Duchess Sophie is celebrating her 60th birthday today with her nearest and dearest, with the royal set to receive plenty of well wishes from around the globe.
The Duchess of Edinburgh, who lives with husband Prince Edward at their Bagshot Park home in Surrey, has been a much-loved member of the Royal Family since her royal wedding in 1999.
While she is now one of the most senior members of the Royal Family, and dubbed by many royal fans as one of the most hard-working, life as a royal did not always come naturally for the mum-of-two.
As reported by The Mirror, Sophie came from a middle-class family, much like the Princess of Wales, and was a career woman before marrying the prince.
She worked for Capital Radio in public relations before launching her own agency RJH Public Relations in 1996, three years before her wedding, which she ran with her business partner Murray Harkin for five years.
The duchess then gave this up to become a full-time working royal, with Sophie having revealed that the change was originally a “frustration” as she had to adapt how she worked.
She once said: “Certainly it took me a while to find my feet. The frustration was I had to reduce my expectations of what I could actually do.
“I couldn’t turn up at a charity and go, ‘Right, I think you should be doing this’, because that’s what I was used to doing in my working life.
“I had to take a really big step back and go, OK, they want you to be the icing on the cake, the person to come in to thank their volunteers and funders, not necessarily to tell them how to run their communications plan.”
Sophie has now seemed to master this change and is appreciated by royal fans and fellow royals alike.
The duchess, who was particularly close with the late Queen Elizabeth, is often praised by royal experts for her good relationships with Edward’s family, including the King and Princess Kate.
A senior royal aide recently told The Daily Mail that the King appreciates Sophie and her work approach.
They said: “She really just does get on with it, without much fuss. That’s appreciated.”
