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Prince Edward and Sophie  married in their royal wedding at Windsor in 1999. They have since welcomed Lady Louise Windsor, now 16, and James Viscount Severn, now 12, into the Royal Family. These days, Sophie is hailed as “excelling” in royal life by commentators, but back in the early days of her romance and marriage to the prince, it was less straightforward. 

Podcast Pod Save the Queen is hosted by Ann Gripper and features the Daily Mirror’s royal editor Russell Myers. 

In an episode this month, body language expert Judi James gave the podcast her opinion on Sophie’s rocky start to royal life. 

Ms James said:  “She had a bit of a bad start in the Royal Family, because she was hailed as being the next Diana.

“People maybe don’t remember, but she did look a bit like Diana, and she tended to dress a bit like Diana – but then, didn’t we all!

“But then, people expected her to be like Diana. 

“And she did begin to attract the same rabid attention.” 

However, Ms James gave her opinion that Sophie shares traits with Kate that meant she was able to make a success of royal life.

She said: “But then, like Kate, she had a very good knack of calming it all down.

“Getting on with her job, being seen, but not turning anything into a kind of soap opera. 

“And I think she and Kate both excel in that one – you want to see them, it’s nice to see them, but you’re not rushing out to get the new magazine stories about them.

“They’re not giving in their body language insofar as we don’t see a whole array of emotions that we used to see with Diana.”

Prince Edward also took an “unusual” step in the early days of dating Sophie which meant that she was protected in the way that Diana never was as a royal girlfriend – and that had repercussions for Kate. 

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In her 1995 biography of the price, Ingrid Seward writes: “The failures of the marriages of his beloved sister Anne and then, in rapid and ever more embarrassing succession, Andrew and Charles, made him even more determined to put caution before commitment.”

She describes how, when rumours circulated in December 1993 that Edward was preparing to propose to Sophie, the prince issued an unusual statement to the press.

It read: “I am taking this unusual step of writing to you directly in the hopes of stopping your reporters and photographers from destroying that part of my life that I am entitled to regard as private and more importantly, Sophie’s life.” 

Prince Edward (1995) by Ingrid Seward is published by Cornerstone

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