Duchess Sophie is considered by many to be one of the most popular members of the Royal Family. In a 2026 poll, she was ranked the sixth favourite, with Princess Kate coming out on top.
She has even reportedly acted as a “mentor” for the Princess of Wales, often being dubbed the Firm’s “secret weapon”. Now one former royal staffer has revealed that Sophie showed her true colours when they first met. Ailsa Anderson worked as a press secretary for Queen Elizabeth between 2001 and 2013. She was brought in to help Prince Edward and Sophie after a sting from the so-called “fake sheikh”.
Sophie is said to have made disparaging comments about senior politicians and members of the Royal Family. Buckingham Palace criticised the media reports at the time.
Around the same time, reports emerged that Edward’s production company had sent a two-man film crew who tried to film Prince William at university. The-then Prince Charles was said to be "incandescent with rage” following the incident.
Recalling the moment she met Sophie and Edward on Channel 5’s Royal Peacemaker: Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh, Anderson said: “I remember meeting Sophie for the first time and walking through the door and I was quite nervous.
“I had not met her before and she was a very famous member of the Royal Family so I was nervous. I shouldn’t have been, she was absolutely lovely to me, it was like sitting down and chatting to a friend.
“She was clearly quite bruised and vulnerable, so that was a side to her that you don’t really see in public. The position at that time was pretty dire, it was pretty brutal.”
Both Sophie and Edward agreed to quit their careers in 2002 and become full-time working royals. They subsequently took up a string of official engagements to mark the Queen’s Golden Jubilee.
In March, Sophie joined Alaina MacGregor, the CEO of British Blind Sport, on their Golden Legacy Series podcast to discuss life as a working royal. She spoke candidly about the way she supports King Charles and the progress that has been made in disability sports.
During the candid chat, the duchess said: “My role, as with all members of the family, is to primarily support the King and the monarchy. That is one side of the focus. But also, we're lucky enough to be able to fulfil our passions and our interests and these over my time as a member of the royal family have developed."
Sophie serves as patron of more than 70 charities and organisations, with much of her philanthropic work dedicated to advancing women’s safety and supporting efforts to combat sexual violence in both the UK and internationally.
She said: "One of the things I'm doing now is on women's peace and security in the world. We have the most incredible women who work within communities at all levels of society, and they are often at the frontline of ensuring that peace is secure, that their communities are looked after, and also we try to get them around the peacekeeping tables as much as possible. Aside from that, also the very sad problem the world is dealing with, the issue of conflict-related sexual violence."
Sophie says her work often results in her visiting “difficult countries” as she tries and highlights what is happening in the world. In 2024, she became the first senior royal to visit Ukraine since the Russian invasion.
