The Countess of Wessex will ‘step up’ & work more in the wake of Sussexit

The first event the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge did together after the terms of Sussexit were confirmed was their appearance at the UK-Africa Summit reception at Buckingham Palace. In our coverage, I mostly talked about how Kate looked dated and bangsy, but I did mention that Prince Edward and the Countess of Wessex were at the reception too. Originally, Harry and Meghan were supposed to be there, but Harry jetted the f–k out of England as soon as he could, so Sophie and Edward seemingly took Harry and Meghan’s place. No surprise there, really – Sophie has been the Queen’s favorite in-law for years, and Sophie is very much a “second daughter” to the Queen. So it’s also no surprise that Sophie and Edward are being pushed as the “replacements” for Harry and Meghan:

Sophie Wessex is stepping up to attend more royal engagements in the wake of the Megxit crisis, The Sun on Sunday can reveal. Royal sources admitted that Prince Harry and wife Meghan’s decision to step down has left the Palace short of family members to represent the Queen. They revealed it is Prince Edward’s wife who has been chosen to pick up the slack.

One said: “Sophie’s a long-term favourite of the Queen and has been singled out as a person the Palace would like to help ease the burden. She’s very popular with other senior royals like Charles and Camilla, and has proved to be extremely good at public engagements. She’s proved to be extremely good at public engagements.”

[From The Sun]

This is the Windsor problem in a nutshell: “She’s very popular with other senior royals.” The Windsors are an insular clan and the queen chooses to put forward certain royals based on favoritism rather than ability or star power. That’s not a criticism of Sophie exactly, she seems like a nice woman who hasn’t been involved in anything scandalous or shady in more than a decade, and she’s proven that she serves the crown well. But she’s being pushed forward because the Queen likes her, not because Sophie will actually affect change or be “popular” with, you know, British subjects or Commonwealth subjects. Again, Sophie seems perfectly lovely. But she’s there because she’s the white, colonialist status quo. And it was especially f–king notable during the UK-Africa Summit.

Also, I posted this photo before but I still can’t believe this happened. This photo is perfect. UK-Africa relations, y’all.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red and Backgrid.

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