WEBVTT

00:00.200 --> 00:07.140
Can a conversation bring down a monarchy? You might not think so,
but the Duchess of Edinburgh once came pretty close to pulling it off

00:07.700 --> 00:14.020
Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh, is a member of the royal family. She is
the wife of Prince Edward, who is King Charles III's youngest brother

00:14.360 --> 00:24.060
The two married in 1999 and shared two children together. Sophie and Edward first met in the
late 80s, but their relationship didn't begin until they reconnected at a photo shoot in 1993

00:24.700 --> 00:30.540
The two didn't initially work as full-time royals after they got
married. Edward was dabbling in theatre and television production

00:30.700 --> 00:35.600
while Sophie continued to run her own PR company.
They had the best of both worlds, so to speak

00:35.820 --> 00:41.920
until an investigative reporter posing as a prospective client
got Sophie to say incriminating things about the royal family

00:42.300 --> 00:45.920
As a result, Sophie faced a massive
scandal in her early days as a royal

00:46.600 --> 00:50.140
In 2001, Sophie was still considered
a new member of the royal family

00:50.520 --> 00:55.380
She was working at her PR company full-time and
getting ready to land another client, an Arab sheikh

00:55.780 --> 00:59.760
Little did Sophie know that the supposed
sheikh, real name Mazir Mahmood

00:59.960 --> 01:07.360
was working on a red-hot piece for the now-defunct News of the World.
I used subterfuge, so if my identity were revealed, I couldn't work

01:07.680 --> 01:12.100
Whenever Sophie and her business partner Murray
Harkin met with the sheikh or his assistant

01:12.100 --> 01:17.200
their conversations were recorded without their knowledge,
and they both had pretty loose tongues at the time

01:17.580 --> 01:25.620
For example, during one of her conversations with the undercover reporter, Sophie
spilled some tea on then-Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles' relationship status

01:25.960 --> 01:30.320
She even went as far as to say there was no way they
would get married while the Queen Mother was still alive

01:30.720 --> 01:34.240
Sophie also said that the couple
was number one on the unpopular list

01:34.420 --> 01:39.980
and referred to the Queen Mother as an old lady. She
referred to her husband's mother as the old dear too

01:39.980 --> 01:47.540
leaving some to wonder if Sophie actually respected the monarchy. As a
rule, royals are strictly prohibited from using their status to make money

01:47.880 --> 01:53.680
It's no surprise, then, that Sophie received plenty of
backlash when she posed beside a Rover 75 at a motor show

01:53.960 --> 02:02.100
an act for which she was paid £250,000. The fact that she was willing to do that
didn't help her case when her conversations with Mazir Mahmood came to light

02:02.420 --> 02:08.940
During one of the conversations Sophie had with Mahmood, she hinted that
her royal status was pretty beneficial when it came to doing business

02:08.940 --> 02:19.660
The Guardian quotes Sophie as saying For instance in your own country when people find we working for
you the chances are you get people interested Oh gosh they employed the counters of Wessex PR company

02:20.120 --> 02:27.680
The New Zealand Herald attributes the last part of this quote to Murray Harkin. Either
way, a mood was made to understand that Sophie's status could be used to promote his

02:27.680 --> 02:33.640
business. Harkin reportedly said, What you could do is
identify some key people, the likes of Julia Roberts, and say

02:33.900 --> 02:37.640
Sophie's inviting you to come to Dubai.
If the princess from England invites you

02:37.640 --> 02:42.820
I mean, you know what Americans are like. They love
it. It might be safe to say that Sophie wasn't

02:42.820 --> 02:47.300
former Prime Minister Tony Blair's biggest fan.
She also had some critical things to say about his

02:47.300 --> 02:51.960
wife, Cherie Blair, while she talked business with
the fake shake and his assistant. Per the News of

02:51.960 --> 02:56.660
the World transcripts, she reportedly claimed that
the impromptu speech the Prime Minister gave after

02:56.660 --> 03:02.000
Diana's death wasn't so impromptu after all. Sophie
claimed, Tony Blair came out and he gave this

03:02.000 --> 03:06.800
completely impassioned, supposedly off-the-cuff
speech. I know it wasn't off-the-cuff at all

