Latest news with #SophieWinkleman
New York Post
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- New York Post
Royal bride reveals the most ‘disgusting' part about her wedding, says husband ‘still gets upset about it'
'Disgusting.' That's not a word you hear too often when it comes to the royal family unless it's some anonymous Windsor source huffing down a Bakelite phone about Prince Harry and Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex's latest home shopping network juicer side-hustle. Advertisement That or someone has left oat milk in the palace fridge again. But not today with a royal bride having come out and given a shockingly (and wonderfully) candid interview, revealing she didn't pick out her own wedding dress, knew very few people at the reception, and even admitted that there was one detail she found 'disgusting.' 6 This week, Sophie Winkleman, who is also Lady Frederick Windsor, has given a new interview and admitted some wonderfully indiscreet details about her own royal wedding. WireImage Everyone says a polite hello to Sophie Winkleman, who is also Lady Frederick Windsor, and while she might not be a household name in Australia, she is very much in the royal bosom. Advertisement Back before it was restricted to working members of the royal maily, she used to be able to be spotted the Buckingham Palace balcony, and these days you are likely to spy her having a jolly old time of it with 'dear friend' King Charles in the royal box at Ascot or doing her bit to support Kate, The Princess of Wales' annual Christmas concert. Extra points if you knew her daughter, Maud Windsor, used to be in the same London class as Prince George and was a bridesmaid at Princess Eugenie's wedding. 6 Lord Freddie Windsor poses with his bride Sophie Winkleman in the Base Court, after their wedding in the Chapel Royal at Hampton Court Palace on September 12, 2009, in Richmond upon Thames, England. PA Images via Getty Images Specifically, Sophie is married to Lord Frederick Windsor, the son of Prince and Princess Michael of Kent and the King's second cousin, and while Freddie is so far down the line of succession you have to squint at number 54, but still, the couple are very much in the titled thick of it. Advertisement (Lord Frederick was 17th in line when he was born.) This week, Sophie, who also happens to be a working actress, has given a new interview and admitted some wonderfully indiscreet details about her own royal wedding. The year was 2009, long before the Windsors would 'welcome' another TV gal into their midst, and with Prince William yet to pop the question to long-time squeeze Kate Middleton, what the UK needed was a royal wedding. Advertisement A guest list was assembled about the length of an abridged copy of Burke & Peerage, Hampton Court Palace was rightfully booked for the affair, and various HRHs were assembled (Princess Eugenie, the Duke and Duchess of Kent). However, now Sophie has admitted that there was a part of the day she found 'disgusting.' Speaking to the Telegraph this week, she said: 'It was such a blur because we had to move to Los Angeles the day after and I had to start a brand new job the day after that…I'd been so concentrating on the work that I hadn't thought about the wedding.' Enter unto the breach her future mother-in-law and longtime Buckingham Palace balcony stalwart Princess Michael of Kent, who 'sort of took it all over,' said Sophie. 'I actually didn't mind at all. I thought, 'Great, do everything''. The end result, based on photos, is of a frou-frou-y affair that even diehard Cinderella-stans might have considered OTT; 'fairytale' was never going to be used as an adjective. In the cold light of 2025, Sophie does not sound exactly enamoured of all that bugle-beaded 'everything'. 'My hair was so disgusting, and Freddy still gets upset about it. It was just disgusting. And my mother-in-law chose my dress, which was very sweet and puffy, but I looked barking,' she told the Telegraph. Advertisement 6 'My hair was so disgusting, and Freddy still gets upset about it. It was just disgusting. And my mother-in-law chose my dress, which was very sweet and puffy, but I looked barking,' she said. Getty Images 'I look back on it and think I should have worn a simpler dress, and I should have got my hair blow-dried by someone who'd done it before'. This is not the first time that deliciously unfiltered Sophie has pulled back the curtain on her Windsor nuptials and what goes into planning a royal hitchin.' 