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Sophie, Countess of Wessex, the wife of Prince Edward, and once known as a “black sheep” of the family, became so close to Queen Elizabeth II that she was among the small group of family members summoned to the monarch’s bedside when she died on Thursday, according to the Times of London.
Sophie Rhys Jones, 57, became the first middle class working woman to join the royal family when she married Edward in 1999. Her mother was a secretary and her father was an executive in a tire company. Sophie had been working for Capital Radio when she met Prince Edward in 1987. She went on to join a PR firm where she ran campaigns for children’s books.