Sophie Winkleman says she’s not had a ‘single negative experience’ since marrying into Royal Family

Sophie Winkleman claims she’s never had a ‘single negative experience’ since marrying into the Royal Family and insists they’d never ‘tell her off’ if she wanted to play a racy role.

The actress, 40, best known for playing Big Suze in the sitcom Peep Show alongside David Mitchell and Robert Webb, is the wife of Lord Frederick Windsor, the son of Prince and Princess Michael of Kent and 49th in line to the throne.

Since the couple tied the knot 12 years ago, mother-of-two Sophie says everyone has ‘looked after’ her, in particular the Queen and Prince Charles, who have been ‘wonderful’, and Prince William, whom she described as ‘heaven’.

Speaking to The Times, the London-born star said: ‘I’ve been incredibly welcomed with open arms by all of them… They’d never tell me off at all if I wanted to play some [racy] role.’ 

She added that she hasn’t watched The Crown, the latest series of which has come under fire from friends of Prince Charles who accused Netflix producers of ‘trolling’ the Royal Family ‘on a Hollywood budget’ due to the drama’s largely negative portrayal of his marriage to Princess Diana.

Sophie is half-sister of TV presenter Claudia Winkleman, with whom she shares father Barry Winkleman, and was educated at the private City of London School for Girls before completing an English degree at the University of Cambridge.

She explained she and the Strictly presenter had ‘very separate lives’ as children because Claudia, who is nine years her senior, lived with her mother. 

Sophie, who now lives in Chelsea, married Lord Freddie in September 2009 at Hampton Court Palace, after meeting him on a night out in Soho. 

The couple, who moved to LA for a number of years after their wedding for her work, welcomed their first child, daughter Maud Elizabeth Daphne Marina, seven, in August 2013, and daughter, Isabella Alexandra May, four, was born in January 2016.

Maud and Isabella were among five bridesmaids for her sister-in-law Lady Gabriella Windsor and Thomas Kingston when they wed in May last year – having already been in the bridal party for Princess Eugenie and Jack Brooksbank’s wedding in October. 

At the nuptials down-to-earth Sophie was seen chatting and sharing a joke with Prince Harry, who had just become a father. 

Speaking about his wife, fellow actress Meghan Markle, 39, Sophie said: ‘I’ve met her a few times over here, but not well enough to get to know her. She certainly has very admirable energy and focus.’

Sophie said she ‘wasn’t fazed’ about becoming a member of the Firm, which she put down to her father being a ‘socialist bordering on Marxist’ which meant the Royal Family was rarely discussed when she was growing up.

‘I definitely wasn’t trying to get to Ascot to meet Prince William,’ she told the publication.

‘My parents gave me confidence. I don’t know how to do it with my own children, but it’s a great gift and it meant I felt I had something to bring to the table. They gave me a good education and that makes you feel you can walk into any group, so it wasn’t too intimidating.’ 

Speaking about her mother-in-law Princess Michael, 75, who has been suffering from Covid-19 with ‘extreme fatigue’, she said she’s in ‘quite good fettle’ and is a ‘good, strong woman’. 

Sophie told how the royals went out of their way to be supportive after she was injured in a road accident in November 2017.

While trapped upside down in the back of the car, Sophie admitted she assumed she was a ‘goner’ and began contemplating her husband’s life without her.

Medics managed to cut her free, but she’d broken her foot and two bones in her back; it was three days before she was told she wouldn’t be left paralysed.

Sophie said the rehabilitation period, which lasted over a year, was ‘miserable’ and left her unable to pick up her daughters.

The royals rallied, with Prince William asking an air ambulance colleague to ‘take good care’ of her, Sophie Wessex visiting her in hospital, and Prince Charles supplying the family with two meals a day from his Clarence House chefs.  

Sophie and Lord Freddie spent seven years living in Los Angeles – having moved there the day after their wedding in 2009 for her career.

Her husband worked for his bank, JP Morgan, while she bagged a number of decent roles including Ashton Kutcher’s character Walden’s girlfriend Zoe in Two and a Half Man. She also penned screenplays for Salma Hayek and Penélope Cruz.

Sophie revealed that the two Hollywood stars ‘loved’ her work, but she discovered that an executive producer had stopped forwarding them her drafts and told them she’d left because she wanted to hire a different writer. 

This was Sophie’s second stint in LA, having moved there straight out of university, but she left after a couple of execs revealed they intended to turn her into a ‘skinny little star’. 

The couple moved back after having their children, as Sophie was keen to be closer to her family. She’d had a tough first year of motherhood, after catching a hospital bug while giving birth to Isabella which left her unwell for a year.

Prior to the pandemic, Sophie had a part in a play which has been postponed, and has also enjoyed a number of ‘interesting offers’ but she’s had to turn them down because she hasn’t found the right nanny for her girls.

She admitted she hated homeschooling and ‘gave it up after two-and-a-half days’, adding: ‘I didn’t have the tenacity or discipline to do anything with the girls that was interesting or edifying; we just existed in one gurgling mass. 

‘And I’ve become immense and my way of losing weight is smoking a lot, which obviously you can’t do with two children, so I don’t know what I’m going to do about it.’  

Sophie has thrown herself into her fundraising endeavours, in particular children’s charities, as well as Age UK and most recently, Big Issue, with Sophie encouraging people to buy gift subscriptions for Christmas presents.

She declared the wealth gap ‘totally stinks’, branding the ‘insane millionaires’ who live next to the homeless ‘grotesque’.

‘They wouldn’t even notice giving £5 million to help these people, yet it doesn’t occur to them they’re the same species,’ she said. ‘Our government need to grow some balls and tax them properly.’