Sophie Winkleman has shared insight into her and her husband Lord Frederick Windsor's difficult decision to leave behind the Los Angeles home that they loved dearly. The actress, who shot to fame thanks to the hit British sitcom Peep Show, married the second cousin of King Charles III in 2009. Through her marriage, she is entitled to use the title Lady Frederick Windsor, though for her professional career she sticks to her birth name. The couple first moved to Los Angeles on the day after their honeymoon, and stayed there for seven years before moving back to London, but the 46-year-old explained that they had some regrets about leaving the sunny States behind.
In a new interview with The Times, the Wild Cherry star dove into what the royal family's lives are like in the spotlight, explaining how she and Frederick "utterly loved" that no one knew about their connections to the British royal family when they arrived in Los Angeles.
© GettyShe continued: "I loved parts of the American DNA, the dynamism and can-do positivity. They're happy for their friends when they do well. The flipside is they worship money and fame a bit too much." At the time, Frederick was working at JPMorganChase and Sophie was landing roles in shows such as 100 Questions and Two and a Half Men, alongside Ashton Kutcher.
© Getty ImagesHowever, when their daughter Maud was born in 2013, things began to change. The couple decided to return to the UK before Maud started school. They eventually made the big move in 2016. Frederick and Sophie settled in Battersea, but the actress expressed some regrets about their choice of location, telling the publication: "It's adorable, but it's not near any Tube stations or many good schools, so I don't know if we'd choose it again."
Sophie has been a vocal campaigner for screen-free childhoods, having previously made headlines for removing her children from Thomas's Battersea, the very same school the Prince George went to, specifically because they introduced iPads. Though she liked the school, she disagreed with their policy surrounding the use of technology. Speaking exclusively to HELLO!, she explained how Wild Cherry will address the issue, saying: "I think the show highlights brilliantly what a horror film we're letting our young teens stumble into: being online 24/7, winding up their classmates into frenzies, meeting all sorts of crazy strangers."
Sophie Winkleman's royal life
In the same interview, Sophie revealed that she "feels for" the senior royals, especially due to the scrutiny that they constantly face. "The more I get to know the royal family, the more I get that their lives are total hell and that level of unasked-for fame is a form of torture," the actress said. "None of them went on Pop Idol or something to be famous. To have that sort of blinding spotlight in your face from when you're born, not knowing quite whom you can trust, not knowing if someone's going to betray you, people writing lies about you the whole time, is just brutal.
"I feel for them all," the Wild Cherry star continued. "I don't think a life with that much scrutiny and pressure is remotely healthy, but they have no choice." Sophie has previously spoken about how the royal family rallied around and supported her following her car crash in 2017, which left her with a broken spine.
