Sophie, the Duchess of Edinburgh, attended all of this past weekend’s Remembrance events. She stood on the Whitehall balcony overlooking the Cenotaph, and she and her husband attended the Festival of Remembrance. All of which is more than the heir did. Well, as it turns out, Sophie jetted off to South America and Central America soon after Remembrance Sunday. She’s going on a nine-day tour of multiple countries.
The Duchess of Edinburgh has begun a nine-day visit to South and Central America, Buckingham Palace announced on Monday. During the solo trip, Sophie, 60, is expected to visit Peru, Panama and Guatemala at the request of the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office from Monday 10 November to Wednesday 19 November. She will also visit Belize, as part of the royal family’s engagement with the Realms.
In Peru, the Duchess will visit the Amazon rainforest where she will meet Indigenous leaders, including women who are sustaining their communities through environmental and economic activities. As Global Ambassador for The International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness, Sophie will visit Divino Niño vision centre, to hear about the clinic’s services in treating glaucoma and pterygium.
The royal mother-of-two took up the ambassador role following her personal experience with her daughter Lady Louise Windsor’s rare eye condition. Lady Louise, now 22, was born with a rare eye condition called esotropia, which caused one eye to turn inwards. She underwent two surgical procedures to correct her sight as a child.
In Panama, the Duchess will visit Panama and meet senior members of the Government, recognising its collaboration with the UK on global challenges, including conflict-related sexual violence. And in Guatemala, she will witness civil society’s support for survivors of human trafficking and sexual violence and visit a charity supporting vulnerable young people.
I’m sure all of this came directly from a palace memo, and this will probably be the only attention the nine-day trip gets in the British press. I’m always amazed by how much Edward and Sophie travel internationally on behalf of the crown, and how little attention they get for anything they do. As of this moment, there are no photos of the first days of Sophie’s trip, and I would assume she’s not traveling with any royal rota photographers or reporters. I’ve asked this before regarding this couple, but if a royal goes on a tour and no one sees it, what’s the point? I’m sure the royalists would argue that the point of all of this is that Sophie isn’t desperate for attention, she’s just putting down her head and getting to work. But… the whole point of these tours and trips is to highlight causes and charities and engage in soft diplomacy. Soft diplomacy only works if someone sees it, if the royal is bringing something to the table other than a grim expression.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
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- WINDSOR, ENGLAND – JULY 08: Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh and Prince Edward, Duke of Edinburgh attend the State Banquet at Windsor Castle on July 08, 2025 in Windsor, England. President Emmanuel Macron and Mrs Brigitte Macron visit the UK in the first visit State Visit made by France in 17 years. They are staying at Windsor Castle, hosted by King Charles III and Queen Camilla, and a banquet will be held there in their honour. The Macrons will visit Imperial College, and the President will address Parliament during his stay.,Image: 1019897499, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: *** NO UK USE FOR 48 HRS ***, Model Release: no, Credit line: Chris Jackson/Avalon
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- The Duchess of Edinburgh (left) leaves Westminster Cathedral, central London, following the Requiem Mass service for the Duchess of Kent. Picture date: Tuesday September 16, 2025. This is the first Catholic funeral service held for a member of the royal family in modern British history. Katharine, the wife of the late Queen’s cousin the Duke of Kent, converted to Catholicism in 1994.,Image: 1037862790, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: *** NO UK USE FOR 48 HRS ***, Model Release: no, Credit line: Aaron Chown/Avalon
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- London, UK, 16th Sep 2025. Princess Catherine, Sophie Princess of Edinburgh. HRH King Charles III, The Prince and Princess of Wales Prince William and Princess Catherine, Anne the Princess Royal, Prince Andrew The Duke and Duchess of York, Prince Michael of Kent and other senior members of the Royal Family all pay their last respects as the coffin is carried to the hearse. They then depart from Westminster Cathedral after the a requiem mass, a Catholic funeral service held for the Duchess of Kent, who passed away on 4 Sep.,Image: 1037888840, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: Imageplotter/Avalon
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- Britain’s Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh arrives at the Royal Albert Hall for the Royal British Legion Festival of Remembrance, an annual event honouring military service members, which holds special significance in 2025 as it marks the 80th anniversary of the end of World War Two, at the Royal Albert Hall in London, Britain, November 8, 2025.,Image: 1051236333, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: *** NO UK USE FOR 48 HRS ***, Model Release: no, Credit line: Jack Taylor/Avalon
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- Britain’s Prince Edward, Duke of Edinburgh, and Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh, stand during the Royal British Legion Festival of Remembrance, an annual event honouring military service members, which holds special significance in 2025 as it marks the 80th anniversary of the end of World War Two, at the Royal Albert Hall in London, Britain, November 8, 2025.,Image: 1051236564, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: *** NO UK USE FOR 48 HRS ***, Model Release: no, Credit line: Jack Taylor/Avalon
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- Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh and Duke of Kent during the National Service of Remembrance at the Cenotaph, London, UK, 09 November 2025.,Image: 1051602339, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: Restrictions: Camera Press Rota *** NO UK USE FOR 48 HRS ***, *** NO UK USE FOR 48 HRS ***, Model Release: no, Credit line: Joanne Davidson/Avalon
The fact that no attention is given is probably intentional because nefarious things are going down. In the 80s wasn’t Charles involved in some of the arms deals the UK made in the Middle East? For the quieter royals I think a “tour” is just the excuse used and these visits are really about the deals being brokered in the back room and they don’t want to bring attention to that.
