Latest news with #LadyFrederickWindsor
Daily Mail
20-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Sophie Winkleman reveals what marrying into the royal family is really like
Sophie Winkleman has opened up about her relationship with her in-laws - the royal family - and has revealed she adores 'all of them.' Peep Show actress Sophie, 44, married Lord Frederick Windsor - the son of Prince and Princess Michael of Kent - in a lavish ceremony at Hampton Court Palace in September 2009. Her husband's father, 82, is the first cousin of the late Queen Elizabeth II and the first cousin once removed of King Charles III. 'Family isn't always brilliant but this lot are very sweet,' Sophie said when she was asked about her relationship with the royal family on The Daily T podcast. Sophie, who's styled as Lady Frederick Windsor, added: 'I love all of them'. The half-sister of The Traitors presenter Claudia Winkleman, Sophie looked back to her big day, pointing out that many of the royals 'didn't go to the wedding.' While Princess Eugenie and Lady Gabriella Windsor were in attendance, King Charles - who was the Prince of Wales at the time - and Queen Camilla were not present. Sophie explained: 'I've got much more friendly with them as I've got to know them.' At Royal Ascot in 2023, she was pictured sharing a joke with King Charles, who she has since described as a 'very dear friend', and laughing with Queen Camilla. And, in September of last year, she hinted at a close relationship with Kate, describing the Princess of Wales as 'amazingly brave' and as 'beautiful as ever' in the aftermath of her cancer battle. Sophie, who has just finished filming a BBC1 drama called Wild Cherry, also shared amusing details about her wedding with podcast host Camilla Tominey. 'I don't remember a single thing about it,' Sophie admitted. 'Nothing.' Explaining that she hadn't 'thought about the wedding' because she had been preoccupied with a new acting job in Los Angeles and the couple's imminent move to the US, Sophie recalled that her hairstyle was horrible. 'Freddie still gets upset about it,' the actress and Cambridge graduate joked. 'It was just disgusting.' In a previous interview with Tatler, Sophie elaborated: 'I was so determined not to be a bridezilla, I didn't even work out my hairstyle and I cannot tell you how disgusting it looked. 'Coming up the aisle, the first thing I said when I saw Freddie was, 'I'm so sorry about the hair.' He said, 'Yes, what on earth have you done?"' While she 'didn't really mind' that her mother-in-law, non-fiction author Princess Michael of Kent, 80, 'did absolutely everything' for the wedding, Sophie conceded that, had it been left to her, she would have chosen a different dress. 'My mother-in-law chose my dress, which was very sweet and puffy, but I looked barking,' Sophie laughed. 'Now I look back on it and think I should have warn a simpler dress and I should have got my hair blow-dried by someone who had done it before,' she added. Sophie equally opened up about her childhood in Primrose Hill 'when it was still quite shabby' and told how she was 'irritatingly lucky' to have 'two very wonderful parents' to whom she remains 'far too close'. Reflecting on becoming a mother herself, she was self-deprecating, saying that she's 'doing it all - badly'. Sophie shares two daughters, Maud, 11, and Isabella, nine, with husband Frederick. Looking back to when the children were young, she was not embarrassed to admit that 'it was astoundingly knackering.' 'I couldn't believe that no one had told me,' Sophie added. 'I just didn't understand how people had done this for thousands of years.' And, in an admission that will resonate with mothers across the country, she added: 'And, I still am tired. I don't think I've not been tired since they were born and everyone else seems to be fine, so I'm definitely doing something wrong...' Sophie explained that she and her husband don't have someone who looks after Maud and Isabella regularly - just a couple of evenings a week. She added that they can't find 'anyone nice and normal we can afford', a detail which may come as a surprise to fans of the actress and her financier husband. 'Life is chaos, actually,' she told podcast host Camilla. Yet, reflecting on her own young family, Sophie explained that her main concern has to do with her daughters' - and other children's - education, specifically, how it's being derailed by the advent of 'hugely unproven' EdTech in schools. 'I'm beginning to worry that this country just doesn't care about children,' Sophie, who is patron of several children's charities, said. 'I've been banging on about screen damage to children for about three years now - and now there's a spate of very intelligent articles about how screens are ruining adults' cognitive health and suddenly everyone's very interested.' Sophie, who earlier this year spoke publicly about the 'digital destruction of childhood', told the podcast that she was annoyed when her daughters' school gave them iPads without telling her. Offering an insight into her parenting style, she said: 'I'm incredibly lazy in every other way apart from screen use. 'They can do whatever they want. They don't do cello and they don't do Chinese. I don't care. 'They can just do what they like but the screen thing I was quite fanatical about because it was so obvious during lockdown that it was such a terrible way to learn. 'They are completely un-put-down-able - all these devices.' While she acknowledged that 'it's too late' to ban internet-enabled devices for under-16s, Sophie admitted that this kind of radical action was her utopia'. So concerned was Sophie that her daughter Maud would end up glued to a smartphone at 11 when she moved on to secondary school that she tried to get all the parents to agree not to give their offspring the devices. She revealed: 'I had to become that maniac mother who got everyone together before year seven and said, "Can we maybe not do this?" 