The Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh have seen their profile continue to rise ever since they were officially included in the late Queen's line-up of senior royals.
The couple are both advocates for many charities, with Sophie in particular being a key voice in the fields of gender equality, violence against women and avoidable blindness.
While they have always been hard working members of The Firm, this promotion came after Prince Andrew stepped back from his role and after Prince Harry and Meghan relocated to the US.
This adjustment, royal expert Jennie Bond feels, is one that they have taken in their stride.
Speaking exclusively to OK! Jennie said: "Arguably, the departure of Harry and Meghan has affected the lives of Edward and Sophie more than anyone else.
"They have always done their fair share of royal engagements, but now, as Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh, they are recognised as senior and key members of the royal family.
"Their children are older than William and Catherine’s, so they don’t feel quite the same pressures to be home with their kids. They really are playing a central role in the new, slimmed down royal family.
A key part of The Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh's essential roles include carrying on Prince Philip's work with the Duke of Edinburgh Awards Scheme, which they started before the late Duke's death in 2021.
When they are not carrying out regular engagements in the UK, the couple have a key diplomatic role and take on a lot of foreign travel – with the Duchess recently returning from Iraq and the Duke from Germany.
While never said officially by the Palace, their roles abroad are likely to be similar to the ones Prince Harry and Meghan would have played had they never stepped back.
As ambassadors for the Youth Commonwealth, Harry and Meghan would have surely spent a lot of the year in and around countries in the Commonwealth – just as the likes of Prince Edward, Sophie and Princess Anne do.
Outside of her royal duties, The Duchess of Edinburgh shared a particularly close bond with the late Queen which was explained by a royal aide who explained to the Daily Mail in 2018: “[The Queen] talks to Sophie in the way she used to talk to Princess Margaret.
"Sophie has filled a terrible gap in the Queen’s life that was left when her sister and the Queen Mother died in 2002.” Another aide said: “She is like another daughter to Her Majesty, they are that close.”
Before the Queen's death, royal expert Richard Kay also wrote: “The Queen and the [Duchess] also share a fascination with military history. Sophie loves listening to the Queen talk about great historical events, and the pair are sometimes gone for hours, pouring over ancient documents in the Royal Archives, which are kept at Windsor Castle.
“When Sophie visited the World War One and World War Two battlefields and cemeteries in France, she told the Queen all about what she had seen and what she felt."
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