03:06.800 --> 03:11.580
because I know who wrote it. We call him President
Blair over here because he thinks he is. That's

03:11.580 --> 03:16.380
his style. Sophie also made it clear that she
wasn't happy with the fox-hunting ban Tony Blair

03:16.380 --> 03:20.460
implemented, accusing him of being uninformed
about how things are done in the countryside

03:20.980 --> 03:26.000
She also referred to foxes as vermin that needed
to be controlled. Sophie also said that former

03:26.000 --> 03:30.300
Prime Minister John Major tried to save his own
career by feeding derogatory stories about members

03:30.300 --> 03:34.740
of the royal family to the press, effectively
redirecting the public's attention from his own

03:34.740 --> 03:40.180
misdemeanors. Buckingham Palace has weathered
numerous PR disasters over the years, so Sophie's

03:40.180 --> 03:45.120
blunder wasn't exactly the monarchy's first rodeo.
That didn't mean the family wasn't upset about what

03:45.120 --> 03:49.700
had occurred, however, divulging details about
her personal life and the royals to someone she

03:49.700 --> 03:54.420
barely knew made Sophie appear untrustworthy.
Still, while one might have expected the palace

03:54.420 --> 03:59.260
to give her the cold shoulder after the incident,
the opposite happened. Royal watchers would be well

03:59.260 --> 04:03.580
aware that the Queen Mother adopted former Prime
Minister Benjamin Disraeli's unofficial motto

04:03.580 --> 04:10.560
Never complain, never explain for her own family. It has
been an unspoken code of conduct since, for better or worse

04:10.880 --> 04:21.500
I think that what that does internally is probably really damaging. But after
Sophie's scandal, Queen Elizabeth released a statement defending her daughter-in-law

04:21.820 --> 04:37.880
It read, in part, The Queen deplores the entrapment subterfuge innuendo and untruth to which the Earl and Countess have been subjected to in recent
days Appearing on the TV program Edwin and Sophie the Reluctant Royals former Royal Press Secretary Dickie Arbiter revealed that there was plenty of

04:37.880 --> 04:42.220
drama behind the palace walls during this time.
He claims this wasn't because the Queen was angry

04:42.220 --> 04:47.640
at Sophie, however. Instead, she was angry at the
reporters who deceived her. Once Sophie realized

04:47.640 --> 04:52.100
that she'd been duped by an undercover reporter,
she and the palace scrambled to keep the transcripts

04:52.100 --> 04:56.720
the tapes out of the press. The Palace set up a
formal interview between Sophie and the News of

04:56.720 --> 05:01.620
the World in exchange for the tabloid not publishing
the incriminating quotes Mazir Mahmood managed to

05:01.620 --> 05:06.360
wrangle out of her. Apparently, Buckingham Palace
was confident a tell-all interview would satisfy

05:06.360 --> 05:10.600
the tabloids and that would be the end of it.
The paper obliged, and Sophie was subjected to

05:10.600 --> 05:14.560
questions about her challenges with infertility
and rumors about Prince Edward's sexuality

05:15.100 --> 05:20.500
Sadly, things didn't quite work out in the firm's
favor. PR guru Max Clifford was supposedly the

05:20.500 --> 05:24.520
one who set the whole Arab shake scam in motion
when he took the story to the News of the World

05:24.800 --> 05:28.900
and he was less than pleased when the outlet backed
out and opted for a formal interview instead

05:29.260 --> 05:33.000
Determined to get the transcripts out there,
Clifford leaked the story to the News of the

05:33.000 --> 05:37.040
World's competitors, the Sunday Mirror and
the Mail on Sunday, who ran with the story

05:37.360 --> 05:41.840
much to the palace's chagrin. To make matters
worse, Sophie practically admitted that the

05:41.840 --> 05:45.740
published transcripts were accurate when she
wrote letters of apology to then-Prime Minister

05:45.740 --> 05:50.680
Tony Blair and the Tory leader of the time.
Once Max Clifford leaked the contents of the

05:50.680 --> 05:55.220
tapes to the media, all hell broke loose. One
of the Mail's headlines, for example, read

