Back in August, when Prince William was furiously trying to come up with lame excuses for why he couldn’t do his job and fly to Australia to support the Lionesses, he claimed that he could not travel to a country before his father had visited. Then, just weeks later, William was squealing to every media outlet that he “wants to be a global statesman.” Well, the hits keep on coming: the Duchess of Edinburgh was once again sent abroad to support charities and the crown. The palace tasked Sophie with attending a state funeral in Italy two weeks ago, and Sophie spent the weekend in Tigray, Ethiopia as part of a UNICEF mission. Can’t believe Sophie would go to Ethiopia before the king! And as part of UN-affiliated work. Doesn’t Sophie know that her nephew is THE global statesman who pretends to have big meetings at the UN??
Sophie, the Duchess of Edinburgh is giving voice to two of her key causes. The royal, 58, visited Tigray, Ethiopia on Sunday to highlight work that supports women who’ve been victims of sexual violence during conflict and war. Alongside a team from UNICEF, it is Sophie’s latest trip to see, firsthand, the far-reaching impact of conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV), and gender-based violence.
“The Duchess has championed the Prevention of Sexual Violence in Conflict Initiative (PSVI), and survivors of CRSV, for a number of years, and has travelled widely to bear witness to their testimonies,” Buckingham Palace said in a press release.
Earlier this week, Sophie, 58, also visited Sabacare IDP Camp in northern Ethiopia, which cares for more than 16,000 Internally Displaced Persons — many of them women and girls. At Ayder Hospital’s One Stop Centre (OSC) for survivors of gender-based violence, the Duchess was shown the range of medical and counseling treatments that have aided hundreds of women in the midst of the country’s humanitarian crisis.
She also visited the Women’s Development Centre, a charity that equips vulnerable women, many of them survivors of conflict-related sexual violence, with skills to lead an independent life with secure employment, the palace said in its release.
This is so Angelina Jolie-coded. Jolie used to do these kinds of missions all the time. I think she got really burnt out after more than two decades, especially since so many refugee situations were just getting worse. Interestingly, these issues are also supposed to belong to the queen consort, and Camilla even met with Angelina Jolie (years ago) as a way to highlight sexual violence in warzones. My guess is that nowadays, Camilla isn’t going to focus on these kinds of issues and she really isn’t going to travel much anymore, so she let Sophie have this one. Meanwhile, the global statesman is plotting his next trip to America.
Photos courtesy of Royal Family IG/UNICEF.
The smart thing would be to have Kan’t do those sort of things but again, those people are not smart.
Kate lacks the gravitas and is not a serious person to highlight causes like this. I can’t stand Sofiesta, she’s a thirsty hanger on,but this is a very good cause and important subject. I just wish someone with a higher profile and actual international experience or expertise had accompanied her. Interesting how her and Edward are being sent abroad to represent the crown, as uninterested in them the press are, while the Waleses are benched.
LAU: um Sophie is in Africa and Can’t did miserably with the Jamaicans and the thing that makes these two places the same is the black population. So Can’t is the last person they would send.
@Susan Collins, I know I know but when you look at status in that family Kan’t should do important events like that (Diana used to do events of this nature). I never meant to imply that Kan’t was actually capable of participating in such an event lol.
LAU: you’re right she should do more with her place in the institution unfortunately she doesn’t have the bandwidth for it. They wanted someone who would not upstage or have a brain. They got what they wished for.
^^ Well as lame, as equally petty, and as thirsty as Sophie is, she does appear to have a bit more intelligence than Can’t aka Mumbles. In addition, this is not the first time that Sophie has been involved with the UN and with humanitarian projects. As well, Princess Anne has been quietly involved with Save the Children for many years. But the media rarely cover Anne’s work.
In any case, it is obvious that the royals have leaned very hard into ‘vulnerable women and girls’ issues, as a direct result of Meg’s strong and successful advocacy in this area. However, Camilla and Sophie were previously involved with some of these women and violence groups. They only began highlighting and prioritizing them more, as a result of Meg’s high profile projects.
Chuck even began getting in on the act post-Meghan’s impact within the firm. Especially after H&M’s departure, we began seeing Chuck helm women’s empowerment-related projects. And notably Chuck also copied Meghan’s capsule fashion collection projects, in connection with sustainability and charity.
