Duchess Sophie marked her 60th birthday on Monday, Jan. 20, and along with some gorgeous new photos released for the occasion, Prince Edward’s wife is allegedly planning a special black-tie party with the Princess of Wales and other royal guests.
According to the Sun, the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh are set to welcome guests to Bagshot Park, their historic Windsor-area home, for a “black-tie bash to which all members of the Royal Family have been invited.”
Along with The King and Queen Camilla, Prince William and Princess Kate, who share a close bond with the Edinburghs, are said to be joining the festivities. The Princess of Wales and Duchess of Edinburgh are said to have a particularly strong relationship, with Kate viewing Sophie as a sort of “royal sister.”
The duo are often seen sharing laughs at events like Garter Day or Royal Ascot, and Duchess Sophie—who married Prince Edward in 1999, becoming Prince William’s aunt—was praised for supporting Princess Kate during the 2024 Remembrance Sunday ceremony.
Sophie and Kate are often seen sharing smiles at royal events.
(Image credit: Getty Images)
Bagshot Park, seen in an 1880 sketch, is the home of the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh.
(Image credit: Getty Images)
The duchess showed a “maternal” gesture by placing a caring hand on the princess’s back after Kate stepped out for one of her first appearances in months following her cancer battle. At the time, body language expert Judi James spoke to the Mirror, sharing that the gesture “seemed to not only offer a form of maternal affection, caring and reassurance” but “also looked like the visible proof to William that Kate is in very safe and caring royal hands when he is not there by her side.”
As for the rest of Sophie’s birthday guest list, the Sun reported that theater legend Andrew Lloyd Webber “who gave Edward his first job in the theatre” is set to join the group, along with friends from the duchess’s time working in PR. Of course, the Duchess of Edinburgh’s family, including her 93-year-old father, Christopher Rhys-Jones, and brother David Rhys-Jones, are also expected to attend.
“Staff for the party will be borrowed from nearby Windsor Castle as the Edinburghs do not lead an ostentatious life,” the outlet claimed. Bagshot Park, which was built in the late 1800s “may look very grand,” as a family friend told the Sun, but the source said “a lot of the rooms are usually closed off.”
Duchess Sophie comforted the Princess of Wales on Remembrance Sunday in November 2024.
(Image credit: Getty Images)
“The family only uses six of the 12 bedrooms,” the insider added.
The duke and duchess’s 17-year-old son, James, and 21-year-old daughter, Lady Louise, will also be on hand to celebrate their mom’s big 60th birthday, with Louise home on a break from the University of St. Andrews.
Prince Edward, who is also 60, is said to have planned the glamorous dinner dance, even though “neither Sophie or Edward are what you might call big party animals,” the insider claimed.
Along with Duchess Sophie’s black-tie celebration, a source also told the Sun that The King is “allowing her to host her own shoot on the Windsor estate” and “has given a coveted invitation to ten friends (including her husband) to join her for a day of pheasant shooting.”
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