Sophie & Edward A right royal LOVE STORY

AFTER 22 YEARS OF MARRIAGE, THE QUIET ACHIEVERS HAVE BECOME SOME OF THE FIRM’S MOST VALUABLE ASSETS

- Kylie Walters

Adultery, scandal and divorce have been common among the marriages of Queen Elizabeth’s children, but the monarch’s youngest son, Prince Edward, has managed to buck the trend. On June 19, the Earl and Countess of Wessex, will celebrate 22 years of wedded bliss and, surprisingly, they’ve managed to rarely put a foot wrong.

While the pair started as reluctant royals – Sophie, 56, and Edward, 57, tried to run their own companies for several years – they have now embraced their duties and have become some of the Queen’s biggest supporters during her darkest days. Here, WHO looks back on the couple’s magical love story and how they’ve become a much-needed stable influence for the Windsors.

LOVE MATCH

Sparks ignited for the prince when he met then-28-year-old commoner Sophie Rhys-Jones in 1993. Edward had hired the PR consultant to promote a charity tennis event he was organising.

Romance blossomed and the pair started using secret codenames – Edward went by “Richard” – to arrange dates. When news of their relationship did get out, the Queen, 95, took the unprecedented step of allowing Sophie to stay overnight in the royal apartments at Buckingham Palace. It took Edward six years to propose. Having seen the marriages of his older siblings Prince Charles, 72, Princess Anne, 70, and Prince Andrew, 61, fall apart, it “made [Edward] more determined to put caution before commitment”, wrote royal biographer Ingrid Seward.