05:55.220 --> 06:00.460
Queen's outrage at Sophie insults. The tabloids
made wild allegations following the publication

06:00.460 --> 06:04.640
of the tape's transcripts, with the Daily Mail
claiming that Prince Edward and Sophie's marriage

06:04.640 --> 06:09.160
was in peril and that the prince was absolutely
furious about Sophie's conversations with the

06:09.160 --> 06:13.780
fake sheik. The outlet also claimed that Queen
Elizabeth was enraged about the things that Sophie

06:13.780 --> 06:18.000
had said about the royal family. Thanks to the
controversial comments Sophie had made about

06:18.000 --> 06:27.260
certain politicians, some British government officials were also reportedly left seething.
Consumer Affairs Minister Kim Howells even told The Telegraph that taxpayers should no longer fund

06:27.260 --> 06:32.820
the monarchy. He said, I've never understood the attraction
of royalty. They're all a bit bonkers. They're not managing

06:32.820 --> 06:50.161
the modern world very well. Vive la revolution! Prime Minister Tony Blair stood behind the monarchy but that didn keep the chairman of the Commons public administration from
telling the BBC that Blair should take the necessary steps to modernize the institution With all the hoopla following the publication of some of the contents of Mazir Mahmood tapes

06:50.481 --> 06:54.421
Sophie was reportedly advised by Queen Elizabeth
to take a step back from her PR company

06:54.801 --> 06:59.321
Her reputation and image in the public relations
space had been badly damaged by Mahmood's sting

06:59.321 --> 07:03.921
operation. Some thought that, since she worked
in PR herself, Sophie should have been smarter

07:04.401 --> 07:10.001
Royal commentator Aisha Hazarika told The Express to have
just dished the dirt on someone she didn't really know

07:10.001 --> 07:16.141
was incredibly naive and it had terrible consequences.
Shortly after the media storm descended on Buckingham Palace

07:16.441 --> 07:21.381
Sophie announced that she would be stepping down as chair
of her company. Murray Harkin handed in his resignation

07:21.861 --> 07:25.821
A couple of months later, The Guardian reported
that the palace was putting pressure on Sophie

07:25.821 --> 07:32.301
to dedicate her time to becoming a full-time working royal
instead. Sophie, however, appeared to have no plans to do so

07:32.301 --> 07:37.481
In fact, she brought Harkin out of the company and
seemed to have every intention of taking back the reins

07:37.921 --> 07:41.681
Jack Cassidy, who ran the company in
Sophie in Harkin's stead after the scandal

07:41.981 --> 07:46.321
told The Guardian that Sophie had no plans to part
ways with her company to pursue life as a royal

07:47.041 --> 07:54.161
Despite the massive scandal Sophie's taped conversations caused, she managed
to weather the storm and later became a respected member of the royal family

07:54.541 --> 07:58.641
Speaking to Good to Know, The Sun's
former royal editor Duncan Larkham

07:58.641 --> 08:02.521
admitted that Sophie had a tough time during
her early days as a member of the monarchy

08:02.821 --> 08:09.341
mostly thanks to the News of the World debacle. He explained, You could
argue that it was worse than Meghan's arrival into the royal family

08:09.481 --> 08:13.481
but after the scandal, she changed her circle
of friends and proceeded to transform herself

08:13.481 --> 08:19.001
into an ideal royal wife. Larkin praised Sophie's
resolve, saying that she overcame the scandal

08:19.001 --> 08:23.501
because she owned her mistakes and refused to be
a victim. He added that Queen Elizabeth played a

08:23.501 --> 08:29.361
vital part in helping Sophie to rebuild her public
image. As royal expert Roya Nika told The Express

08:29.701 --> 08:33.821
it was a very painful lesson for her to learn,
but the fact that she was able to be rehabilitated

08:33.821 --> 08:39.021
after that shows just how valued she was, and
still is, in the royal family. Despite her rocky

08:39.021 --> 08:43.881
start as a royal, it was rumored that the Queen
was incredibly fond of Sophie, as was her husband

08:44.041 --> 08:48.261
Prince Philip. In the end, Sophie and Prince
Edward gave up their careers on their terms

08:48.261 --> 08:50.921
and became full-time working royals in 2002