Duchess Sophie may not be a royal who is constantly on the country’s front pages, but her popularity continues to steadily climb. While she has been a member of the Royal Family since marrying Prince Edward in 1999, over the last few years, she really appears to have become a more dominant figure.
Ever since Prince Harry and Meghan Markle quit royal life in 2020, Sophie and Edward have had to step up, and even more so over the last year since the King’s cancer diagnosis. This has seen the Duchess, 60, take a bigger role in the Firm, much to the delight of royal fans.
However, while her popularity seems to be rising and rising, one biographer believes there was a moment in 2018 – and specifically a photograph – that already sealed the Duchess’s position as a “powerful voice” in the Royal Family.
Biographer Sean Smith told GB News: “I came across a photograph that I had missed at the time. It was of Sophie with the Hollywood star Angelina Jolie at a 2018 film festival in London entitled Fighting Stigma Through Film.
“This was not the usual red carpet fluff but a serious event. Angelina is the proof that you can look a million dollars for the camera and the crowds and still make a difference.
“Since that day, Sophie too has become a powerful voice, joining the fight to end the silence around women in conflict.
“The Royal Family, in my opinion, needs to be more relevant in the world and Sophie has shown and continues to show that you can be more than just a ribbon-cutter in a designer frock and a tiara.”
The Duchess of Edinburgh has been passionate about causes involving women and preventing sexual violence in conflict.
The Duchess has devoted a lot of time to these causes, and has even visited places where many women have been affected by sexual violence in conflict, including Sierra Leone, South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Last year, Sophie also visited Ukraine, with the Palace saying the visit was a continuation of the Duchess’s work to champion survivors of conflict-related sexual violence.