Passionately private and keen to shun the scrutiny of public life, there's one senior royal who perhaps isn't as well known as some of his siblings. He has been called the quietest royal but as the King and Kate Middleton have faced their individual health problems, Prince Edward and his wife Sophie have stepped up to represent the British Royal Family on a global stage.
Let’s take a closer look at the newest power player at the palace and go through the keyhole of his spectacular home...
The youngest son of the late Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Edward was born 16 years after his oldest brother King Charles III and has always been the baby of the Windsor clan.
Now bearing the title of his late father, the Duke of Edinburgh, he is the only one of the Queen’s children who hasn't divorced and has been happily married to Sophie Rhys-Jones for 25 years. Along with his wife, Prince Edward has proved himself one of the most steady and reliable members of the royal family.
Prince Edward and Sophie, the Duchess of Edinburgh, have lived in Bagshot Park since they got married in 1999. Located in the southeast English county of Surrey, they live with their two children, Lady Louise Windsor and James, Viscount Severn in a 120-room stately home said to be worth £30 million ($38.7m).
Nestled in 51 acres (20ha) of land, the Grade II-listed property is beautifully landscaped with pristine gardens and incredible interiors worthy of a royal palace.
Members of the British royal family often 'rent' their stately homes from the Crown Estate, and Prince Edward is no different. They do this to maintain the distinction between personal and state-owned assets, and so that historic properties remain part of the national heritage while providing the royals with residences.
It was confirmed in 2021 that the Edinburghs had extended their lease for another 150 years at a cost of £5 million ($6.5m). Before the couple's wedding, the impressive manor underwent extensive renovations, costing more than an estimated £2 million ($2.6m) that was partly funded by the Crown Estate and partly by Prince Edward himself.
The rambling home has been a royal residence for around 200 years and, as we can see, has changed very little since this picture was created in 1880. But Bagshot has a long and varied connection with Britain's ruling elite.
It was a royal park in 1486 and the original house, Bagshot Park Lodge, stood on the site as far back as 1607 and was even frequented by Kings James I and Charles I in the 17th century. Much later, in 1816, the house was enlarged by one of Britain's foremost architects John Nash.
The current home was built in 1879 on the site of the old lodge, which was demolished in 1878. It was built for Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn, the third son of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. The Duke lived at Bagshot until his death in 1942 at the grand old age of 91.
The home was requisitioned by the army for the rest of the war and then used by the Royal Army Chaplains until Sophie and Edward moved in in 1999.
As a private house, the public rarely gets to see inside the home. However, the couple revealed a glimpse of this corner in an image posted on social media.
The room features some stunning wooden panels that were commissioned by Prince Arthur. They were carved in Amritsar, India to showcase Indian design.
In another photograph that was posted on the Royal Family’s X account, we get to see a beautifully appointed reception room with green striped upholstered chairs and a matching green carpet. There is also a gold-edged mirror above an ornate fireplace and an exquisite sideboard and paintings.
The home is said to have 120 rooms, including the Duke’s office, which was seen in another social media post and features a floor-to-ceiling bookcase.
The Duchess gave royal fans a rare glimpse of her kitchen too during a call with the Thames Valley Air Ambulance, of which she is a patron, revealing her stylish navy kitchen units and her fine china tea sets, including a teapot, sugar bowl, cups and saucers.
As gorgeous and grand as Bagshot Park is, the Prince has resided in a few even more impressive properties throughout his life.
Let's go back to the very beginning to discover where Prince Edward was born and raised, where he grew up and how he met the love of his life...
Prince Edward was born on 10 March 1964 at Buckingham Palace. It was the first birth that Prince Philip attended.
According to reports, the Queen had been reading magazines that stressed the importance of involving fathers in childbirth and the Prince is said to have held his wife’s hand as his youngest son was born.
Life was a lot more relaxed in Buckingham Palace by the time Prince Edward arrived. The Queen had been on the throne for 12 years and was more confident in her role as monarch. She seemed a more relaxed mother as a result and more likely to allow Prince Edward and his elder brother Prince Andrew to treat the palace and its grounds as their private playground.