'I didn't know anyone at my wedding. I had my best pals there, but basically it was full of faces I'd never seen before,' she told Tatler in December last year. Advertisement During that same interview, she enthused about Princess Michael having 'brilliantly' 'taken full personal charge' of the 400-person event and said, '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?'' Advertisement While the Sussexes have hardly been tight-lipped about what a rough trot Meghan had joining Crown Inc., Sophie has only ever raved about her extended in-laws. She told Tatler last year: 'Behind the camera, they're really fun, clever, kind people…I love Catherine and William, but they're so busy and don't live in London, so I don't see them much.' Meanwhile, Charles 'is a very dear friend.' 'I spend a bit of time with him,' she told the Times in 2020. Advertisement 'You see how he works all day long, has a quick supper, and then disappears until about 4 am to write letters. 6 Frederick Windsor and Sophie Winkleman arrive for the Lord Mayor's reception for the National Service of Thanksgiving at The Guildhall on June 03, 2022, in London, England. Getty Images 'He cares about so many things, and he comes up with brilliant solutions. 'I've been incredibly welcomed with open arms by all of them. I haven't had a single negative experience. 'They'd never tell me off at all if I wanted to play some [racy] role. Everyone's looked after me.' And she means that quite literally. 6 Lady Sophie Windsor, Queen Camilla, King Charles III, and Lord Frederick Windsor watch the racing from the Royal Box as they attend day 5 of Royal Ascot 2023 at Ascot Racecourse on June 24, 2023, in Ascot, England. Getty Images The late Queen and Charles both offered practical support after Sophie broke her back in a 2017 car crash, as she thought she was 'a goner.' After the accident, Charles (then the Prince of Wales) tasked his Clarence House cook to provide Freddie and Sophie's family with twice-a-day meals, 'for weeks on end . . . It was life-saving.' Then, during her recuperation, Queen Elizabeth suggested a solution to help her manage the pain of rehab. Keep up with today's most important news Stay up on the very latest with Evening Update. Thanks for signing up! Enter your email address Please provide a valid email address. By clicking above you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Never miss a story. Check out more newsletters As Sophie told Tatler: 'She said, 'We can't have that. You have to go in the water.' She told us that when horses had broken backs, they swam, and so she let me use her pool at Buckingham Palace. 'That's the reason I got better. It was so typically thoughtful.' Blimey. The Palace pool. 'Disgusting' hair. Looking 'barking.' 6 Lord Frederick Windsor and Sophie Windsor, with Maud Windsor and Isabella Windsor, attend the 'Together At Christmas' Carol Service at Westminster Abbey on December 6, 2024, in London, England. Samir Hussein/WireImage It would be remiss of me here not to play a quick game of Sussex Subbing. What if all of this had come out of Meghan's mouth instead? Imagine a lit match going off in a fireworks factory built on top of an oil refinery. Kablooey. There is a lesson in all of this for any Cinderella-ish aspirants. Don't overlook the very clear benefits to being wed to No. 54 rather than anyone in the single digits, of marrying far farther down the royal rung. Just think, all the invitations to Ascot and Westminster Abbey, none of the wing-clipping self-sacrifices of senior royaldom, and the occasional chance to do a lap in the palace pool.
News.com.au
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- News.com.au
Lady Frederick Windsor spills ‘disgusting' detail about her royal wedding
'Disgusting'. That's not a word you hear too often when it comes to the royal family unless it's some anonymous Windsor source huffing down a Bakelite phone about Prince Harry and Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex's latest home shopping network juicer side-hustle. That or someone has left oat milk in the palace fridge again. But not today with a royal bride having come out and given a shockingly (and wonderfully) candid interview, revealing she didn't pick out her own wedding dress, knew very few people at the reception and even admitting that there was one detail she found 'disgusting'. Everyone say a polite hello to Sophie Winkleman who is also Lady Frederick Windsor and while she might not be a household name in Australia, she is very much between the royal bosom. Back before it was restricted to working members of the royal maily, she used to be able to be spotted the Buckingham Palace balcony, and these days you are likely to spy her having a jolly old time of it with 'dear friend' King Charles in the royal box at Ascot or doing her bit to support Kate, The Princess of Wales' annual Christmas concert. Extra points if you knew her daughter Maud Windsor used to be in the same London class as Prince George and was a bridesmaid at Princess Eugenie's wedding. Specifically, Sophie is married to Lord Frederick Windsor, the son of Prince and Princess Micahel of Kent and the King's second cousin, and while Freddie is so far down the line of succession you have to squint at number 54 