The Duchess of Edinburgh has spoken openly about how she is committed to supporting the monarchy and supporting King Charles. Sophie, who is married to Prince Edward, joined Alaina MacGregor, the CEO of British Blind Sport, on their Golden Legacy Series podcast.

The Duchess explained to the host: “My role, as with all members of the family, is to primarily support the King and the monarchy. That is one side of the focus. But also, we’re lucky enough to be able to fulfil our passions and our interests and these over my time as a member of the Royal Family have developed.”

She further added: “One of the things I’m doing now is on women’s peace and security in the world.”

Duchess Sophie continued: “We have the most incredible women who work within communities at all levels of society, and they are often at the frontline of ensuring that peace is secure, that their communities are looked after, and also we try to get them around the peacekeeping tables as much as possible. Aside from that, also the very sad problem the world is dealing with, the issue of conflict-related sexual violence.”

The Duchess of Edinburgh has travelled to countries such as the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and paid a visit to Kenya and Somalia last week at the request of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to continue her advocacy for women.

Even the late Queen Elizabeth II is said to have “trusted” and “relied” upon Sophie to a greater extent than many in her inner circle. Some royal experts claimed she saw Sophie as “more like a daughter” than a daughter-in-law, with Tatler Magazine branding her as the Firm’s “secret weapon”.

When Duchess Sophie decided in 2002 to quit her business interests to focus on activities and official engagements on behalf of the the Firm, she spoke about the transition.

She claims it took her a while to “find her feet” and spoke about the transition with The Times. She said: “Certainly it took me a while to find my feet. The frustration was I had to reduce my expectations of what I could actually do.

“I couldn’t turn up at a charity and go, right, I think you should be doing this, because that’s what I was used to doing in my working life.”