The Duchess of Edinburgh will mark a very special milestone next week – and she looks set to have her daughter Lady Louise there by her side.
Sophie, who has been happily married to Prince Edward since 1999, is celebrating her landmark 60th birthday on 20 January. And the timing means that her eldest child will be on hand to toast the occasion with her.
Louise, 21, is currently studying English literature at St Andrews – where Prince William and Princess Kate met and fell in love. But the university’s Candlemas Semester is not set to begin until January 27, meaning Louise can spend her mum’s 60th birthday with her, rather than miles away in Scotland.
Sophie will likely celebrate her milestone privately at her Surrey home, Bagshot Park, with husband Edward, 60, and Louise. It is thought that the couple’s son James, Earl of Wessex, will be at his boarding school in Oxfordshire.
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While the Duchess and Edward are senior working royals, their children do not carry HRH titles, allowing them to live more private lives.
And while Louise and James do attend large royal events with their parents, including Trooping The Colour, Coronations, Royal weddings and Christmas Day walkabouts, they tend to live the rest of their lives away from the limelight.
Speaking about the decision not to give her children royal titles, Duchess Sophie previously explained: “We try to bring them up with the understanding that they are very likely to have to work for a living. Hence, we made the decision not to use HRH titles. They have them and can decide to use them from 18, but I think it’s highly unlikely.”
However, this could change due to the ongoing health issues of senior members of the royal family. According to the Scottish Daily Express, William is considering making Louise and James working royals, which would mean they receive public funding from the Sovereign Grant and undertake engagements on behalf of the crown.
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Last year, with both King Charles and Princess Kate off duty for a period as they focused on cancer treatment, it brought into sharp focus that the majority of the remaining working royals were getting older. The average age of the working royals is 69, but if Kate and William are removed from that equation then it rises sharply to 77.
Kate and William had to walk a balancing act last year of prioritising the wellbeing of their family and three young children – Prince George , 11, Princess Charlotte, nine, and Prince Louis, six – with their royal obligations, and more working royals, particularly those that are younger, could help ease the burden of public engagements.
Adding more younger working royals would be especially helpful since Harry and Meghan stepped back – King Charles’s plan for a ‘slimmed down monarchy’ to help reduce the costs of the House of Windsor to the public, never accounted for the fact his youngest son, Prince Harry would leave The Firm.