{"id":278710,"date":"2025-07-21T01:07:15","date_gmt":"2025-07-21T01:07:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/278710\/"},"modified":"2025-07-21T01:07:15","modified_gmt":"2025-07-21T01:07:15","slug":"duchess-of-edinburgh-brushes-off-being-the-royal-familys-secret-weapon-the-crown-chronicles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/278710\/","title":{"rendered":"Duchess of Edinburgh brushes off being the ‘Royal Family\u2019s secret weapon’ \u2022 The Crown Chronicles"},"content":{"rendered":"

Over the years, The Duchess of Edinburgh has built a reputation for being one of the most hardworking and compassionate members of the Royal Family.<\/p>\n

Often described as the \u2018Royal Family\u2019s secret weapon\u2019, Sophie has brushed off the label during an interview with The Sun following a trip to Bosnia to mark the 30th anniversary of the Srebrenica genocide.\n<\/p>\n

\"DuchessDuchess of Edinburgh ahead of her 60th birthday earlier this year. (Royal Family)<\/p>\n

Remarking about the label, HRH quipped, \u2018it\u2019s all very well being a secret weapon, but if no one knows, maybe it\u2019s too secret\u2019, but added \u2018I suppose I should take it as a backhanded compliment.\u2019<\/p>\n

Her Royal Highness highlighted how she doesn\u2019t see herself \u2018in a frontline position\u2019 but admits that there are fewer working members of the Royal Family these days, especially following the Duke and Duchess of Sussex\u2019s departure from Royal duties and the Duke of York stepping back from public duties. Additionally, some members of the Royal Family, such as the Duke of Kent and Princess Alexandra, are slowly stepping back from duties due to their age.\n<\/p>\n

\nThis latest overseas visit to Bosnia reflects Sophie\u2019s growing portfolio of global topics. Over the past year, she has traveled to Chad<\/a> to bring attention to the refugee crisis resulting from the Sudan conflict and became the first Royal to visit Ukraine in 2024<\/a> since the war began.<\/p>\n

\"\"Sophie visited Chad to see firsthand to the refugee crisis resulting from the Sudan conflict. (Royal Family).<\/p>\n

Despite her low public profile, Sophie is increasingly stepping into a more visible role. More than two years after being named the Duchess of Edinburgh \u2013 a title previously held by the late Queen \u2013 Sophie reflected on the emotional significance of following in such historic footsteps. \u201cIt was quite large shoes to fill,\u201d she admitted. \u201cIt felt like quite a big moment, but being practical, my role and my husband\u2019s role is to support the King.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Image Licensed to i-Images Picture Agency. 10\/03\/2023. Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom. Prince Edward & Sophie in Edinburgh, Scotland, after being named as the Duke & Duchess of Edinburgh. During their visit they met members of the Ukrainian community at an event to mark Edinburghs formal response to the invasion of Ukraine. Picture by i-Images \/ Pool<\/p>\n

Indeed, since Prince Edward was granted the Duke of Edinburgh title on his 59th birthday in March 2023<\/a>, the couple has continued to serve the Crown in a impactful capacity and continue to attend state occasions such as Trooping the Colour<\/a> and a procession to mark 80th anniversary of VE Day<\/a>. However, Sophie joked she \u2018quite liked\u2019 her former title, Countess of Wessex.<\/p>\n

The Duchess\u2019 work often centres on some of the world\u2019s most harrowing issues, particularly sexual violence against women in conflict zones<\/a>. As a key individual collaborating with the UK government on these issues, Sophie has made it her mission to highlight these topics.<\/p>\n

\"\"Sophie conducted a one-day visit to Ukraine in 2024. (UK in Ukraine)<\/p>\n

She noted that \u201cthey are not easy subject matters, but every time I go somewhere it serves to strengthen my resolve to do as much as I can and to continue to tread this path because I have absolute faith in the women of the world to solve so many issues that we have alongside men, who of course, we can\u2019t do it without.\u2019<\/p>\n

She added: \u2018It is always emotional, of course it is always emotional, but you have to see through the emotion to find the strength and it is always there.\u2019<\/p>\n

\"HRHThe Duchess of Edinburgh visits Unsilenced: Sexual Violence in Conflict at IWM London. (\u00a9 IWM)<\/p>\n

Sophie concluded by saying that she hopes that her engagements and visits in this area \u2018creates continuity\u2019 and that she can make \u2018a difference\u2019 as it\u2019s \u2018very hard because sometimes these issues are very overwhelming because of the scale\u2019. She noted how that if she \u2018can keep banging the drum, it perhaps creates traction somewhere\u2019.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Over the years, The Duchess of Edinburgh has built a reputation for being one of the most hardworking…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":278711,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8816],"tags":[748,5106,65090,1102,4884,712,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-278710","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-edinburgh","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-duchess-of-edinburgh","10":"tag-duchess-sophie","11":"tag-edinburgh","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-scotland","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114888549791301702","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278710","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=278710"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278710\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/278711"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=278710"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=278710"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=278710"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}