Sophie, Countess of Wessex, has been tipped as a replacement for Meghan Markle and Prince Harry after the two stepped down as senior royals last year. The Sussexes have now ventured into the entertainment industry and moved to California, after indicating that life in the public eye had become unsustainable for them.
Months before their dramatic announcement, the couple had been interviewed by ITV’s Tom Bradby and Meghan admitted she felt she was just “surviving” and not “thriving” in the spotlight, due to the level of scrutiny she was facing.
The 39-year-old also told a Californian podcast, Teenage Therapy, in the summer that she had found the level of online trolling “almost unsurvivable”.
But, Meghan is not the only new royal addition who felt the weight of expectation being in the public eye.
Sophie married the Queen’s youngest son, Prince Edward, in 1999.
Insurance Loans Mortgage Attorney Credit LawyerLike Meghan, she had enjoyed a successful career prior to marriage, and both women got married in their thirties.
Sophie was in PR and communications which meant she was even less accustomed to the public glare than Meghan.
Sophie, Countess of Wessex, and Meghan Markle (Image: Getty/ITV)
Sophie and Meghan both found royal life hard to adjust to (Image: Getty)
The Duchess of Sussex appeared to be taken under the Queen’s wing early on when she accompanied the monarch on an engagement and travelled by the Royal Train.
Similarly, Sophie has long been recognised as a “favourite” with the Queen, and was even allowed to move into Buckingham Palace long before she was engaged to Edward.
It was only “after months of unrelenting criticism that Sophie came close to a breakdown”, according to royal biographer Ingrid Seward.
In 2001, just two years after officially becoming a royal, she allegedly said: “Whatever I do, I just can’t win.”
Sophie was humiliated after she had been secretly recorded making disparaging comments about the Government, and seeming to use her status as a means to acquire clients for her PR company.
Ms Seward noted: “Her image was badly damaged and she was forced to ‘shut up shop’ and concentrate on royal duties.”
Insurance Loans Mortgage Attorney Credit LawyerIn contrast, Meghan did not appear to make any such significant blunder - and even said she "gave up her entire life for this family", according to the biography Finding Freedom.
READ MORE: Queen brutally rejected Sophie's request to become Princess
Sophie found royal life hard after she wed Edward in 1999 (Image: Getty)
Meghan told ITV how she was not "thriving" back in 2019 (Image: ITV)


Instead, Meghan told ITV that “because I’m American, I very naively didn’t get” how much scrutiny she was to endure.
Yet, the Countess of