Duchess Sophie addresses claims about being King Charles ‘secret weapon’

Sophie, The Duchess of Edinburgh, has been increasingly taking on a prominent role in the royal family ever since the ascension of King Charles.

While Prince Edward’s wife had mostly remained under the radar, her charisma won over the public after she had to fill in for the gap left behind by Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s exit in 2020.

Sophie became even more active after King’s cancer was announced in February 2024 and a month later Kate Middleton revealed her diagnoses.

The grace with which Sophie took on the extra set of duties earned her the title of ‘secret weapon’ for King Charles’s reign. Courtiers and charity bosses hailed Sophie as a dependable figure in the slimmed-down working monarchy.

The Duchess finally addressed her new title for the first time in her latest interview with The Mirror about her poignant visit to Bosnia and Herzegovina to deliver the monarch’s message on the 30th anniversary of the Srebrenica Genocide.

“I like to fly under the radar,” she said of the new public’s accolade. “It’s all very well being a secret weapon but if no one knows, maybe it’s too secret.”

She noted that she would 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 I’m becoming less secretive,” she continued. “I just wonder what they are going to describe me as next.”