‘Harry and Meghan might take note’: How Prince Edward and Sophie bounced back

Prince Edward and Sophie’s ‘promotion’ to Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh should be a lesson to Meghan and Harry about how ‘knuckling down’ can repair royal reputations, experts told MailOnline today.

The King has handed his late father’s title to his youngest brother on his 59th birthday – honouring the late Queen and Philip’s wishes.

Edward will continue his father’s work while his wife is also front-and-centre as one of a reduced number of working royals, as King Charles begins to slim down the monarchy.

The couple had a series of scrapes after they married that saw Sophie boasting to the News of the World’s ‘Fake Sheik’ about her PR firm’s royal connections. Edward’s film company, Ardent, then made attempts to get around a ban on filming his nephew, Prince William, at university in St Andrews. There was also his disastrous appearance on It’s a Knockout at Alton Towers in June 1987.

Both were lambasted for trying to cash in on royal links. But unlike the Sussexes, Sophie and Edward wound down their businesses and dug in to royals duties, rebuilding their reputations within the Royal Family. 

Royal commentator Richard Fitzwilliams told MailOnline: ‘This rewards hard work and dedication to royal duty. Since they have decided that their children should have the option of titles, Harry and Meghan might take note that, in the face of initial adversity when they too had problems and bad press, Edward and Sophie have done remarkable service to the Royal Family. They deserve this reward.’ 

The elevation to William and Kate’s second in command shows how far Edward and Sophie have come. Sophie has also become something of a confidante for the new Princess of Wales, who admires the way the new Duchess of Edinburgh balances royal duties with motherhood. 

The Sussexes have been urged to follow their example and dedicate themselves to royal duties rather than cashing in

Experts have said the couple were the Harry and Meghan of their day – before making the decision to give up their business activities and opt to concentrate on royal duties.

Royal author Phil Dampier told MailOnline: ‘Edward and Sophie both had their problems in the past but they have shown how to react by knuckling down and getting on with their roles without fanfare.

‘By contrast to Harry and Meghan the pair have been supportive to their family and institution of monarchy and now they are getting their reward. 

‘Sophie became a favourite of the late Queen and the King has seen how his brother and wife are a safe pair of hands.

‘With a slimmed down monarchy they have an important role to play and the conferring of the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh titles confirms their status. It’s the perfect birthday present for Edward and Sophie also deserves her title.

‘By contrast to Harry and Meghan the pair have been supportive to their family and institution of monarchy and now they are getting their reward’. 

Charles was reported to be reluctant to hand the dukedom over to Edward when he became king. He is known to be in favour of a slimmed-down monarchy.

Edward appeared to be aware of the uncertainty, hinting in a TV interview in the aftermath of Philip’s death: ‘It was sort of a pipe dream of my father’s… and of course it will depend on whether or not the Prince of Wales, when he becomes king, whether he’ll do that.’

Prince Edward attending the Windsor Horse Show on May 16, 1982. As a young man Edward gained a reputation as an unlikely heartthrob – but would later make a number of business blunders that would hurt the royals

Sophie in 1993 (left) and in a feathered frock in 2013 (right)

Edward and wife Sophie (pictured on Christmas Day with their children Lady Louise Windsor and James Viscount Severn in 2018) now focus on their royal duties which involves a variety of patronages

Sophie, pictured yesterday visited the Countryside Education Trust, has long been viewed as a safe pair of hands in the royal family 

Philip’s desire for Edward to have the title was in recognition of his son’s decades-long commitment to the Duke of Edinburgh Award, the youth scheme which is one of Philip’s greatest legacies.

Edward dropped out of the commando course having completed one-third of the 12-month training.

The late Queen Elizabeth II held the courtesy title of Duchess of Edinburgh following her marriage, as did the Queen Consort when Charles inherited the title. Today those titles went to Edward and Sophie.

The changes were swiftly updated on the royal family’s website on Friday morning, just minutes after the official announcement.

Archie and Lili became a prince and a princess six months ago but the changes were only made on the list of succession page this week after the Sussexes used Lili’s new formal title for the first time.    

Today shows how far they have both come after the shakiest of starts.

After dropping out of the Royal Marines, Prince Edward pursued a career in the entertainment world. He commissioned the 1986 musical Cricket from Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice for his mother’s 60th birthday – and managed to land himself a job at Lloyd Webber’s Really Useful Theatre Company while he was at it.

