The Duchess of Edinburgh is one of the hardest working members of the Royal Family, and with her focus on "gritty" charity work, she's quickly become a force to be reckoned with as she champions women around the world. There was one time, however, when the duchess—born Sophie Rhys-Jones—wasn't as popular with the public, and in a new episode of True Royalty TV's The Royal Beat—Book Club, the author of a new biography on the royal shared how Sophie instantly got compared to Princess Diana.
Sean Smith, author of Sophie: Saving the Royal Family, took part in the show—hosted by British TV personality Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen—and the pair recalled how the now-duchess was initially received in the 1990s after she started dating Prince Edward.
"There were a lot of very unfair comparisons made between the way that Sophie was and the way Sophie looked and the way that Diana was and Diana looked," Llewelyn-Bowen said of Sophie, who was working as a PR professional when she began a relationship with Prince Edward in 1993.
Sophie, seen in December 1993, started dating Prince Edward the same year.
The couple announced their engagement in January 1999.
The royal girlfriend's short, tousled blonde hair was reminiscent of Diana's, and Smith weighed in, "I mean, it didn't help that the vogue, fashionable hairstyle of the time was identical. They both had it. And the bob or whatever it was called in those days." However, he added, "Diana was about a foot taller than Sophie."
"And a very different person, as you say," Llewelyn-Bowen chimed in. He noted that the women also came from "very different" backgrounds, sharing that Diana came from "very front-rank aristocracy, but crucially from a very broken home and a very unhappy home." Sophie, however, "grew up in this very warm, suburban, middle-class, comforting, very supportive environment."
Like Kate Middleton and Meghan Markle, Duchess of Edinburgh also had the benefit of forging a career and "life" before she settled down into marriage and a royal role, as Smith pointed out. "Diana grew up within the ranks of the royal family, she was so young, whereas Sophie had, to a certain extent, had a life before she walked down the aisle at St George's [Chapel]," he said. "And boyfriends."
"She seemed to be copying Diana, and Diana was sort of partly amused and partly irritated by it," Judy Wade said of Sophie's early style, per the Daily Express.
Princess Diana reportedly called Sophie her "double."
Sophie and Edward married two years after Princess Diana's 1997 death, but in the years that the couple dated, it was often reported that Princess Diana wasn't the biggest fan of Sophie.
Andrew Morton wrote in his book Diana: In Pursuit of Love that the princess once stared "so intensely" at Sophie during a family gathering that the royal girlfriend left in tears. And per the Daily Express, the late royal biographer Judy Wade claimed that Diana "would often mutter, 'Oh look, here comes my double,' regularly claiming that Sophie "ought to get her own look.'"
Sophie herself spoke out on the matter in the '90s, telling the Daily Mail (via the Express) "I don’t deny that we do look alike. But I couldn't ever compete with Diana’s image. I’m not Diana."
One thing the women would've had in common today is a passion for charity work that pushes the boundaries of what royal women have done before. The Duchess of Edinburgh takes on causes that many other royals wouldn't touch, speaking out on issues such as female genital mutilation. "This is really gritty stuff," royal commentator Sarah Hewson said on The Royal Beat—Book Club. "She's not afraid to go where others haven't been, and she's not afraid to talk about these issues."