There was certainly a lot of ground to cover. Buckingham Palace, which has been the official home of the monarch since 1837, has 775 rooms, which include 19 state rooms, 52 royal and guest bedrooms, 188 staff bedrooms, 92 offices and 78 bathrooms, along with this incredible ballroom.
With such an enormous space to hare around and burn off energy, we can just imagine the young princes chasing each other around the tables.
Living at Buckingham Palace gave Prince Edward an early experience of what it meant to be royal. He made his first balcony appearance when he was just three months old, according to reports.
He is seen here, aged two, at the traditional military celebrations for the Trooping the Colour ceremony, with the Queen Mother, four-year-old Viscount Linley and his father Lord Snowden and his own mother, who is clearly enjoying her time with her youngest son.
Outside in the grounds, Prince Edward and his brother Prince Andrew (Prince Charles and Princess Anne were teenagers by this stage) could run amok in 39 acres (15ha) of lawns, gardens and meadows.
There are around 325 different species of plants and more than 1,000 trees, which means a lot of leaves. No wonder Prince Andrew couldn’t resist burying his two-year-brother for this photograph taken on his sixth birthday in 1966.
When not in London, the family were usually to be found at Windsor Castle, which was thought to be the late Queen's favourite official home. The 1,000-room castle, which is located in Windsor Great Park, just west of London, dates from the 11th century and sprawls over 484,000 square feet (44,965sqm).
The late Queen's official country residence, Windsor was essentially her place to unwind and to enjoy special time with her children.
The adored youngest son of the Queen and Prince Philip, Prince Edward had 13 acres (5ha) of grounds at his disposal at Windsor, although he seemed happy to sit in his pram in this shot.
Edward had an active childhood and is said to have learned to ride his pony, Valkyrie, aged just two. He is also reported to have met first man on the moon Neil Armstrong and told him he wanted to be an astronaut when he grew up.
After a couple of years of private tutoring, the Queen’s youngest son attended Gibbs Pre-prep School in Kensington, London.
He was then enrolled at Heatherdown Preparatory School near Ascot in September 1972, when this photo of the royal party being greeted by headmaster James Edwards and his wife was taken.
Then it was off to Gordonstoun in Scotland, where he eventually became head boy. It was the alma mater of his father Prince Philip and elder brother Prince Charles, who once condemned the school as "Colditz in kilts", Colditz Castle being a German prisoner-of-war camp.
Pupils from the £53,000 ($68.5k)-a-year boarding school observed a three-minute silence in memory of former pupil Prince Philip on the day of his funeral in April 2021.
After a very demanding school year at Gordonstoun, it was a two-hour drive from Elgin to Balmoral Castle, where the late Queen and her family traditionally spent their summer holidays.
For Prince Edward, the Scottish baronial-style castle and its 50,000 acres (20,234ha) of land was an extension of life at Gordonstoun, a paradise where he could continue to indulge in outdoorsy pursuits.
Balmoral Castle has been the Scottish home of the Royal Family since it was bought for Queen Victoria by Prince Albert in 1852 for £32,000 (that would be around £3.7m/$4.8m today).
The late Queen had been a constant visitor at Balmoral since she was a child and it was a tradition that she continued with her own children. This photo shows her with Prince Philip and their sons Prince Andrew and Prince Edward on their Silver Wedding anniversary year in 1972.
Christmas for Prince Edward, Iike his older siblings, has nearly always and traditionally been celebrated at Sandringham House in Norfolk, which, like Balmoral, is privately owned by the royal family.
The late Queen would stay until 6 February, the date of her father King George VI’s death and her ascension to the throne. The house dates to Elizabethan times and was snapped up by Queen Victoria in 1862 as a gift for her son, the future King Edward VII.
Compared to other regal residences, Sandringham has a somewhat more relaxed feel and has been described as “the most comfortable house in England”.
The ground floor is decorated in elegant Edwardian style with a huge fireplace taking centre stage in this reception room, where Prince Edward seems to be showing off his reading skills to his father Prince Philip.
Before heading to university, Prince Edward took some time out for a gap year in 1982. He headed to the commonwealth country of New Zealand and spent two terms working as a house tutor and junior master at the Whanganui Collegiate School, located in the Manawatū-Whanganui region of the North Island.
