Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh didn’t attend Princess Diana’s 1997 funeral because the two women looked too much like.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
At the time, the future royal worried the resemblance would be “too upsetting for the crowd.”<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
Sophie later married King Charles’s younger brother Prince Edward in 1999.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Despite being a key member<\/a> of the British royal family<\/a>, Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh<\/a> didn’t actually attend the 1997 funeral<\/a> of her future sister-in-law Princess Diana<\/a>. A new biography about the Duchess is now explaining why: apparently the resemblance between the two women was simply too strong.<\/p>\n “A friend at the palace explained, ‘Sophie decided it would be too upsetting for the crowd if she went,'” author Sean Smith writes in Sophie: Saving the Royal Family, per\u00a0the Daily Mail<\/a>. “‘She’s well aware that she looks like Princess Diana from a distance and made her decision in a caring and thoughtful way. The royal family fully supported.'”<\/p>\n Getty Images<\/p>\n Princess Diana at a preview of the film ‘Apollo 13’ in 1995. Getty Images<\/p>\n Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh at the Royal Yacht Squadron Ball in 1996.<\/p>\n The two royals shared standout features like blonde hair and bright blue eyes. Still, Sophie later said, they were far from interchangeable. “I don\u2019t deny that we do look alike,” she told the Daily Mail, per the Daily Express<\/a>. “But I couldn’t ever compete with Diana\u2019s image. I\u2019m not Diana.”<\/p>\n Getty Images<\/p>\n Princess Diana at a dinner at the British Embassy in Washington, D.C. in 1985.<\/p>\n Diana, affectionally remembered as the People’s Princess, died on August 31, 1997 following a tragic car accident in Paris, France. Her September 6 funeral at Westminster Abbey was attended by over 2,000 people and watched by approximately two billion worldwide.<\/p>\n Two years later, then-Prince Charles and Camila Parker Bowles<\/a> made their first public appearance together as a couple. Around the same time, his brother Prince Edward<\/a> announced his engagement to Sophie, the future Duchess of Edinburgh. The couple married on June 19, 1999 in St. George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle. Since then, Sophie has earned her keep as a full-time working royal, going so far as to become Queen Elizabeth’s “true favorite,”<\/a> according to royal expert and biographer Ingrid Seward.<\/p>\n “With the exception of her daughter Anne, the Queen was closer to Sophie than any of the other royal women,” Seward told OK!<\/a> magazine. “It really was a genuine closeness, and Elizabeth was always Sophie’s biggest confidante.”<\/p>\n![\"Getty](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/1794b79da096275b2a98cee753daf301.jpeg\"\/)
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