There he worked as a production assistant on musicals including The Phantom of the Opera, Starlight Express, and Cats. He said in 1987: ‘I love the razzmatazz of show business. It’s a wonderful world of fantasy and make-believe.’

His first foray into television was with the one-off game show The Grand Knockout Tournament – informally known as It’s a Royal Knockout – staged at Alton Towers in June 1987.

Distinguished royal historian Ben Pimlott described it in his biography of the monarch as ‘excruciating’ and a ‘critical moment in the altering image of British Royalty’ because it ‘made the public stunningly aware that a sense of decorum was not an automatic quality in the Royal Family’. 

Edward was said to have flounced out of the press conference afterwards when reporters failed to express sufficient appreciation of his efforts. 

In 1993 Prince Edward launched Ardent Productions, in which he personally invested £205,000.

It floundered in its first year, failing to win a single commission, but in July 1995 there was a breakthrough, with Channel 4 agreeing to let the Earl front a short series on the niche game of real tennis – an indoor pursuit, played with wooden racquets.

It’s a Royal Knockout – the brainchild of Prince Edward – was four teams of celebrities, each with a non-participating royal clad in pantomime costume at the helm – Edward, Princess Anne, Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson (pictured). It was panned

Prince Edward pictured at the London launch of Channel 4’s Real Tennis TV series, which aired on June 17, 1995

Ardent’s big break came in 1996 with Edward on Edward, a documentary fronted by the prince about Edward VIII, his abdication in 1938 and his subsequent controversial life.

In 1998, at which point Edward was paying himself a salary of £119,000, Ardent moved its glamorous premises in Central London to Edward’s Bagshot Park residence.

It all went horribly wrong for Edward in 2001 when, while making the series Royalty from A to Z for the US market, a two-man camera crew from the company filmed Prince William, Edward’s nephew, at the University of St Andrews (pictured at his graduation ceremony in 2005)

In 2001 it declared a profit of just £30,000 – which was after Edward waived the usual £50,000 yearly rent for its office space in the Bagshot Park stables.

It all went horribly wrong in 2001 when, while making the series Royalty from A to Z for the US market, a two-man camera crew from the company filmed Prince William, Edward’s nephew, at the University of St Andrews.

The move violated a press agreement concerning William’s privacy. Despite an apologetic statement from Ardent claiming the filming took place without Edward’s knowledge, the Earl stepped down as joint managing editor and halted his involvement in March 2002. 

Like the Sussexes, they insisted on trying to break the mould and forge lucrative commercial careers – she in PR and he in TV production – in tandem with their royal duties.

But then Sophie was sensationally caught up in a humiliating ‘sting’ operation engineered by the News of the World after talking with a ‘Fake Sheik’ posing as a potential client. Her taped indiscretions about senior politicians were highly embarrassing.

Since then she has turned it around. 

The Countess is now the second hardest working female royal after Anne, and has won plaudits for her choice of work on preventable blindness and the issue of sexual violence in war.

One senior Whitehall source said recently that her championing of the cause has been ‘invaluable’.

Sophie’s image, too, has changed over the years. The ill-fitting suits from the High Street she favoured as a young PR executive were long ago dispensed with. In the past decade she has stepped up her game in the fashion stakes.

Sophie and Kate, pictured as coffin of Queen Elizabeth arrived in Westminster Hall to lie in state, are said to be very close

She has enlisted the help of stylist Pandora Delevingne (mother of model and actress Cara) and now favours collections by Suzannah London and Emilia Wickstead to flatter her physique and English rose complexion.

‘She fell into her role so brilliantly and has been dedicated to doing everything right,’ long-term friend, Penny Mountbatten, ex-wife of the Queen’s cousin Lord Ivar Mountbatten, said.

Edward and wife Sophie now focus on their royal duties which involves a variety of patronages.

Sophie is devoted to and fiercely protective of her children, having endured serious medical complications during the birth of Louise and an ectopic pregnancy.

‘She went through a lot to have her family and she and Edward have never relied on nannies. They have always had a rule that, when working, one of them is at home with the children as far as possible,’ Penny Mountbatten says.

And because the Queen lived close by, she got to spend a great deal of time with Louise and James when they were growing up, often watching Mr Tumble on CBeebies when they were little.

Former England cricket captain Sir Andrew Strauss has got to know Sophie on the school run having met through their sons.

Royal sources told the Mail that Sophie has also become something of a confidante for the new Princess of Wales, who sees that Sophie admires the way in which she is balancing royal duties with motherhood. And Sophie has William’s seal of approval, too.