Had a similar thought.
They’ve tried so hard to make her Diana 2 to no avail. Some people have exceptional charisma. She doesn’t.
“In Panama, the Duchess will visit Panama”
Is something wrong with Edward? I feel like he does half the engagements that Sophie does.
he actually does a fair amount if you look at the court circular. No charles or Anne level numbers, but he’s out there pretty regularly. he does the Anne trick of 3-5 events a day for a few weeks and then takes a few weeks off. He also travels a lot for the crown.
For example on Monday he held a meeting for the DoE awards and then Monday night hosted a dinner at windsor castle.
But never with Sophie, right? There are rumors of a lavender marriage.
Um, sometimes he does. It depends. usually when they’re in London/windsor they do separate events, and then in scotland in the summer they do more joint events. Whatever the actual status of their marriage, they seem to get along fine (they dont give off Wales vibes.)
Alright, I’ll say it: “Sophie who?”
Truly, it’s embarrassing how little anyone cares what she does.
The most attention she ever got was when she accompanied William to some evening event, instead of Kate.
I’ve commented here a number of times that I work in the field of CRSV and often see Sophie at international events. The lack of coverage of the incredibly serious work she does is to me a reflection of the fact that the Royal Rota are not real journalists and are simply glorified gossips. They are profoundly unserious and to be honest would do a terrible job covering Sophie’s work with survivors of sexual violence. I think it is really unfortunate that serious journalists, like the Guardian or BBC, do not cover the work she does.
But more importantly, it’s unfortunate there’s no reporting on the fact that she is doing this in support of the Foreign Office’s Preventing Sexual Violence Initiative, which is one of the only government foreign policy offices explicitely dedicated to conflict-related sexual violence (almost all other countries either have only a stand alone advisor, or have this folded into either gender or feminist foreign policy portfolios).
As a non-Brit, I would like to tell any Brit readers- thank you. Your government is not perfect, none are, but you should be very proud of the UK’s international leadership on an issue that is too often sidelined if not ignored completely by most governments. PSVI, and Sophie’s tireless work as an ambassador for the Foreign Office on this issue, is truly making a difference in the world. I wish more British people knew about it so that they could make their voices heard about continued government support, which is now more than ever a major issue for conflict-related sexual violence. When people don’t know the extraordinary good their tax dollars do, they are not able to defend it and may not even know it is under attack…lessons of USAID here…
@LadyE, thank you for this perspective. I made a flippant comment about Sophie above, but you’re too right about the ROTA, and I learned a lot from the rest of your post.
Ah no worries, this is a gossip site, after all!
This isn’t some general defence of Sophie, I don’t know her in that sense at all. I just have a very specific awareness of one particular aspect of her public work. In that specific context, I have a lot of respect for Sophie.
I don’t want to overstate my involvement, these are sort of general observations from being in the same environment as her, I don’t interact with her personally or anything like that. But, I will say two things. One is that there are MANY famous/important people who are sort of around international humanitarian work generally. Some of them are frankly a pain to deal with-or their “people” are a pain. Sophie is not like that or at least I have never, not once, heard any chatter about special demands or the usual “hierarchy” issues that come with these kind of people and public events. Not once. Doesn’t mean it hasn’t happened, but I think that says something positive. Second, is that it’s really hard for people, especially famous people, to know how to interact with survivors of atrocity crimes, particularly sexual-based crimes. It can be overwhelming and can easily become way too emotionally charged or kind of devolve into a very unintentional but real patronizing exchange where the survivor is viewed as an object of pity because of the genuinely horrible things that happened. Sophie’s manner of interaction with survivors has always struck me as very gentle, but not pitying at all, and with a quiet but clear message of dignity and respect for what survivors are sharing with her. Again, just my own general observation, but it’s something I respect a lot because having these kind of conversations is really weighty and difficult and she does it, to her credit.
