The Duchess of Edinburgh attended several events around Emmanuel Macron’s state visit to the UK. She was there for the state banquet at Windsor Castle, alongside her husband Prince Edward. Soon after the dinner, Sophie traveled solo to Bosnia for a multi-day tour focused on the 30th anniversary of the Srebrenica genocide. Sophie went to the Srebrenica Memorial, and she also had events around some of her core causes, like refugees, women’s empowerment and the end to sexual violence in conflict. Sophie’s trip to Bosnia barely got any attention whatsoever, but interestingly enough, The Sun had a reporter in Bosnia, and Sophie ended up giving an interview on the record. I wonder if she even had a press secretary with her or any staffers setting this up? Because the way the Sun reported it, it felt like a pretty informal chat.

The Duchess of Edinburgh brushed off suggestions she is the ‘Royal Secret weapon’ but admitted “I like to fly under the radar”. She was speaking in Bosnia, where she hugged mothers fighting for justice after 30 years and laid flowers at a cemetery where 7,000 genocide victims are buried. She read a message of “hope” from the King and said “I hope that I make a difference”.

Despite marrying the King’s younger sibling Prince Edward 26 years ago, she has often been dubbed “The Royal Family’s secret weapon”. Speaking to The Sun on Sunday at the Srebrenica Genocide Memorial this week she laughed off the nickname, saying: “It’s all very well being a secret weapon but if no one knows, maybe it’s too secret.

She then added: “I suppose I should take it as a backhanded compliment. I don’t see myself in a frontline position per se, that said, admittedly there are fewer working members of the family these days so I suppose more and more are becoming less secretive. I just wonder what they are going to describe me as next.”

Sophie became Duchess of Edinburgh after Edward was named Duke on his 59th birthday in March 2023. Asked about losing her former Countess of Wessex title she joked “I quite liked her”.

But speaking about taking on the late Queen’s title, said: “It was quite large shoes to fill. For me it was quite an emotional thing to sort of step into her shoes. It felt like quite a big moment. But of course being practical, my role and my husband’s role is to support the King, as it was to support the Queen, and we are fortunate because we are able to not be in a front and centre role. It allows us the flexibility to explore our own interests and then also be available to do things like this where the King asked if I would represent him here. It so happens it also covering an area of interest personally for me too. But yes, we are there to support and that will continue.”

There have been calls for Sophie to be given more responsibility and The Sun understands there are motives behind palace walls for her to have a greater role after the deaths of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip and the banishment of Prince Andrew, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, which all left a heavier workload for the rest of the family.

[From The Sun]

Now it’s “the banishment” – they still haven’t decided how to describe what happened in the Sussexit – either Harry and Meghan “abandoned” their “duty” or they were forcibly exiled, banished, thrown out, tossed aside. Which is it? As for Sophie… she comes across well here, but I still wonder if this was her way of pointing out that she’s been hard at work for the Crown for years with little attention. She keeps trying to force this “secret weapon” narrative too, she must have been so pleased to be asked about one of her very own talking points! Anyway, good for Sophie for actually working and traveling. A trip to Bosnia to mark a major 30th anniversary of a humanitarian failure… it should have been the heir making the trip. Alas, the heir wanted to fly to Switzerland for football instead.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.