Duchess Sophie's powerful new role unveiled as Palace makes big shift

Duchess Sophie, who marked her 61st birthday on Tuesday, has received a special honour from the royal family as the Duchess of Edinburgh prepares for the next step in her royal duties.

Prince Edward’s wife, who has been dubbed as the secret weapon to King Charles, has taken on some significant roles this year, especially when it came to diplomacy and spotlighting important global issues. Before the exit of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle from their senior positions, the Duhcess was more of an “unsung hero” of the royals.

Now, her powerful position has been brought to the forefront by the royal family itself and it is a major honour bestowed to the royal, royal experts have described.

“I think what’s nice is that she’s gone from being kind of being the unsung heroes of the royal family to one that’s being more sung by the royal family itself,’ journalist Rebecca English said during the Palace Confidential podcast.

“She’s been working kind of largely under the radar for years on some really powerful topics,” she noted. “It’s nice to see that it’s more publicly noticed.”

Rebecca also pointed out that there is a lot more about Sophie and Prince Edward on the royal family’s social media which is a “noticeable shift” in the way they are projecting Sophie as “important” and as a “linchpin” of the royal family moving forward.