Sophie's Faux Pas

This week’s headlines were the first Royal intrigue we’ve had in a long time so I postponed our Queen Elizabeth tribute article until next week – though you may find a bit of a tribute to Her Majesty in this article if you make it to the end.  Well all the papers and the BBC seemed to be running stories on the scam that snared Sophie Wessex.  According to a ‘News of the World’ article run on March 25^th, ‘Sophie Gags PR Man’, Sophie Wessex had an injunction issued by the High Court in London to prevent Kishan Athulathmudall, an account representative at her company, R-JH Public Relations from discussing information about the company, its business practices and any personal information gained during his employment.  Since Kishan joined R-JH in October of 1999 after Sophie became a member of the Royal Family, it seems that the wise thing would have been to have him sign such an agreement at the time of his employment, not his departure.

The second part of the story alleges that Mazher Mahmood, the reporter who broke the story in the ‘News of the World’, spoke to Kishan about Sophie and devised an elaborate scheme to catch her at her own game.  Mr. Mahmood, posing as an Arab Sheikh wishing to do business with R-JH, took an exquisite suite at the Dorchester Hotel in London.  Sophie met him in the ‘bugged’ apartment for breakfast where she allegedly called Her Majesty ‘the old dear’, claimed Charles would marry Camilla once ‘the old lady’ (Queen Mum) died, said that Tony Blair was too ‘Presidential’, called William Hague ‘deformed’ and Cherie Blair ‘hor-rid, absolutely horrid, horrid, horrid’.  Finally, we have the palace denying the alleged statements and Sophie supposedly ‘groveling’ in apology to Cherie Blair and the others who she was disrespectful to during her interview.

Let’s break it down from the beginning.  First there was Sophie Rhys-Jones, working class woman and Assistant to Brian MacLaurin, MacLaurin Communications and Media.  Sophie took advantage of or was thrown into a situation in which she posed for some publicity shots with Prince Edward.  Wendy Leigh writes, ‘Whether or not she engineered that first meeting with Edward, Sophie Rhys-Jones is an upwardly mobile middle-class girl, adept at making the most of an opportunity.’*  This I have to believe because after dating Edward she suddenly went from ‘Assistant’ to controlling owner of her own Public Relations firm, R-JH.  Personally, I think it is wonderful that an ambitious, intelligent woman has the confidence to make the most of the opportunities that life hands her.  My problem with Sophie has always been that she never gives her relationship with the Royal Family any credit for what she has achieved in a short period of time.  I’d think far more highly of her if she would say, ‘Yes it helped that I met influential people through Edward, however, I have to believe that with my drive, I would have eventually gotten there.’

The way I think of it is if I were to date a producer at the BBC and end up with my own half hour weekly royal segment, at this point in time, it would have to do with the relationship.  Ten years from now it may be that the program introduced me to the producer, but for now it would definitely be the producer introduced me to the program.  In other words, the old adages, ‘timing is everything’ and ‘sometimes it’s who you know not what you know’ are very true.  In my book, there is nothing wrong with that.  As long as you are willing to work hard and endeavor to earn your place, you need never feel less for taking on an opportunity that presents itself.  Honestly, a less confident woman would have turned the opportunity down for fear of failure.  In this I find Sophie Rhys-Jones quite courageous.

After her marriage to Prince Edward and her elevation to HRH the Countess of Wessex, Sophie ran into another snag with the press because it was felt that a member of the Royal Family could not run a business and carry out her royal duties.  Sophie went as far as to issue a letter stating that she had the Palaces full support in continuing her career.  Then she was photographed in front of a Rover 75 car her company had just landed a lucrative contract to endorse.  That drew complaints because the public didn’t think a member of the Royal Family ought to be endorsing products.  At that time Sophie stated she was very particular about the type of business she accepted.  PR is one of the most competitive industries.  People ‘go after’ business they don’t ‘accept’ it.  If she was being offered business it had to have something to do with the Royal connection.  Whether she could keep it would depend upon how she handled things, but how she got it...

Now let’s test Sophie’s words against what has happened here.  First, if she was careful about the business she and R-JH accepted, there would have been some research done on the Sheikh and the business they would be representing before going out to the meeting.  Second, if her Royal connections have nothing to do with her success in business there would not have been so much discussion surrounding them.  Third, if she was so experienced at PR she probably would have ‘smelled a rat’ by the circumstances and the Sheikhs interest in getting more information on the Royal family then on what R-JH could do for him and his company.  Fourth, if she retained the copyrights to the exclusive interview she gave the ‘News of the World’ in exchange for their silence on the ‘Sophiegate’ matter, how could she approve (I’m going to let a real PR expert Andrew Pierce explain this one) ‘every word of the article including, bizarrely, the headline which declared: “My Edward’s not gay”.  The headline provokes the question: who said he was?’**

There are many questions and there are still indications that the worse is yet to come.  Supposedly there are other papers that have copies of these tapes that could still end up spilling the beans on the Countess.  Let’s hope not.  Let’s hope that this horrendous incident that she has been forced to undergo has taught her humility about her status in life, about how Diana and Sarah Ferguson have suffered at the hands of the press and that the PR skills she is working so hard to hone need to be used in the client screening process as well.  I’m sure she has gotten little sleep since she was made aware of this scam.  I’m sure she has suffered enough humiliation for a few moments of unguarded discussion.

Getting to the Queen, she has handled everything beautifully.  She has let the papers know through her PR people who stood up for Sophie stating, ‘We suggest no serious journalist gives this story the time of day.’  It is also reported that the Queen sent along a message of support to Sophie in Bahrain, where she and Edward are currently performing some royal duties, to let her daughter-in-law know what a good job she is doing.  That is a complete about face from her former sister-in-laws treatment.  I’m sure some of it is experience and some of it is Edward’s doing as he completely supports his wife and is said to be quite angry at the way she has been deceived.  Let’s hope that Sophie and the House of Windsor will emerge from this current PR disaster looking more compassionate towards the public scrutiny their members face and more humble of the positions they hold through the will of the people.

* Edward Windsor, Royal Enigma, Chapter 9, Enter Sophie, Page 130

** Andrew Pierce, The Times, Tuesday, April 03 2001, Q&A:  Andrew Pierce on ‘Sophiegate’

All the best,