Too bad she was a beotch to Meghan. I remember the death stares she was giving her during the Queen’s funeral. She’s as bad as Kate. Both of them jealous of Meghan. F her and nobody cares about Ford Fiesta. Too bad they sent her to front some serious issues. We all know the RF don’t care a crap about women. They are harboring a man involved in using trafficked women and associated with a man who went to prison for it. That phony family was responsible for tearing down a women who in her short time in the RF did things that really helped women. Everything they do is performative to keep the plebs at bay.
I’m pretty sure part of the reason Sophie’s work isn’t highlighted much is because it would lead to more questions about W&K not working and especially not traveling at the Foreign Offices request. William should be doing at least 2 similar trips a year
Yep, I agree with you, though I also think that the laziness of the Rota is also a part of it. It’s not just W&K, the Rota are also lazy people who can’t be bothered to do any serious reporting on anything of substance!
Thank you for this additional information.
Sophie’s work in this area has been ongoing for years and we can debate how effective her work specifically is, but she is doing more than showing up for photo ops in a new designer dress. She travels a lot all over the world for this and meanwhile Kate refuses to leave the UK because people were mean to her 3.5 years ago on a foreign tour.
How ironic, being that she too, was part of covering Andrew’s sexual crimes.
@Ladye —
Thank you for the work that you do!
I’m glad to hear that what you know of Sophie in this context is good.
I wish she would take that experience home, and speak out about the victims of the sexual predator in her own family.
There will be attention (I assume) in the local media. That being said, The Willie was in South America already. Why not have him undertake this tour? Climate change, and all…..
I’ve seen photos of Sophie on the royal fashion blog UFO No More. It’s interesting that Sophie was not wearing a poppy in Perú and there’s absolutely no outrage from the royalists. Kaiser brings up a good point about the lack of attention and soft diplomacy. The press likes to tout the Royal Family’s soft diplomacy but it’s useless if no one knows Sophie or that she’s on a royal tour.
She jumped on the Windsor bandwagon. Sophiesta believed that of she piled the shade and disrespect on Meghan, she would be globally loved and adored.
She was wrong.
Charles, and after him, William, holds the purse strings, the only income Sophie and Edward have. They learned after their short stint as Hollywood Producers and crawling back broke and desperate, to toe the line. When William and Kate make it clear that they hate Meghan, Sophie follows suit. She wouldn’t do anything to anger William or Kate.
She also very likely was jealous of Meghan and the public attention she got. Jealousy she had in common with the Wails. She could be bitchy knowing she will be backed by the Palace.
And they bring a picture of themself don’t forget that is what they bring.
Do you remember when Meghan visited that centre and wrote affirmations on bananas for sex workers and the royals and the royal rota and nearly every prude in the entire damn country lost their minds and proclaimed how UNROYAL it was that attention was being called to sexual matters, sex work, exploitation, etc.? They said it was tasteless and yes, “tacky” (the new favourite word to hurl at the Sussexes these days), etc., etc.
And then the same royal reporters and “experts” began building up Camilla’s profile as someone who is extremely concerned about and working with victims of sexual violence and all of a sudden they began reporting that Sophie, too, was concerned about sexual exploitation and violence? I do.
First they criticise and slander and then they jump on the bandwagon. It’s admirable to shine a light on the victims and to work with them and on related issues, but I have never got the impression that it began from a place of sincerity. Neither woman stuck up for Meghan or even mentioned how important it was that she had drawn attention to that centre and the work that they do. I bet both women thought that they would be getting far more (international) coverage for their involvement with these “unroyal” matters than they do.
I wish they would stop with the “esotropia is a rare illness” schtick. It’s not rare. My daughter had it and has it and surgery is not a necessity. I wonder if they opted for surgery just because they didn’t want the nonsurgical option, a little girl wearing bifocals and patches from a young age because it’s not pretty. That said, in pictures of Louise from Liz’s funeral, her eye is turning in again.