One member of the royal family is speaking out in the wake of Prince Harry and Meghan Marklestepping down as senior members on March 31. In a new interview with The Sunday Times, Sophie, the Countess of Wessex, and the wife of Charles' brother, Prince Edward, discusses the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.
Apart from Queen Elizabeth II's official statements, the royals have remained relatively quiet in regards to Harry, the youngest son of Prince Charles and the late Princess Diana, and his wife, Meghan's, public struggle within the royal family.
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Sophie, 55, came from a middle class family and worked for a PR firm before she wed Prince Edward. Similar to Meghan, Sophie struggled with the critical British press and even had topless photos published shortly before her 1999 wedding.
“We all try to help any new member of the family,” Sophie tells The Times.
Sophie has been seen chatting with Meghan on numerous public occasions, most noticeably at Harry and Meghan's last royal engagement on Commonwealth Day back in March, where the two couples sat next to each other at Westminster Abbey.
“I just hope they will be happy,” Sophie says of the young family.
Despite her sympathy toward Meghan, Sophie noted that her situation was different from the couple's whirlwind romance that lasted less than two years before they were headed down the aisle.
“Remember I’d had five years to adjust, and for our six-month engagement I was even staying in Buckingham Palace," she says. "Not that you necessarily know how it will pan out.”
Harry and Meghan stepped down as senior royals on March 31. They have since relocated to Los Angeles with their 1-year-old son, Archie. They have publicly struggled with the press and are currently in the middle of a court case with Associated Newspapers after The Mail on Sunday published Meghan's handwritten letter to her estranged father, Thomas Markle.
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