Sophie, Countess Of Wessex And Forfar

Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh (born Sophie Helen Rhys-Jones; 20 January 1965) is a member of the British royal family. She is married to Prince Edward, Duke of Edinburgh, the youngest sibling of King Charles III.

Sophie grew up in Brenchley, Kent, and later attended West Kent College, training as a secretary. She then worked in public relations, representing firms across the UK, Switzerland and Australia before opening her own agency in 1996. She met Edward in 1987 while working for Capital Radio; they began dating in 1993. Their engagement was announced in January 1999, and they married on 19 June at St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle. The couple have two children: Lady Louise Mountbatten-Windsor and James Mountbatten-Windsor, Earl of Wessex, who are respectively seventeenth and sixteenth in line to the British throne .

In 2002, Sophie closed her business interests and began full-time work as a member of the royal family. She is the patron of over 70 charities and organisations, including Childline and the London College of Fashion. She undertakes over 200 engagements each year, including visits to schools, universities and military bases. Her charity work primarily revolves around people with disabilities, women's rights, avoidable blindness and agriculture.

Early life and career

Sophie Helen Rhys-Jones was born at Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford, on 20 January 1965 into a middle-class family. Her father, Christopher Bournes Rhys-Jones (born 1931), is a retired sales director for an importer of industrial tyres and rubber goods. Her mother was Mary (née O'Sullivan; 1934–2005), a charity worker and secretary. She has an elder brother, David (born 1963), and was named after her father's sister, Helen, who died in a riding accident in 1960. Her godfather, actor Thane Bettany, was her father's stepbrother; both men spent their early life in Sarawak, North Borneo, then a British Protectorate ruled by the White Rajahs.

She descends from King Henry IV of England and is a direct descendant of Robert Molesworth, 1st Viscount Molesworth through her grandmother, Margaret Patricia Rhys-Jones (née Molesworth; 1904–1985) who was the great-granddaughter of the Rev. John Molesworth. One of the guests at Rhys-Jones's wedding to Prince Edward in 1999 was Robert Molesworth, 12th Viscount Molesworth.

Rhys-Jones was raised in a four-bedroom 17th-century farmhouse in Brenchley, Kent. She began her education at Dulwich Preparatory School, before moving on to Kent College, Pembury, where she was friends with Sarah Sienesi, with whom she subsequently shared a flat in Fulham and who later became her lady-in-waiting. Rhys-Jones then trained as a secretary at West Kent College, Tonbridge.

She began a career in public relations, working for a variety of firms, including four years at Capital Radio, where she was assigned to the press and promotions department, as well as public relations companies The Quentin Bell Organisation and MacLaurin Communications & Media. She also worked as a ski representative in Switzerland and spent a year travelling and working in Australia. In 1996, Rhys-Jones launched her public relations agency, RJH Public Relations, which she ran with her business partner, Murray Harkin, for five years.

Prior to her marriage, Rhys-Jones lived at Coleherne Court, London.

Marriage and children

While working at Capital Radio, Rhys-Jones met Prince Edward, the youngest son of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, for the first time in 1987 when he was dating her friend. She met him again at a promotion shoot for the Prince Edward Summer Challenge to raise money for charity in 1993, and the two began their relationship soon afterwards. In December 1993 and amid growing speculation about whether they were planning to marry, Edward wrote a letter to newspaper editors, in which he denied any wedding plans and asked the media to respect their privacy. Edward proposed to Rhys-Jones at a vacation in the Bahamas in December 1998 and their engagement was announced on 6 January 1999. Edward proposed to her with an engagement ring featuring a two-carat oval diamond flanked by two heart-shaped gemstones set in 18-carat white gold. The ring was made by Asprey and Garrard (now Garrard & Co) and is worth an estimated £105,000. Rhys-Jones, who was reportedly close to the Queen from the beginning of her relationship with Edward, was allowed to use the royal apartments at Buckingham Palace prior to her engagement.

The wedding took place on 19 June 1999 at St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, a break from the weddings of Edward's older siblings, which were large, formal events at Westminster Abbey or St Paul's Cathedral. On the day of their marriage, Prince Edward was created a hereditary peer as Earl of Wessex with the subsidiary title of Viscount Severn (derived from the Welsh roots of his wife's family).

The couple spent their honeymoon at Balmoral Castle. Following their union, the Earl and Countess of Wessex moved to Bagshot Park, their home in Surrey. While their private residence is Bagshot Park, their office and official London residence is based at Buckingham Palace.

In December 2001, Sophie was taken to the King Edward VII Hospital after feeling unwell. It was discovered that she was suffering from an ectopic pregnancy and the foetus had to be removed. Two years later, on 8 November 2003, she prematurely gave birth to her daughter, Lady Louise, resulting from a sudden placental abruption that placed both mother and child at risk, and the Countess had to undergo an emergency caesarean section at Frimley Park Hospital, while the Earl of Wessex rushed back from Mauritius. Sophie returned to Frimley Park Hospital on 17 December 2007, to give birth, again by caesarean section, to her son, James (then Viscount Severn, now Earl of Wessex).

Public life

Sophie's first overseas tour after her marriage was to the Canadian province of Prince Edward Island in 2000.

In December 2011, the Countess of Wessex joined her husband visiting troops in Afghanistan. In February and March 2012, the Earl and Countess visited the Caribbean for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee