The Duchess of Edinburgh was incredibly close to her late mother-in-law Queen Elizabeth, so it might come as a surprise to learn that she was once told to leave the table at a dinner in Scotland. However, the reason for Her Majesty's suggestion makes all the difference, as it turns out Sophie was actually desperate to leave.
Telling the hilarious anecdote on BBC 5 Live Sport, the Duchess revealed she was at Balmoral with the Queen and Prince Philip when Team GB played in the 2016 Women's Hockey Olympic final. An avid fan, she'd been sending messages to them "all the way through" the matches but the evening of the final the time difference put her in a tricky position.
"That evening, of course, it was a completely different time zone and so I started off watching the match and then I had to go into dinner," she said, adding that she was "twitching by the end".
Throughout the meal, Sophie was kept updated on the score by someone helping at the table. When they had finished eating, she sat there wondering what was happening and was so obviously eager to find out that Queen Elizabeth stepped in.
"Eventually Her Majesty sat there and said, 'Oh, for goodness sake, just go!'," Sophie shared. "So I ran through to the library and I was watching it and my father-in-law, the late Duke of Edinburgh, came through and he loved good sport and he sat down and was watching it with me."
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Laughing, the senior royal admitted that Philip had probably been "watching [her] reaction more than he was watching the television" because she was "living and breathing every moment".
We're used to hearing stories about the Princess of Wales being super competitive, but Duchess Sophie was being so enthusiastic that the Queen came next door too.
After seeing her daughter-in-law "leaping up and screaming", Her Majesty stood in the doorway but could only watch for a short time before "she had to take herself away again". Apparently, the pressure of watching Team GB in the penalty shoot out was too much for the Queen.
Meanwhile, Prince Philip was "laughing" at Sophie's response and the team eventually won Olympic gold in brilliant style. The Duchess of Edinburgh recalled her experience watching it on the BBC 5 Live Sport programme that airs on BBC Sounds on 19th August - exactly ten years after the victory in Rio.
Queen Elizabeth's telling Sophie to "just go" and watch after spotting her eagerness was a kind move and it's funny to think that she couldn't bear to watch herself. When her granddaughter Zara Tindall was competing at the London 2012 Olympics, the Queen reportedly suggested going for a picnic at Balmoral because she was "so nervous" on this occasion too.
Former royal protection officer Richard Griffin told Sky News in 2022 that he radioed in and found out Zara had won a team silver medal, before telling her delighted granny.
"I remember the Queen just grabbed me and we were dancing around in circles on this hill in Scotland,' Griffin claimed. "That's a memory that will stay with me for evermore."
