You may recognise Sophie Winkleman from her many appearances in shows such as Two and a Half Men, Peep Show, Death in Paradise, Trust, This Is Going To Hurt and Sanditon - but did you know that she's also a member of the Royal Family who is regularly seen alongside the likes of The King and The Prince and Princess of Wales?
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. Despite having 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 recently attended the late Queen's Platinum Jubilee celebrations and her funeral three months later.
Sophie made a name for herself in her roles as 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 successful 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.
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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.
As the 54th in line to the throne, Maud is named after several of 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 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 and spoke vividly about her experience which left her "a couple of millimetres away from paralysis.”
She revealed to 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.
"I just remember a massive great thwack and then lots of hot blood all over me. I recall heat; I had broken my back and ruptured my abdomen so my belly was torn apart and basically in my lap. I could feel my backbones jiggling around and I thought: ‘I really hope this doesn’t mean anything paralysing'.”
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: "It was life saving having this massive thing twice daily I didn’t have to worry about.” She also noted that Prince William asked a co-worker in the air ambulance to "take good care of her", and that Sophie, Countess of Wessex visited her in the hospital. She revealed: "I heard from pretty much every member of Freddie’s family, I was spoiled to bits by them."
Lady Frederick recently joined the rest of the family at the National Service of Thanksgiving at St Paul's Cathedral for Her Majesty's Platinum Jubilee, as well as her funeral and committal service three months later. She was also a guest at the 2011 wedding of the Prince and Princess of Wales, as well as at the 2019 wedding of her sister-in-law Lady Gabriella Windsor.
Speaking to The Daily Mail, Sophie even revealed that she sang at Lady Gabriella’s wedding. The talented soprano said: "I sang one of my sister-in-law's favourite songs, Will You Love Me Tomorrow. There were a few tears but I'm not sure if it was because they were moved or wanted me to stop!"