@Lau, you mentioned that “Diana used to do events of this nature.” I think it is very important to recognize and to fully understand that it was Diana who actually changed the way the royals presented themselves altogether! It was in fact, Diana, who put walkabouts on the map, and increased their importance, due to her natural charm, and to her sincere way of engaging with people from all backgrounds. It was Diana who pioneered deeply personal and impactful service-related work all over the globe, in connection with humanitarian projects never before considered by any senior royal.
Diana’s work in particular, with AIDS victims, and with victims of landmine explosions, remains iconic, revolutionary and beyond influential. Working in such efforts was considered overly controversial and too political, at the time. But Diana corageously persevered. In the process, she forever changed the way the world viewed the importance of helping people with AIDS, and with landmine injuries.
Are you kidding me? @Lau, surely you remember how KKKhate behaved around the Jamaican official, and years before that, she recoiled around Lebron James. She would be the WORST person to send. I personally wouldn’t want someone who despises Black people so much anywhere near me. Evil energy.
You know their trying to slow roll the divorce announcement. Wouldn’t sending Kate be a good thing to do. To prove she can’t do anything that is required of her. Send her on all these solo jobs. And let her fail. That would certainly stop all the doesn’t put a foot wrong stories.
@Beverley, well sophie is the one who goes around telling the tabloids that she is relieved she doesn’t have to bow to Meghan so there as to be a bit of evil energy there too.
For some reasons, BP can write a press release about the topic of the visit in Sophies case, but never mention the topic of the visits in Keens case.
I wonder if the RF is activly involved in the releases and keen wants all the spotlight on herself.
Sexual violence is a global crisis and it is far worse in certain parts of the world. If Sophie can put eyes on it then I applaud it. But no one ever cares what Sophie does. It should be Kate making secret missions like this and bringing attention to this crisis. But she’s too busy stalking Meghan and being lazy. Imagine being known for your laziness and bad hair?
I think the main point is that Khate is not only lazy, insincere, self-interested, and incompetent, she is way too lightweight to effectively rep serious global matters of this gravity. Methinks that wiglet Khate’s jazz hands, her inarticulate mumbling, her fashion copykeening, and especially her scary hyena gawping, are beginning to wear too thin.
@Robert Phillips, the ‘doesn’t put a foot wrong,’ stories all originate from the Middleton camp. It’s important to realize that the royal palaces and firm members do not work together. They are ‘at war’ with each other BTS, and they have been for years. We learned some of these specifics in Harry’s memoir, Spare.
Wonder how long she hung around. The way she is squatted down in that top picture isn’t a long-term sitting position.
Actually quite yhe opposite, deep squat is a position you can stay in for hours.
For hours with your butt off the ground and balancing on your feet as a not-particularly-athletic older lady like Sophie? Without losing balance or your legs going to sleep? I’d need proof of that.
Yep, I agree, the deep squat can be held for a long time. I’ve done it myself, I’ve seen it. Sophie’s wedges would have actually aided in that, if her achilles is not as flexible as it used to be (I always found it easier in my work boots than barefoot).
yep a deep squat is normally comfy sitting position in many countries. you can sit their comfortably for hours.
^^ Maybe true, if you are physically active and culturally accustomed to squatting this way from childhood (this is the normal, traditional way of eliminating bodily waste, for example). In the Western world, I don’t think this type of squatting is as natural or routine. Perhaps it is for some people. For the elderly or inactive individuals who suffer from arthritis, back pain, joint pain & stiffness, and other conditions, this type of squatting would NOT be easy to do at all, much less doing it for hours.
Brilliant causes, but sorry this woman makes my skin crawl, she slobbers and grovels to Charlie and his side peice, does it equally as sickening to William and is to vain and stupid to see that SHE is camzillas secret weapon against keen. Sophie is doing the jobs keen should be doing! And the more she does, the more people will be asking “why Sophie and not keen?”. They are like a massive borgia cult.
This is so accurate. She’ll be used by Chuck and Cam to get back at Will and Kate, and oh well. Can’t stand her and her suck up ways, as well as her being an appalling, ill -mannered mean girl.
Good for her. But again-if no one cares what she does (and most people do not) then it really does very little to bring awareness. Kate should be doing this or William-since he claimed Africa. Eyeroll.
Exactly. It’s an important cause but I don’t get how she’ll highlight anything when nobody cares about Sophie. Not even the BM. How can can you raise awareness if you’re invisible?
