The Lavish Life Of Sophie Winkleman

You'd be forgiven for thinking that Meghan Markle was the first actress-turned-British royal, but Sophie Winkleman trod that path long before the American. Winkleman married into British royalty via Lord Frederick Windsor, the son of Prince Michael (Queen Elizabeth's first cousin) and Marie Christine von Reibnitz (also known as Princess Michael of Kent), in 2009. But unlike her husband, she wasn't born with a silver spoon in her mouth. In an interview with Varsity, she identified her childhood as distinctly "not posh," with her father working as a publisher and her mother as a copywriter and children's book author. Winkleman said her parents made up for their relative lack of wealth with their "mega-intellectual" mindset.

Winkleman's more modest roots contrast sharply with the British royal family's, highlighting the differences in class systems between the U.K. and the U.S. Across the pond, the upper-class title is usually only reserved for the likes of her husband Lord Frederick, unlike in the States where there is more class mobility. She joins the likes of the lavish Kate Middleton and the tragic Princess Diana as commoners marrying into nobility.

Winkleman has had a lot to say about joining the royal family, but the anti-smartphone campaigner and actress — who has starred in such films as "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" and "Wonka" — is as prodigal as any other member of her extended family.

In September 2009, Sophie Winkleman and Lord Frederick Windsor tied the knot at St. George's Chapel in Windsor Castle. The castle, which is the oldest in the world, is also favored by her in-laws. Meghan Markle and Prince Harry and King Charles III and Queen Consort Camilla also said "I do" there. Although fewer people were lining the streets for Winkleman and Windsor's nuptials, it was no less lavish.

The venue wasn't the only opulent aspect of the wedding; invitees included Princess Eugenie, former Armani muse Lady Helen Taylor, and Bryan Adams, with the pop star even taking to the microphone to perform his hit "Heaven" as the couple shared their first dance. Winkleman's wedding dress was as impressive as the entertainment, she wore Anna Bystrova from Roza Couture (a Princess Michael of Kent favorite), her silk dress featuring a stunningly romantic sweetheart neckline and a long train. Even though she doesn't descend from royalty, Winkleman looked every bit the princess.

The extravagance of the wedding even left Winkleman frazzled. In 2024, she reminisced to Tatler about her special day. "I didn't know anyone at my wedding," she said. "I had my best pals there but basically it was full of faces I'd never seen before." She also added that the day was such a blur she couldn't even get her hair right. "I didn't even work out my hairstyle and I cannot tell you how disgusting it looked," she said. But judging by the photos from the day, she looked fit for royalty.

At Queen Elizabeth's funeral in 2022, fans of the cult comedy "Peep Show" — in which Sophie Winkleman stars as Big Suze — were aghast to see the former cast member in attendance. As one fan on X (formerly known as Twitter) even noted, "It's mad that Big Suze from Peep Show is at the Queen's Funeral." However, fans of the show should not have been surprised given Winkleman had been a minor royal for over 10 years at that point.

In 2024, Winkleman revealed in her aforementioned interview with Tatler that "Peep Show" was actually the catalyst for her ascent into royalty. "[Lord Frederick Windsor's] 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.'" Suggesting the moment felt "quite Richard Curtis." Big Suze — a perennial love interest on the British show — is described by another character as a "mental posho," so maybe it is no surprise that she ended up in royalty.

Although the show itself is not in keeping with Winkleman's signature opulence — it's a cheaply made sitcom and hardly the Julian Fellowes' drama "Belgravia: The Next Chapter" in which Winkleman played the Duchess of Rochester — her character on the show certainly is. In one episode, a character debates Winkleman's character's lineage, saying, "She's probably got a title, she's just too modest to say: 'Lady Big Suze.'" So Winkleman looks like she holds a title of nobility on-screen and in real life. As the saying goes, life imitates art.

Despite the fact that Sophie Winkleman wasn't born into the aristocracy, she is part of another type of British royalty: television royalty. Her half-sister, Claudia Winkleman, is a presenter on the U.K. versions of "The Traitors" and "Dancing With the Stars" (known as "Strictly Come Dancing" across the pond). The pair are related via their shared father — Barry Winkleman — but they spent little of their childhood together because Claudia's mother Eve Pollard remarried when she was 3 years old. Sophie attested to their separate childhoods in her 2024 interview with Tatler, "[W]e had very separate lives as kids: Claudia lived with her mum and she's nine years older than me."

But they still share a sisterly bond, and Claudia has described her half-sister as "adorable, and the funniest person you'll ever meet" (via Hello!). Their relationship is strong enough for Claudia to have attended Sophie's wedding in 2009. Her experience in the company of the great and good of television will have stood her in good stead in the company of lords and ladies. To suggest the Winkleman half-sisters are nepo babies would be harsh because they thrived in separate fields and Sophie wasn't pushed toward fame. As Sophie told Tatler, "My family definitely weren't interested in me marrying into royalty."

Sophie Winkleman's famous friends aren't just in her family. She has become buddies with A-listers through her work. Winkleman has shared the screen with the likes of Olivia Coleman, Hugh Grant, and Timothée Chalamet, who is living a lavish life of his own. Winkleman gushed to Tatler about the "A Complete Unknown" star and her time on set, saying, "Timothée was adorable and it was super-fun to be around all these great actors playing daft cameos."

Winkleman is a veteran of the stage, too, so much so that have talents have taken her stateside, where she has made plenty more famous friends. Winkleman put her English literature degree to good use in America, penning screenplays for Penelope Cruz and Selma Hayek. She also formed a bond with actor-turned-tech investor Ashton Kutcher during a stint on "Two and a Half Men," whom she told Business Insider was "a delight, and very clever." Pretty fancy company for the new girl in town.

But almost foreshadowing her future life back in the U.K., Winkleman ended up spending a lot of time with her fellow famous British expats. As she told Tatler, "I did a play with Billy Connolly, Tim Curry, Eric Idle, Jane Leeves — she's still a great friend. They were all so fabulous." You can take the woman out of Britain, but you can't take the Britain out of the woman — particularly when she's royalty.

Sophie Winkleman attended the University of Cambridge and can count herself as a Trinity Hall alumna alongside the likes of Rachel Weisz and Stephen Hawking. Although U.K. universities can't hold a candle to those in the U.S. price-wise, an assortment of extravagant traditions comes with attending the University of Cambridge. Considering these traditions date back to the 16th century, Winkelman will have certainly been a part of them during her studies in the late '90s.

Not only an institution famed for its exceptional academic pedigree, studying at Cambridge includes black-tie dinners and secret societies. The black-tie dinners, otherwise known as formal dinners — formal being the operative word, with diners unable to leave their table until the master has finished his dinner and leaves — are extravagant affairs based around a three-course meal and a strict dress code. Not to mention the less-classy, although quintessentially British "pennying," in which someone drops a penny in someone else's drink during the event, signaling the person should finish their drink ASAP.

Winkleman certainly enjoyed her time there, telling Varsity, "I loved Trinity Hall and I loved the university's thriving acting and comedy scene." She appeared in the Perrier Comedy Award-nominated Cambridge Footlights show "Far Too Happy," and the Footlights casts in the late '90s included future stars like Oscar winner Olivia Colman and "The Watch" actor Richard Ayoade.

When Lord Frederick Windsor proposed to Sophie Winkleman, the diamond ring he put on her finger was one that used to belong to his grandmother Princess Marina. She's a royal whom you probably haven't heard of but has a crazy backstory. Princess Marina was a member of Greek royalty who fled to exile after Greece's monarchy fell in the wake of World War II. However, she ended up transforming the British monarchy. As Edward Owens illuminates in his book "The Family Firm," she and her husband Prince George (the Duke of Kent) took to "engaging with journalists in order to shape their public image." So there's a lot of history to Winkleman's diamond-topped jewelry.

Although many were fans of the ring, a critic on Tumblr shared their disappointment at the lack of diversity in the royal's engagement ring of choice. "Geez how original!" they said. "What's with the [British royal family] and their obsession with this type of ring? First [Diana] then Fergie and now Sophie?" Despite some dissenting voices, Winkleman's ring had something that money cannot buy: history, heritage, and sentimental value.

Unlike Meghan Markle, Sophie Winkleman continued acting after she married into the royal family. The day after Winkleman and her husband got hitched, they eloped to LA as she was set to join the cast of U.S. sitcom "Two and a Half Men." The couple went on to live in sunny West Hollywood — a far milder clime than the U.K. is known to have — for seven years.

