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| Sophie may look like Princess Diana but there the similarity ends. The 37-year-old former chair and co-founder of public relations firm RJH is the daughter of a Kent tyre-salesman. Sophie Rhys-Jones met Prince Edward in 1993 to discuss a Real Tennis charity evening that he was planning. They became engaged in January 1999 and married that June. | |
After their wedding she was given the title Her Royal Highness the Countess of Wessex, shortened to Sophie Wessex. They live at Bagshot Park in Surrey. With two notable exceptions, she has generally remained out of the tabloids. In April 2001 a News of the World reporter posed as a sheikh interested in using her PR firm and recorded her making a number of embarrassing comments about the Royal Family and the Blairs. She stepped down as chair of the company. Two years earlier The Sun ran an old photo showing radio DJ Chris Tarrant lifting up her bikini top. Born on 20 January 1965 in Oxford, she was educated at Kent College for Girls and West Kent College where she did a two-year A-Level and secretarial course. She enjoys skiing, horse-riding, sailing and gardening and is a trustee of both the Jill Dando Fund and the Haven Trust. Under pressure from the Queen, she was recently forced to resign as RJH boss and became a non-executive director, but both she and Edward were heavily compensated. | ||
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