Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh, is one of the most beloved and respected members of the royal family, greatly appreciated by the King for her tireless work in support of the monarchy. But it’s now been revealed that when she first became the girlfriend of Prince Edward, there was one member of The Firm who wasn’t very welcoming.
A feud hidden for decades
That was Princess Diana, and according to a new biography of the duchess, Sophie: Saving the Royal Family, the pair had a feud that has, until now, been kept under wraps. Author Sean Smith says Sophie’s friends told him there was “no love lost” between the two women.
“They did not like each other,” claims Sean, who says the tension between them was partly due to Diana being annoyed by how much Sophie, now 60, looked like her.
When she saw the younger woman, she’d say, “Oh, look, here comes my double”, or, “Here comes Miss Goody Two Shoes.”
She also described Sophie to staff as the woman who would be replacing her in the royal family.
Crossing paths in royal circles
Diana was separated from Prince Charles by the time PR executive Sophie Rhys-Jones began dating Edward, now 61, in 1993. However, the princess still moved in royal circles due to her sons Princes William and Harry, and occasionally crossed paths with Sophie, who lived with Edward in an apartment at Buckingham Palace before their 1999 marriage.
Both women once had afternoon tea with the Queen and every time Sophie spoke, Diana would talk over her, meaning Sophie, because of her lower status, had to stop. After being constantly silenced by Diana, Sophie left in a rage, says Sean.
Brought to tears by Diana
On another occasion, she was in “floods of tears” after Diana stared intently at her during a dinner. After that, she did her best to avoid the princess. Throughout the mid-’90s, Sophie, who was four years younger than Diana, was criticised for trying to look like the princess. They both had their blonde hair in a similar short cut and Sophie often wore clothes reminiscent of Diana’s stylish look – albeit much cheaper than the royal’s designer outfits.
Royal commentator Judy Wade said Sophie needed to “get her own look. She seemed to be copying Diana, and Diana was sort of partly amused and partly irritated by it”.
Sophie told a journalist she wasn’t trying to emulate Diana.
“I don’t deny that we do look alike. But I couldn’t ever compete with Diana’s image. I’m not Diana.”
‘We do look alike. But I couldn’t ever compete with Diana’s image’
Sean says another reason why Diana didn’t like Sophie was that she got on so well with her royal in-laws, particularly the Queen. Early on, Her Majesty was heard to say of Sophie, “You wouldn’t notice her in a crowd”, but that was a good thing.
After all of the drama surrounding Diana, she didn’t want another daughter-in-law who stole the limelight. Sophie went on to become extremely close to her mother-in-law, who she called Mama.
Sean says Diana held the view that no commoner could possibly survive within the “cold steel embrace” of the royal family and was not happy that Sophie, “an ordinary girl from Kent, might succeed where she, as an authentic aristocrat, had so abjectly failed”.
A royal romance from different paths
Sophie was 28 when she started seeing Edward. She’d dated other men, travelled extensively and built up a successful career, unlike Diana, who was a naïve 19-year-old when she got engaged to Charles in 1981. Sophie came from a loving middle-class family, while Diana had an unhappy childhood in her family’s stately house after her mother Frances Shand Kydd walked out on her husband Earl Spencer and their four children.
What Sophie didn’t have was Diana’s finances. In the mid-’90s, Sophie earned around $40,000 – Diana’s annual clothes budget was six times that amount. According to other reports, at a gathering with other royals, Diana told Sophie her skirt was nice for something from chain store Marks and Spencer, and must have been expensive on her wages. After Sophie left, the Queen Mother allegedly “ripped into” Diana for being so rude.
When Diana died in 1997, Sophie did not attend her funeral. But that was nothing to do with their feud, says Sean.
Because they looked alike, she thought it would be “too upsetting for the crowd if she went. She was well aware she looked like Diana from a distance, and made her decision in a caring and thoughtful way. The royal family fully supported it.”
