The Duchess of Edinburgh has seen her status within the family elevated this year. It was already elevated when the Sussexes left the UK and Sophie hilariously pitched herself as their replacement for YEARS. When Charles became king, Sophie really began sucking up to Charles and Camilla and it’s paid off this year. With the Princess of Wales only being seen once this year, everything’s coming up Sophie! Which is the point of this latest dumb Mail commentary piece. First, they spent ten paragraphs comparing Sophie to the Duchess of Sussex (bizarre), all so they could get Richard Fitzwilliams to declare that Sophie is better than Meghan, for reasons!
Royal expert Richard Fitzwilliams, who described Sophie as ‘cheerful, dedicated and attentive’, said that she has always been ‘the achiever.’
‘[The Duchess of Edinburgh] is down to earth which is pivotal, but without attracting adverse publicity,’ he said. ‘It is Sophie who has been the achiever. In recent years she has visited Kosovo, South Sudan, Iraq and Ukraine as well as the Democratic Republic of the Congo and other African countries meeting victims of gender-based sexual violence. Sophie is active on the ground in this area, as shown in her visit to Sierra Leone in 2020, which is an excellent example of what working members of the royal family can achieve.’
However, in contrast, he suggested that the Duchess of Sussex is a very different character to the Duchess of Edinburgh; claiming that while Meghan is ‘self-obsessed’, Sophie prefers to ‘get on with it’.
He told FEMAIL: ‘Sophie was famously a confidante of the late Queen and King Charles knows he can trust her implicitly. Her temperament is very different to Meghan’s. The latter, though not without talent, is self-obsessed and reportedly temperamental. Sophie is attached to nearly 70 organisations. Meghan only had a few patronages, Harry had a few more [and] they chose to give them up to make a new life elsewhere. Sophie and Edward do not seek publicity or praise. Like Princess Anne, they get on with it, are trusted, do a lot of good and not just for themselves, as the Sussexes do often appear to do.’
Personally, if I was in Sophie’s position and the only way someone could compliment me was through the character assassination of a woman of color who left the country over four years ago, I might want to rethink everything. Is this really the only way to build up poor forgettable Sophie? Sophie who?? They’ve got to say “no, really, she’s better than Meghan, she’s exactly like Meghan only she’s white and she never left the country!” The cope is real. Also: “nearly 70 patronages” after being a royal wife for 25 years? By comparison, King Charles has like 800 patronages. Princess Anne has hundreds of patronages too. And given Sophie’s schedule, you would never guess that she is a “full-time working royal” either.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.