but still, the couple are very much in the titled thick of it. (Lord Frederick was 17th in line when he was born.) This week Sophie, who also happens to be a working actress, has given a new interview and admitted some wonderfully indiscrete details about her own royal wedding. The year was 2009, long before the les Windosrs would 'welcome' another TV gal into their midst, and with Prince William yet to pop the question to long time squeeze Kate Middleton, what the UK needed was a royal wedding. A guest list was assembled about the length of an abridged copy of Burke & Peerage, Hampton Court Palace was rightfully booked for the affair and various HRHs were assembled (Princess Eugenie, the Duke and Duchess of Kent). However now Sophie has admitted that there was a part of the day she found 'disgusting'. Speaking to the Telegraph this week she said: 'It was such a blur because we had to move to Los Angeles the day after and I had to start a brand new job the day after that…I'd been so concentrating on the work that I hadn't thought about the wedding.' Enter unto the breach her future mother-in-law and longtime Buckingham Palace balcony stalwart Princess Michael of Kent who 'sort of took it all over,' said Sophie. 'I actually didn't mind at all. I thought, 'Great, do everything''. The end result, based on photos, is of a frou-frou-y affair that even diehard Cinderella-stans might have considered OTT; 'fairytale' was never going to be used as an adjective. In the cold light of 2025, Sophie does not sound exactly enamoured of all that bugle-beaded 'everything'. 'My hair was so disgusting and Freddy still gets upset about it. It was just disgusting. And my mother-in-law chose my dress, which was very sweet and puffy, but I looked barking,' she told the Telegraph. 'I look back on it and think I should have worn a simpler dress and I should have got my hair blow dried by someone who'd done it before'. This is not the first time that deliciously unfiltered Sophie has pulled back the curtain on her Windsor nuptials and what goes into planning a royal hitchin'. 'I didn't know anyone at my wedding. I had my best pals there but basically it was full of faces I'd never seen before,' she told Tatler in December last year. During that same interview she enthused about Princess Michael having 'brilliantly' 'taken full personal charge' of the 400-person event and said, '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 the Sussexes have hardly been tight-lipped about what a rough trot Meghan had joining Crown Inc, Sophie has only ever raved about her extended in-laws. She told Tatler last year: 'Behind the camera they're really fun, clever, kind people...I love Catherine and William, but they're so busy and don't live in London, so I don't see them much.' Meanwhile, Charles 'is a very dear friend'. 'I spend a bit of time with him,' she told the Times in 2020. 'You see how he works all day long, has a quick supper and then disappears until about 4am to write letters. 'He cares about so many things and he comes up with brilliant solutions. 'I've been incredibly welcomed with open arms by all of them. I haven't had a single negative experience. 'They'd never tell me off at all if I wanted to play some [racy] role. Everyone's looked after me.' And she means that quite literally. The late Queen and Charles both offered practical support after Sophie broke her back in a 2017 car crash during she thought she was 'a goner'. After the accident, Charles (then the Prince of Wales) tasked his Clarence House cook to provide Freddie and Sophie's family with twice-a-day meals, 'for weeks on end . . . It was life saving'. Then, during her recuperation, Queen Elizabeth suggested a solution to help her manage the pain of rehab. As Sophie told Tatler: 'She said, 'We can't have that. You have to go in the water.' She told us that when horses had broken backs, they swam, and so she let me use her pool at Buckingham Palace. 'That's the reason I got better. It was so typically thoughtful.' Blimey. The Palace pool. 'Disgusting' hair. Looking 'barking'. It would be remiss of me here to not play a quick game of Sussex Subbing. What if all of this had come out of Meghan's mouth instead? Imagine a lit match going off in a fireworks factory built on top of an oil refinery. Kablooey. There is a lesson in all of this for any Cinderella-ish aspirants. Don't overlook the very clear benefits to being wed to No. 54 rather than anyone in the single digits, of marrying far farther down the royal rung. Just think, all the invitations to Ascot and Westminster Abbey, none of wing-clipping self sacrifices of senior royaldom and the occasional chance to do a lap in the palace pool. Daniela Elser is a writer, editor and commentator with more than 15 years' experience working with a number of Australia's leading media titles.
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.
