Duchess Sophie has spoken for the first time about being labelled the Royal Family’s “secret weapon” and revealed what she thinks she should be called instead.
The Duchess of Edinburgh, 60, gave a rare and candid interview to The Mirror UK while on a three-day visit to Bosnia and Herzegovina on behalf of King Charles III.
The mother-of-two travelled to the region to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the Srebrenica massacre, in which around 8,000 Muslim men and boys were brutally killed during the Bosnian War in July 1995.
While there, she delivered a speech on behalf of the King, visited a memorial cemetery and met with members of the ‘Mothers of the Enclaves of Srebrenica and Zepa’ group, hearing first-hand from the families of victims about efforts to heal the wounds of war and ensure justice is done.
Just one day before departing for Bosnia, Sophie and her husband, Prince Edward, 61, joined the royal family at a state banquet in honour of French President Emmanuel Macron and First Lady Brigitte Macron.
The Duchess, who has increasingly stepped into higher-profile roles as the monarchy continues to slim down, acknowledged the “secret weapon” label but suggested she prefers a quieter approach.
“I like to fly under the radar,” she told The Mirror after laying a flower at the Srebrenica Memorial Cemetery.
“It’s all very well being a secret weapon but if no one knows, maybe it’s too secret.”
She added: “I suppose I should take it as a backhanded compliment. I don’t see myself in a frontline position per se, that said admittedly there are fewer working members of the family these days so I suppose more and more I’m becoming less secretive. I just wonder what they are going to describe me as next!”
When asked how she would describe herself, Sophie said: “I don’t know, I am going to leave that for others, it would be very presumptuous for me to suggest something, that could go badly wrong.”
Sophie also reflected on becoming the Duchess of Edinburgh two years ago- a title once held by her beloved late mother-in-law, Queen Elizabeth II.
“First of all it was quite large shoes to fill because not as many of the population alive today will remember but the Queen was Duchess of Edinburgh for the first few years when she and my father-in-law first married,” she said.
“For me, it was quite an emotional thing to sort of step into her shoes … it felt like quite a big moment.”
On a more “practical” note, Sophie said hers and her husband’s role “is to support the King as it was to support the Queen”.
Since meeting Queen Elizabeth’s youngest son at a tennis event in 1993 and marrying into the Royal Family six years later, Sophie has built a reputation not only for her loyalty but also for her commitment to championing causes that are close to her heart.
As patron of more than 70 charities and organisations, each year the Duchess carries out hundreds of visits to schools, hospitals, military bases, charities and community groups both in the UK and abroad.
With such a demanding schedule, she admitted that the emotional weight of her work, which often focuses on issues facing women, can sometimes be heavy.
“It can take its toll on emotions, that’s for sure,” she said after watching others pay their respects at the Srebrenica memorial cemetery.
“I can be emotional but that’s not going to help them. I have to be able to take their message and amplify it and that’s what I am here to do.”