Ironically, her star turn as Zoey in "Two and a Half Men" meant Winkleman could get out of her other spotlight — the spotlight of being a royal in the U.K. As she told Business Insider in 2021, "People in my business in America didn't know anything about [her royal title], because they'd just see 'Sophie Winkleman' on the sheet and I'd go and do the audition and then get the job or not." Winkleman said, "They just knew me from my acting, which was quite important to me." Likewise, her husband was an incognito royal and made a few friends who weren't fussed by his title. As she told Tatler, "He made a whole gang of dear friends who had no clue of anything about him and that was amazing."

Also unlike her fellow thespian-turned-royal, Meghan Markle, Winkleman moved back to England after the birth of her first child and has established her life back in the U.K., as she told Hello! in 2023. "After 'Two and a Half Men,' I got some wonderful offers of work in America which I didn't do because I couldn't imagine just vanishing to another country for months," she said. "You have to make compromises in your career when you have a family. So I do jobs in Britain, where I see them every week."

In her interview with Tatler, Sophie Winkleman detailed her love of Asian food and her experiences dining at fancy Mayfair restaurants like Park Chinois and Imperial Treasure near St. James's Park in London. Both restaurants feature menus with eye-watering prices. The former has rib-eye steaks priced at £128, while the latter offers £248 Peking duck. It's dining fit for royalty judging by those price tags, and these are the type of dishes Winkleman would indeed order. She even put them on her Christmas list, saying ahead of Christmas 2024 she wanted "to be taken for a Peking duck" as her present (via GB News). Not sure you can fit that under a Christmas tree.

Despite her status as a regal celebrity, she shared her refreshing take on dieting with Tatler. "I'm genuinely obsessed with fat — from pork belly to a strip on a steak," she said. "I'm convinced they're going to find out fat is actually more important than vegetables." Her obsession with fat even made it into her marriage ceremony. "[W]e made the Bishop of London [who officiated] do a prayer to the Lord, giving thanks for butter," she had. Winkleman has always had an expensive if not also distinctly contrarian taste.

Christmas is a time for family and there is no family more lavish than the British royals. When Sophie Winkleman spoke at the Fayre of St. James's charity event prior to Kate Middleton's annual Carol Concert in 2024 about what she was looking forward to, she said, "Beautiful music and beautiful readings. And hors d'oeuvres." Her Christmas wishes came true that year (via GB News). At the event, she wore a lush royal-coded tartan coat and was joined by her husband Lord Frederick Windsor and her children. The concert featured performances for the likes of Olivia Dean and Paloma Faith. That is what she meant by beautiful music.

But that's not the only regal event that Winkleman and the royals get up to over the Christmas period. The family are known for their elaborate and precisely planned events across December. For example, on Christmas Eve, the family have a six-course candle-lit dinner and all guests are expected to wear black-tie and evening gowns. Once upon a time, the royal family was even known to shop after hours in expensive department stores like Harrods during the festive period.

Winkleman certainly enjoys her opulent time with the royals during the holidays. In 2020, she spoke with The Times about being in their company, saying, "I've been incredibly welcomed with open arms by all of them. I haven't had a single negative experience."

The British royal family is vast, but Sophie Winkleman has a special relationship with its patriarch. She shared details about her bond with King Charles III with Tatler, calling him "a very dear friend" and praising his work ethic. "You see how he works all day long, has a quick supper, and then disappears until about 4 a.m. to write letters," she said. "He cares about so many things, and he comes up with brilliant solutions."

The pair's bond began when the king (then still a prince) cared for Winkleman's young family daily when she was hospitalized after a car crash in 2017 and was recovering from life-threatening injuries. The king's chef made two meals a day for Winkleman's children for months after the accident as she got back on her feet. This led Winkleman to call him "lifesaving."

Moreover, the king has never stopped Winkleman from pursuing her love of acting. As she told The Times in her aforementioned interview, "They'd never tell me off at all if I wanted to play some [racy] role. Everyone's looked after me." Winkleman has made many friends in the royal family, unlike other actors who have joined the nobility. The king is maybe the most lavish friend anyone could dream of, but he also seems one of the most wholesome.