She also delivered the keynote address on women's rights in Afghanistan at an event hosted by the UN Women and the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security.
In April 2022, Edward and Sophie toured Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Antigua and Barbuda to mark the Queen's Platinum Jubilee. Their planned visit to Grenada was postponed after talks with the island's government and governor general, and the couple expressed their hopes to visit the country on a later date. In October 2022 and September 2025, she visited the Democratic Republic of the Congo to engage with projects preventing sexual and gender-based violence in conflict, becoming the first member of the royal family to visit the country. The 2022 tour also included visits to Rwanda, Botswana, and Malawi.
After her husband was created Duke of Edinburgh on his 59th birthday, Sophie and Edward visited Edinburgh to meet with members of the Ukrainian and Eastern European communities in the city, some of whom were displaced following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In May 2023, Sophie visited Iraq at the request of the Foreign Office to promote the Women, Peace and Security agenda and raise awareness about conflict-related sexual violence. She became the first member of the royal family to visit Baghdad.
On 29 April 2024, the Duchess visited Ukraine, the first British royal to make the trip since the Russian invasion, where she met with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Sophie also met with survivors of war-related sexual violence and torture as well as children who had been returned to Ukraine after being abducted from their families by Russia. She also paid her respects to victims of the massacre in Bucha. In October 2024, she became the first member of the royal family to visit Chad where she met with refugees who had fled to the country following the Sudanese civil war and had experienced sexual violence during the conflict. In November 2025, at the request of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, Sophie completed an overseas tour to Central and South America, focusing on environmental protection, women's empowerment and military.
She undertakes hundreds of public engagements annually, with a focus on education, healthcare, and military outreach.