'And, it was so anti my nature to do that - [to be] the sort of noisy, irritating goose at the school gates.' The mother-of-two's efforts were not wasted as she revealed that there's 'quite a big cohort' in her daughter's year seven form who don't have phones. 'They're not isolated - and that's really helpful,' she added. Beyond the issue of smartphones, Sophie was dismayed by the decline of traditional forms of learning in schools, arguing that being on screens most of the day is stunting children's development. 'It's such a physically unhealthy way to learn - bad for eyesight, bad for their posture, bad for their sleep rhythms,' she said. 'It's even bad for hormones and it's terrible cognitively.' Instead, she advocated the use of paper and pens and encouraged schools to get children to handwrite, adding that it 'implants information so much more profoundly and long-lastingly into the brain than typing does.' The actress argued that kids should be allowed to get bored - rather than being constantly stimulated by endless clips and games on screens - to help them develop their imagination. While the UK's Online Safety Act has so far focused on the harmful material that children are exposed to, she suggested that 'the decimation of children's attention span' is just as serious. She said: 'I think we've gone way too far. I want parents to be confident enough in every kind of school to say [to teachers] "How is this better than a book, paper and pen?"' In another bold suggestion, Sophie added that the 'NHS needs to come on board'. 'I think it needs to be a public health warning. Even 11-17-year-olds shouldn't have more than 1-2 hours of screen time during the day,' she added. Yet, for all her passion, Sophie was not overly confident that changes are on the horizon. Admitting that it's 'very hard' to get other people to listen, she put the onus on those who are being affected every day. 'I think the revolution has to come from all the young people,' she concluded.
Telegraph
16-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
The Daily T: Sophie Winkleman - ‘ I don't think kids should have access to the internet'
In this Daily T exclusive, actress Sophie Winkleman, also known as Lady Frederick Windsor, speaks out about the growing influence of education technology and mobile phones in schools. Winkleman shares her concerns about the long-term impact of screen-based learning on under-16s and makes the case for a return to traditional teaching method in the classroom: real books and pen and paper. She also reflects on the damaging effects mobile phones are having on young people's mental health, attention spans and social development, calling for urgent action for our children's futures.
Yahoo
28-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
‘Impossible' to make smartphones safe for children, Sophie Winkleman warns
Smartphones are 'impossible' to make safe for children and should be banned from schools, a royal family member and actress has said. Sophie Winkleman, styled as Lady Frederick Windsor, warned phones can have physical and emotional 'consequences'. The actress, known for playing Big Suze in Channel 4 comedy Peep Show, has previously leant to her support to a ban on under-16s from having smartphones, and was a supporter of strengthening the Online Safety Act. 'I think the impact of smartphones on children's mental and physical health is so immense and so multi-stranded that it's actually impossible to make them safe,' she said. 'They're designed by geniuses to be unputdownable,' she told an event hosted by the Policy Exchange think tank in Westminster. 'Even if a child is only watching animal videos for three hours, they're still stationary, isolated and passive. 'They're simply consuming content, open vessels for other people's garbage often for hours at a time. 'The physical consequences of this vice like addiction range from eyesight damage, spinal damage, sleep disturbance, hormone disruption, obesity and manifold neurological impairments, which include the decimation of the attention span, giving rise to various ADHD like symptoms. 'The emotional and safeguarding harms are equally multiple.' A survey of more than 15,000 schools in England by the Children's Commissioner suggests that the vast majority already have policies in place that restrict the use of mobile phones during the school day. The Netflix drama Adolescence, which examines so-called incel (involuntary celibate) culture, has fuelled a debate about smartphones in schools in recent weeks. But the Government has so far resisted calls to ban phones in schools. Also speaking at the event, independent MP Rosie Duffield, who resigned from Labour last year, said the Government should be more receptive to findings on the harm caused by smartphones in schools. 'We share evidence, research, ideas and opportunities to engage with the Government and discuss policy,' the former teaching assistant said. 'This has been surprisingly clunky and difficult given the mounting evidence of harm and the growing level of concern from individual parents and groups of parents. 'Children need us to keep up the pressure on the Government that growth from financial deals with tech firms cannot be at the expense of our children. 'More and more parents and groups are coming to talk to me about this issue.' Ms Duffield resigned the Labour whip in September 2024, accusing the Prime Minister of 'hypocrisy' and pursuing 'cruel' policies. Relations between the Canterbury MP and the party leadership had long been strained, particularly over transgender rights.
