Before Harry and Meghan flew off to the States, there was another role couple, with the newly married bride was an actress who did the same but with much less fanfare and less family drama
Harry and Meghan were certainly not the first Royal couple to shoot off to the US, it’s been done before..
Sophie Winkleman, who is often seen alongside other Royal family members and who you may know from shows like Two and a Half Men, Peep Show, Death in Paradise, Trust, This Is Going To Hurt and Sanditon is also a member of the Royal family. Sophie married Lord Frederick Windsor at Hampton Court Palace on September 12, 2009, in front of all the senior royals. After their wedding, the pair relocated to California so that Sophie could continue her acting career even though they have since permanently moved back to the UK, Frederick and Sophie were notably a royal couple that split their time between their lives in the UK and abroad.
Sophie Lara Winkleman was born in Primrose Hill, London on August 5, 1980, to Cindy Black and Barry Winkleman and is the half-sister of Strictly Come Dancing and Traitors host, Claudia Winkleman. Lady Frederick Windsor, as she is officially known, has joined the Royal Family on Buckingham Palace’s balcony many times before and is regularly pictured at national events. She attended the late Queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations and her funeral three months later.
Sophie who is well known for her roles like Big Suze in Peep Show, Zoey in Two and a Half Men and as the elder version of Susan in The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. The actress studied at Cambridge University where she met Prince and Princess Michael of Kent’s son, Lord Frederick Windsor.
The couple married in 2009 and moved over to California shortly after so that Sophie could continue with her career. She has praised her experience of marrying into the Royal Family many times before. In a 2020 interview with The Times , she said: “I’ve been incredibly welcomed with open arms by all of them. I haven’t had a single negative experience. The Queen’s been wonderful, Prince Charles has been wonderful, Prince William’s been heaven. They’d never tell me off at all if I wanted to play some [racy] role. Everyone’s looked after me. Oh God, please don’t make me sound too gushing.”
During their time in the US, the couple welcomed their first daughter, Maud Elizabeth Daphne Marina Windsor, at the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Centre on August 15, 2013. Maud is 54th in line to the throne and is named after her royal ancestors. Her first name is after Queen Maud of Norway who was a daughter of King Edward VII and Elizabeth is in honour of the late Queen. Her other middle name, Daphne, is after Sophie’s beloved grandmother and Marina was the name of Lord Frederick’s grandmother, Princess Marina of Greece and Denmark.
The couple later moved back to the UK and welcomed their second daughter, Isabella Alexandra May Windsor, at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital on January 16, 2016. Sophie and Frederick sent their children to Thomas’s School in Battersea, South West London – the same school where Prince George and Princess Charlotte started their education.
In 2017, Sophie was involved in a car crash in Cambridgeshire she shared her experience in HELLO Magazine: “It’s very strange when something huge happens to your body, you don’t immediately feel the pain. I felt lots of warmth and a strange kind of serenity. I felt like my soul was rising up and seeing everything… Yes, I did expect to die. It was extraordinary.” During the crash, she broke her back and ruptured her abdomen, with the extent of her injuries she hoped she wouldn’t be paralysed. She then spoke about how the Royal Family cared for her, which included King Charles having his chef prepare the family two meals a day for several weeks and Prince William asking a paramedic colleague to ensure she was looked after. Sophie said in the same interview that she was “spoiled to bits by” the Royal family after her accident and spoke with many members of her husband’s family who took great care of her.
