Sophie Wessex says she's the only royal woman with a career

Home Top

Celine Dion brings American Music Awards to tears by singing haunting Edith Piaf love song 'Hymne a L'Amour' in tribute to Paris
Three suspects arrested over rape and murder of pregnant pastor's wife who was killed in her home as she tried to protect her infant son
Sixteen hurt as two gunmen open fire on crowd in New Orleans park during music video shoot
After moving Black Friday to Thursday, now Walmart shifts Cyber Monday to SUNDAY
Two killed as US Army Apache helicopter crashes on to mountain road in South Korea
Bill Clinton rape accuser blasts Hillary for campaigning on platform of women's issues and claims she knew about alleged hotel room assault and tried to cover it up
Columbus did NOT bring syphilis to Europe: Disease is found in the remains of a child who died 170 years before the voyage to America
Officers who were called to help a sick child at a hotel room in New Jersey discover 1,000 bags of heroin
EXCLUSIVE: Hasidic woman kills herself - months after her tech executive sister jumped to her death from Manhattan rooftop bar following split from strict faith
Obama to feature on new Coldplay album after president gives permission for band to use recording of him singing 'Amazing Grace' at Charleston shooting funeral
The end of the Kirchner era: Technocrat mayor of Buenos Aires wins presidential election to end 12 years of left wing leadership in Argentina
George H. W. Bush gets a double kiss from two granddaughters while celebrating with his famous brood at a family wedding
Phuc Dat Bich sees the funny side: Man whose Vietnamese name Facebook did not believe was real thanks supporters after his plight set the internet alight
British Freemasons fixed inquiry into Titanic to protect Establishment, claims secret archive that lists two million members - including Winston Churchill
CDC worker caught up in Mali hotel attack reveals terror as gunman knocked on her door as she hid in her room
Beauty amid terror: Musician performs haunting rendition of Hallelujah on the deserted streets of Brussels
Gunmen hunted for Air France crew: Mali hotel terrorists shot at 'anything that moved' in hunt for foreigners - and one jihadist even stopped to cook a meal in the kitchen before continuing massacre
Laughing in the face of terror: Belgians respond to police request not to tweet details of their hunt for the Paris killers by posting hilarious pictures of their cats
'All the terrorists are basically migrants': Controversial Hungarian prime minister calls for EU border clampdown in wake of Paris attacks
ISIS supporters 'release a target list of addresses and names of people they claim work for the FBI and CIA'
Now that's a war room! Inside Russia's fortified triple decker operations base where Putin masterminds strikes in Syria
'It was a complete failure': France admits intelligence disaster as it is revealed Turkey warned of Paris attack jihadis a YEAR ago
Germany to convert Berlin's abandoned Stasi HQ into a shelter to house 500 migrants amid refugee crisis
Ghost town Brussels: Schools shut, shops deserted and metro closed as Belgium remains on lockdown after 21 are arrested in hunt for world's most wanted - who is seen 'heading towards Germany in a BMW'

She said she one of the few Royal ladies to have had a career
The Countess was making comments to New York gala
In 2001 she made indiscreet comments about Royal Family

Published: 20:09 EST, 20 November 2015 | Updated: 03:35 EST, 21 November 2015

234

View
comments

Her PR business collapsed after she was caught in a tabloid sting making ‘horribly indiscreet’ comments about the Royal Family.

But the Countess of Wessex still appears to look on her days as a high-flying businesswoman with pride.

Looking glamorous in a red dress, Prince Edward’s wife was on confident form at a New York gala dinner, describing herself to a group of high-powered female financiers as a ‘rare breed’ among the royals.

Scroll down for video

Career woman: The Countess of Wessex (centre) at a Women in Hedge Funds meeting in New York this month described herself as a 'rare breed'

Sophie, who has bounced back from the 2001 scandal to become one of the Queen’s most trusted family members, said she was ‘one of the few ladies in the British Royal Family’ to have ‘climbed the career ladder’.

The 50-year-old was speaking in her new role as a ‘global ambassador’ for the 100 Women in Hedge Funds (100WHF) organisation, which aims to inspire young women to choose a career in finance and raise funds for chosen good causes. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry are patrons of its philanthropic initiatives branch.

During her three-day trip to the US the countess attended a series of meetings on behalf of 100WHF culminating in the glitzy dinner at the Cipriani restaurant.

In a speech she told a group of some of the city’s wealthiest women: ‘I am rare because I am one of the few ladies in the British Royal Family who has had a professional business career and their own company.

‘So perhaps I am able, through my own experience, to have a deeper appreciation of the corporate world and what it’s like to have to climb the career ladder.’ Sophie is, indeed, one of the few royal women to have run her own business. Princess Anne has always undertaken full-time royal duties, while the Duchess of Cambridge flitted from a part-time job working as an accessories buyer to working for her family firm before marrying William and having children.

PR firm: With business partner Murray Harkin of Mayfair-based R-JH PR Ltd

But Sophie’s determination to combine her professional career with being a senior member of the Royal Family ended disastrously.

After being repeatedly accused of using her royal links to cash in on clients, in 2001 she was targeted by the now defunct News of the World’s so-called Fake Sheik, investigative reporter Mazher Mahmood.

Posing as a wealthy Arab who wanted to hire RJH, the PR firm she set up with her then partner Murray Harkin, Mahmood taped her making indiscreet and often disparaging remarks about everyone from Tony Blair to Princess Diana – and even calling the Queen ‘the old dear’.

She was subsequently forced by Buckingham Palace to do an exclusive interview with the newspaper in return for dropping the story – an agreement the paper later reneged on – in which she talked about her husband’s sexuality.

The incident proved to be a watershed in Sophie’s life, however, and after scaling down her PR work she became a fully-fledged royal. Her firm later went into voluntary liquidation. She is now extremely close to the Queen, who considers her one of the Royal Family’s most valuable assets.