The Independent
28-04-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
‘Impossible' to make smartphones safe for children, Sophie Winkleman warns
Smartphones are 'impossible' to make safe for children and should be banned from schools, a royal family member and actress has said. Sophie Winkleman, styled as Lady Frederick Windsor, warned phones can have physical and emotional 'consequences'. The actress, known for playing Big Suze in Channel 4 comedy Peep Show, has previously leant to her support to a ban on under-16s from having smartphones, and was a supporter of strengthening the Online Safety Act. 'I think the impact of smartphones on children's mental and physical health is so immense and so multi-stranded that it's actually impossible to make them safe,' she said. 'They're designed by geniuses to be unputdownable,' she told an event hosted by the Policy Exchange think tank in Westminster. 'Even if a child is only watching animal videos for three hours, they're still stationary, isolated and passive. 'They're simply consuming content, open vessels for other people's garbage often for hours at a time. 'The physical consequences of this vice like addiction range from eyesight damage, spinal damage, sleep disturbance, hormone disruption, obesity and manifold neurological impairments, which include the decimation of the attention span, giving rise to various ADHD like symptoms. 'The emotional and safeguarding harms are equally multiple.' A survey of more than 15,000 schools in England by the Children's Commissioner suggests that the vast majority already have policies in place that restrict the use of mobile phones during the school day. The Netflix drama Adolescence, which examines so-called incel (involuntary celibate) culture, has fuelled a debate about smartphones in schools in recent weeks. But the Government has so far resisted calls to ban phones in schools. Also speaking at the event, independent MP Rosie Duffield, who resigned from Labour last year, said the Government should be more receptive to findings on the harm caused by smartphones in schools. 'We share evidence, research, ideas and opportunities to engage with the Government and discuss policy,' the former teaching assistant said. 'This has been surprisingly clunky and difficult given the mounting evidence of harm and the growing level of concern from individual parents and groups of parents. 'Children need us to keep up the pressure on the Government that growth from financial deals with tech firms cannot be at the expense of our children. 'More and more parents and groups are coming to talk to me about this issue.' Ms Duffield resigned the Labour whip in September 2024, accusing the Prime Minister of 'hypocrisy' and pursuing 'cruel' policies. Relations between the Canterbury MP and the party leadership had long been strained, particularly over transgender rights.
The Independent
17-02-2025
- Entertainment
- The Independent
Sophie Winkleman calls for AI to be kept out of classrooms
Artificial intelligence should be kept out of classrooms, a royal family member and actor has said. Sophie Winkleman, styled as Lady Frederick Windsor, also suggested schools should bring back blackboards and chalk instead of relying on smartboards as she spoke at a centre-right political gathering in east London. The actress, known for playing Big Suze in Channel 4 comedy Peep Show, has previously leant to her support to a ban on under-16s from having smartphones, and was a supporter of strengthening the Online Safety Act. She told the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship (ARC) conference at London's Excel Centre that there is talk of 'AI being pumped into our classrooms with children's data being harvested to better improve the AI'. 'Why?' she asked, adding: 'The fact that AI will soon outperform humans in many areas means schools should be backing away from the neurological junk food of digital learning, alert to the fact that it's counterproductive to learn anyway from an instantly ageing system, and teaching their pupils the deeply human skills, which AI will have a harder time replacing.' She listed 'empathy, concentration, eloquent and humorous discussion, and creative expression' among the skills AI could not teach. The actor continued to question the use of AI in schools, adding: 'Why is digitally transporting a child to the Egyptian pyramids better than that child imagining it? 'This kind of jazz-hands immersion as an engagement tool doesn't work. 'It negates the need to imagine, rendering the pupil a passive rather than an active learner.' Elsewhere, as she criticised the rollout of educational technology, Winkleman said there was 'no consensus' that interactive smartboards, used across in classrooms across the country, are 'safe'. As she signalled she wanted to see a return to analogue learning, she said smartboards are 'simply not as effective as a teacher writing out what is in that second being explained on the black and whiteboard'. 'Yet we seem to be marching into a world where screens are replacing books,' she added.