She was with a UNICEF mission and people certainly know what UNICEF is. And people would certainly care about Sophie if she did something stupid. Mostly, the press and the public only care about the royals for the gossip they provide. That’s why it doesn’t matter if W&K are lazy or not. But just wait if they get a divorce, then everyone will be interested.
The whole point of having celebrities as UNICEF ambassadors is because they have a following. She does not. Diana drove interest in important causes, as do Harry and Meghan. No one cares what Sophie does.
@Mary Contrary – The article says she joined a mission, not that she’s an ambassador. In any case, there are hundreds and hundreds of people around the world who are doing some work with UNICEF and probably 99.99% of them are in your category of “no one cares.” But they don’t seem to care if you care – they’re just trying to help.
@Mary Contrary, Diana did much more than “drive interest in important causes.” Diana pioneered the way British royals do service in modern times, altogether! Obviously, H&M are the only authentic, caring, and naturally charismatic British royals capable of carrying Diana’s legacy forward. The rest are overly boring, or keenly inept, or insincere, and/or too lightweight to effectively champion such causes to a global audience.
She was probably the right person to send given the state of the rest of the royals. This is a great thing to highlight. Good for her joining the mission.
I’m glad someone in the royal family is doing some kind of work. She does seem to have some genuine interest and trying to connect with the people with whom she appears in the photos. Don’t know why she would wear those towering wedge heels though!!!
Also, why is every royal family member suddenly pictured playing ping pong at engagements? It’s almost as if they all receive ping pong lessons en masse and now they are trying to show off their skillz
That cracked me up! When I saw that photo I thought, ping pong! Again?!
Lol That was my first thought as well! Do you think they have ping pong written up in their agreements— to provide “relatable “ moments for photo ops?
And: good for Sophie. She does seem genuinely earnest about this. I hope it’s actually useful.
Because Harry and Meghan did a ping pong video for the Invictus games. Remember this https://twitter.com/etalkCTV/status/1598026954187411456?s=20
But but…
Africa is Peggy’s thing?!
I think that it’s a smart move to have someone doing this kind of work for the royal family. Smarter still if it were Kate or Will but honestly, they don’t seem interested in this kind of thing (though they should be) so great. Let Sophie rep for the fam.
Sophie has been doing these types of visits for a while, so it is not unusual. That said, it also shows how much kate is lacking that no one really expects her to touch an issue with this level of substance and sensitivity.
That’s what I was going to say…..Sophie has been doing these visits for years now.
It really is just Kate that can’t do significant international trips on her own (or really even with William.) they let her go to Denmark by herself and she went down a slide, made the Queen wait, etc.
Oh god, the slide — that was so bad, I still cringe whenever it’s brought up. It was also so embarrassing when she wore pearl earrings when she went to The Netherlands to see the “Girl With the Pearl Earring” painting by Vermeer. She takes everything so freaking literally.
It’s nice that the drab four have Sophie to do the work for them. The Edinburghs have been out & about while the drab four are doing the big important work of dividing up the limelight among themselves. I bet that’s why Sophie gets sent out often, she’s not a limelight snatcher.
And she’s sincere and professional like P Anne.
KM is insincere, disinterested and babyish. As others have commented, going down a slide is about her stretch and pulling silly & inappropriate facial expressions
It’s obviously not enough to be even royal adjacent for these stunts to benefit charities. One has to have clout through the power of their purse and or their compelling resume of support. Sophie has neither. She has shown herself to be, at best, an insipid shell and, at worst, a mean girl. IMO, this is just another RF PR stunt that will get a tepid response.
I can’t even remember the last time I saw her smile. Maybe while she was out with William and flashing her Strathberry bag around (Crescent Shoulder bag) like Kate flashes Big Blue. Ordinarily she wears a sour dishrag look, especially in the vicinity of Meghan. She is horrid.
I can’t stand her for obvious reasons. But I can’t knock this. It’s a great cause and she looks engaged, at least in these photos. She isn’t smiling maniacally or scaring the kids. I know the bar is low. At the same time, I’m aware that the situation in Africa was caused by colonizers pillaging Africa for centuries. So it seems strange to go over to highlight a problem /crisis your very institution created.
