Sophie Winkleman claims she didn’t know anyone at her royal wedding

Sophie Winkleman claimed that barely anyone she knew attended her royal wedding.

The 43-year-old Peep Show actor - who married the King’s second cousin, Lord Frederick Windsor, after meeting 17 years ago when they both hailed the same taxi - admitted to Tatler that barely anyone she knew attended her wedding because her mother-in-law, Princess Michael of Kent, planned the whole event.

“I didn’t know anyone at my wedding,” she explained to the outlet. “I had my best pals there but basically it was full of faces I’d never seen before. My mother-in-law, Princess Michael of Kent, took full personal charge of it all and did it brilliantly, including what dress I was wearing.”

Winkleman said that at the time, she was desperate to avoid becoming a “bridezilla” so much so that she avoided planning the affair altogether, leaving the princess in charge. In hindsight, the actor said that she should have been more involved in the planning.

She recalled, “Coming up the aisle, the first thing I said when I saw Freddie was, ‘I’m so sorry about the hair.’ He said, ‘Yes, what on earth have you done?’ That’s pretty much all I can remember about it. My hair and being such a moron.”

The actor, who has made a career off of playing posh characters, shot to fame because of her starring role as “mental posho” Big Suze in Peep Show alongside David Mitchell and Robert Webb. Little did she know that her future husband was a huge fan of the show, which she later found out when they met for the first time on New Year’s Eve in Soho.

“We were leaving two different parties and we went for the same taxi,” she recalled. “His very first words to me were, ‘You’re Big Suze, I love you.’ I looked back at this ridiculously beautiful face and thought, ‘Oh God. Hello, everyone. I’m going to be in trouble here.’”

Windsor is 53rd in line for the throne and reportedly quite close with the King. Winkleman referred to the King as a “very dear friend” and the extended royal family as “really fun, clever, kind people.”

The actor noted that in the face of hardship, the royal family has rallied around her and supported her in her times of need, recalling a moment after she got into a car accident in 2017. She was recovering from several broken bones in her back and foot.

At the time, The King - then Prince Charles - had his cook at Clarence House supply their family with “lifesaving” meals, twice a day, for months.

She also recalled a conversation she had with the late Queen Elizabeth II about her rough recovery. “She said, ‘We can’t have that. You have to go in the water.’ She told us that when horses had broken backs, they swam, and so she let me use her pool at Buckingham Palace,” Winkleman reflected. “That’s the reason I got better. It was so typically thoughtful.”

All things considered, Winkleman and Windsor try to lead regular lives. He works at the bank, JP Morgan Chase, and they live in London along with their two daughters, ages ten and eight.