Sophie, Countess Of Wessex Says Prince Philip's Death Has 'Left A Giant-Sized Hole In Our Lives'
June 16 2021, Published 10:44 a.m. ET
It's been a tough few months for the royal family ever since Prince Philip died on April 9 at 99 years old, and now Prince Edward's wife, Sophie, Countess of Wessex has revealed how everyone is holding up.
"Well, he has left a giant-sized hole in our lives," she told BBC Radio 5 Live. “I think the pandemic has unfortunately slightly skewed things in as much as it's hard to spend as much time with the Queen as we would like to. We’ve been trying to, but of course it's still not that easy."
“And of course the normal way of things isn’t normal yet so we’re not necessarily doing the things that we would normally have done with him," she continued. “So I think the whole grieving process is probably likely for us to take a lot longer. It may be the same for many other families out there. Because if you’re not living with somebody, 24/7, the immediate loss isn’t necessarily felt in the same way, as if somebody was in the house with you all the time.”
Clearly, Sophie was noticeably emotional, as she began to tear up later on in the interview.
"It's only when you would do the normal things that you would have done with them, and you suddenly realize that they are not there, that you really start to have an 'oh my goodness' moment," she said. "Just talking to you now, it's a bit of an 'oh my goodness' moment. I think they’ll come and go. But you have to let them come and go. And then something happened, or you'd hear a piece of music, or you'd do something, and suddenly you would, you know, get taken off at the knees. So there'll be lots of moments like that. But it's good to remember."
Recently, Prince Edward revealed that despite the tragedy in their lives, Queen Elizabeth has been trying to keep busy.
“I think [she is] actually doing remarkably well," he said. "Things are beginning to open up more, there are more activities so weirdly that sort of fills any particular void. I think there are going to be other times further on in the year where I think that it will become a bit more poignant and a bit harder. But at the moment, thank you very much indeed for asking, but I think that everybody’s in pretty good shape really," he shared.