He then returned to England and attended Cambridge University’s Jesus College, from which he graduated with a degree in history in 1986.
After university, Prince Edward followed family tradition and joined the military, enlisting in the Royal Marines. He’d been a university cadet for three years and had wanted to be a marine since he was ten, but resigned his commission in 1987, just three months into the gruelling 12-month commando training.
According to reports, he felt he wouldn’t fit in. But it was the Queen, and not his father, who was Captain General of the Royal Marines, who was most displeased.
After leaving the Royal Marines, Prince Edward set up his own theatre production company, staging the TV show It’s a Royal Knockout, which saw members of the royal family, dressed in Elizabethan costumes, competing alongside celebrities in a series of wacky challenges.
It was deemed a public-relations disaster, according to reports, but regardless, the Prince went on to set up Ardent Productions in 1993, an ill-fated production company that was left with assets of just £40.27 ($52) when it went into liquidation in 2009.
Happily, Edward's PR nightmare fate turned right around when he met public relations consultant Sophie Rhys-Jones in 1987, while she was working for Capital Radio.
Their first date is said to have been a tennis match followed by dinner at Buckingham Palace. After a five-year romance, Edward proposed during a holiday to the Bahamas with an Asprey and Garrard ring worth an estimated £105,000 ($136k).
Prince Edward married Sophie Rhys-Jones on 19 June 1999 in a relatively low-key ceremony at St George’s Chapel in Windsor.
Seen here looking delighted to be wed, they also picked up new titles; on their wedding day, the Queen bestowed on Edward the title of Earl of Wessex and Viscount Severn and Sophie became Countess of Wessex.
Today, the couple are valued as stable and trustworthy senior royals, but this wasn’t always the case. In the early days of their marriage, Sophie was recorded boasting to the tabloid paper News of the World’s undercover journalist known at the time as the ‘Fake Sheik’ about her PR firm’s royal connections.
Around the same time, Edward’s film company had tried to circumvent a ban on filming Prince William at university in St Andrews. They were encouraged to ditch their commercial careers and in 2002 the couple became full-time working royals.
Edward and Sophie welcomed both of their children, Lady Louise Windsor in 2003 and James, Viscount Severn (seen here, in 2007) at Frimley Park NHS Hospital in Surrey.
Giving birth to Lady Louise proved a particularly tough experience for Sophie, who reportedly had an emergency caesarean section a month prior to her due date and lost nine pints of blood. The birth of her son was much more straightforward and the family settled into life in their stunning home, Bagshot Park.
The couple have done their utmost to ensure their children have as normal an upbringing as possible, first by giving them courtesy titles rather than Prince or Princess. Neither have they ever relied on nannies.
“They have always had a rule that, when working, one of them is at home with the children as far as possible," their friend Penny Mountbatten told the Daily Mail.
The family were understandably devastated first by the death of Prince Philip in April 2021 and then of the Queen in September 2022. The Duchess is reported to have been a rock to the Queen following the loss of her husband and regularly made the short journey to visit her in Windsor.
The two grew so close that Sophie was present when Queen Elizabeth II passed away. She joined other senior members of the royal family at Balmoral Castle to be with the Queen during her final moments, the only person there who was not a direct family relation.
Sophie and Edward have continued to prove themselves well-equipped to play a major role in the court of King Charles lll, particularly after both the King and Catherine, Princess of Wales took time off to undergo cancer treatment.
The Prince not only stepped in for King Charles at an official parade to celebrate the 120th anniversary of the Entente Cordiale, a historic agreement between England and France, he and Sophie have also represented the royal family at major events like the Order of the Garter. She is said to be kind, outgoing and calm - and has been referred to as 'the secret weapon' behind the crown.
King Charles III discreetly granted more authority to Prince Edward and Sophie through the Counsellors of State Act 2022, including the couple among the family members authorised to act on his behalf when he is ill or abroad. A special provision ensures that Princess Anne and Prince Edward will remain counsellors for life, unlike Princes Harry and Andrew, and Princess Beatrice, who will gradually be replaced as William's children reach adulthood.
With new roles and responsibilities, we are sure to be seeing more of the quiet prince than ever before...
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