The Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh are celebrating their silver wedding anniversary, marking their 25 years of married life by sharing an intimate new portrait.
In the image, Prince Edward, 60, is pictured embracing Sophie, 59, wrapping his arms around her waist. Meanwhile, she rests her hands on her husband’s, leaning her head towards his.
The couple are dressed down in the relaxed shot, which was snapped in the gardens of their Bagshot Park home in Surrey. The couple coordinated their outfits, with Sophie’s tan suede jacket complementing the colour of Edward’s tweed gilet.
In March, Sophie surprised Edward with a tearful tribute ahead of his 60th birthday, giving a speech in which she described him as ‘the best of fathers, the most loving of husbands…[and] still my best friend’.
In a television interview, Edward described his wife as his ‘rock’, adding: ‘I’m incredibly lucky that I found Sophie and that she found me.’
The Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh at their wedding in 1999. The couple are celebrating their silver wedding anniversary, marking 25 years of married life with an affectionate new portrait
Prince Edward and his wife Sophie, who have been married for 25 years, marked the special anniversary by releasing this photo
Edward is the youngest of the late Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip’s four children – and the only one who has never divorced.
He married the then-Sophie Rhys-Jones in St George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle, on June 19, 1999, in a continental-style evening service, where guests were told not to wear hats.
Following their nuptials, the couple became the Earl and Countess of Wessex.
Ahead of their wedding, Prince Edward said: ‘We manage to have a good laugh about things most of the time, and we happen to love each other, which is the most important thing of all.’
Romance blossomed when Edward and then-public relations professional Sophie met at a tennis event during the early 90s.
The couple now have two children, Lady Louise Windsor, 20, and 16-year-old James, the Earl of Wessex.
Edward and Sophie have become a key part of the monarchy in recent times, as the number of working royals has shrunk, with the Duke of Sussex and Duke of York stepping down from duties, the death of Queen Elizabeth, and both King Charles and Kate Middleton being treated for cancer.
Aside from 41-year-old Prince William, and Princess of Wales, 42, who is undergoing treatment for cancer, Edward and Sophie are the youngest working members of the monarchy.
The Duke and Duchess show off their baby daughter, Lady Louise Windsor, shortly after her birth. She was born on 26 November, 2003
The couple are pictured while attending the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace in April this year
In keeping with the late Queen and Prince Philip’s wishes, King Charles gave the Duke of Edinburgh title to Edward on his 59th birthday in 2023.
Philip’s desire for Edward to one day have the title was in recognition of his son’s decades-long commitment to his Duke of Edinburgh’s Award, the youth scheme which is one of Philip’s greatest legacies.
Sophie’s journey to motherhood was a traumatic and dangerous one.
Her daughter, Lady Louise, was born several weeks prematurely in 2003 when Sophie was rushed to hospital for an emergency Caesarean section.
Two years earlier, she suffered a potentially life-threatening ectopic pregnancy.
The duchess previously worked at Capital Radio and continued working in PR even after she married.
Edward, who dropped out of the Royal Marines in 1987, was the first child of a sovereign to actively pursue their own career.
He set up his own film and TV production company, Ardent Productions, in 1990, but faced criticism over claims that he used official royal trips abroad, funded by taxpayers, to drum up business for his firm.
The Duke of Edinburgh, the Earl of Wessex, Lady Louise Windsor, Vice Admiral Timothy Laurence, the Duchess of Edinburgh, Princess Charlotte, the Princess of Wales, Prince Louis, the Prince of Wales and the Pages of Honour including Prince George on the balcony of Buckingham Palace, London, following the coronation
Pictured: the countess of Wessex and the Earl of Wessex (as they were formerly known) meeting pearly Kings and Queens at Canary Wharf station in 2002
He also organised a televised royal version of It’s A Knockout in 1987 and persuaded the Princess Royal and Duke and Duchess of York to dress up in medieval costumes and perform slapstick feats for the TV game show.
Edward enraged his brother, the then-prince of Wales, when Ardent was found filming at St Andrews University, in breach of a media agreement, shortly after Prince William began studying there.
In Queen Elizabeth II’s Golden Jubilee year of 2002, Edward and Sophie announced that they would be quitting their businesses to become full-time royals.
The duchess, who was close to her mother-in-law the late Queen, has been hailed for her royal fashion style.
Among her achievements, she once cycled 445 miles from the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh to Buckingham Palace in 2016, as part of her Duke of Edinburgh’s Award Diamond Challenge.
In April, the duchess became the first member of the royal family to visit Ukraine since the start of the Russian invasion.
She met President Volodymyr Zelensky and First Lady Olena Zelenska to discuss how to support survivors of conflict-related sexual violence.