That pic where the young girls are smiling at her. My goodness those girls are gorgeous and their smiles light up the universe. Any of us could be in that situation. And yes I think Angelina did burn out – I remember the pic where she was a camp and was caught in an unguarded moment after meeting with the people there. She couldn’t contain her emotions and the whole thing just brought me to tears. It must be so overwhelming to be on the front lines of this.
I agree, Side Eye. On all of what you said.
At least she is going eye level with those beautiful girls — she seems genuinely engaged.
@ Side Eye: Even before Angelina, Audrey Hepburn designed the blueprint for this type of work. And she always followed up with media interviews when she returned, (as many as 15 per day covering many developed nations because she spoke 4-5 languages fluently). Even more remarkable, she did call out colonialism as much as she could given UNICEF’s non political nature. She always made it clear that Europe and North America had stripped these countries of wealth and resources, leaving only arms and heavy weaponry behind from the cold war. If you’re interested, I highly recommend Robert Matzen’s “Warrior” which he wrote as a follow up to “Dutch Girl” during the pandemic .
Btw, there is not much point in doing this without extensive media post mission. I mean, that should be the point unless it’s just pr for the royals. But media means you better know your stuff!
Kate and Will just seem to do skits when on public duty eg pretending to serve burgers and or play ping pong. It seems like their wranglers know which level to keep these ingenues at: made up games for photo ops. It speaks volumes that Sophie is doing this rather than Kate.
I used to follow the main royal family account on IG and I think Sophie does these sort of international trips fairly regularly. Much as I dislike her I’m not going to knock her for it. The press may not be that excited about her but the organisations she’s involved with can use her visits to talk about their work and for a lot of people having someone from a royal family involved does get their attention.
During the decade before Meghan came along, Sophie was doing a lot of this travel, so agreed, SarahCS. Same decade when W&K were doing f-all, she was on the road. Now, of course, it feels a bit tainted to me because of how she has acted in the past 7 years.
It’s interesting that Sophie is allowed to do these UN related missions and the Palace made Meghan give up all her UN affiliations.
Yes, but Meghan wasn’t allowed to outshine any of the royals. The familial hostility towards her was despicable. The irony is not lost on me that there is Sophiesta in Ethiopia surrounded by black women looking warm and engaged, and yet she couldn’t find it in her cold, cold heart to accept Meghan because *something biracial actress American divorcee something something*.
Sophie hated Meghan from the beginning because she had an “agenda”, (as in planning a wedding? )Meghan was doomed from the get go. I get what you’re saying, @jaded, but before the widespread familial hostility was 2 women who hated her ( maybe 3) who fed the beast.
^^This 100%
That said if does make me wonder why Sophie is doing these trips if they’re not being covered in the national press ?
I’m always amazed at her smile, I think it’s lovely. But those times she was around the Sussexes she looked like Bill Nighy, hatchet face.
I didn’t even know about this visit until Kaiser had put it in todays blog. The problem with Sophie is that hardly anyone has any interest with her. The original article is from People, not even part of the British Press. Interesting it’s coming from a major US outlet instead.
And I also read from one of the commenters on here, they’ve met both her and her husband and they’re not really nice people. They just attend events and charities for photo ops. If that’s the case, it pretty much killed some perception of their true sincerity for these causes.
(On another note my sister has met Prince Albert years ago in one of their company’s event, and she told me he’s not the most interesting or engaging person at all(which a lot of people already assume). so I believe the commenter re Sophie and Edward)
Sophie is basically covering ground for three women here
– these are the sorts of trips Anne used to do, but I am guessing Anne now has a more advisory role for Chuck.
– these are the sorts of trips they cannot send Kate on because she has a terrible track record striking the right tone and appropriate questions/ communication. She is also quite wooden and camera shy whilst Anne and Sophie relish these sorts of trips.
– these are the sorts of trips that ideally Meghan would have loved to do and would have slotted into perfect – especially with her previous work with NGO’s.
What is weird however is the lack of coverage for work like this which would bolster the visibility of the Royals. But hey we can’t upstage the faves….
She’s been as petty as the rest of them regarding the Sussexes and coming from a lower ranked married-in it’s been a real WTF?! However, and I’ve said this before, she does the work. She does it professionally and with a good attitude, you can believe she cares about what she’s doing.
Someone above mentioned Princess Anne, and yeah I can see that. These two women provide the recognition for causes the royal family should all be about.
Where in the world is Prince Edward??