King Charles enlisted private chef to cook for royal family member while she recovered from nightmare car smash

28 December 2023

King Charles got his private chef to cook for royal family member Sophie Winkleman while she was recovering from a horror car crash.

King Charles got his private chef to cook for royal family member Sophie Winkleman while she was recovering from a horror car crash

The monarch, 75, who was crown in May, helped the wife of Lord Frederick Windsor – who is second cousin of Charles and 53rd in the line to the throne – when she was involved in a nightmarish accident while being driven home from the set of Danny Boyle’s TV drama ‘Trust’ in 2016.

It left her trapped in the back seat of a turned over car, and she told Tatler magazine she “assumed she was a goner”.

But after being cut out of the pulverised vehicle by emergency workers, Sophie, 43, had to spend three days in hospital and had broken her foot, as well as three bones in her back.

She said when she returned home she was touched to learn the then-Prince Charles had enlisted the help of his cook at Clarence House to cook for her and her family twice a day for her recovery period.

The actress – the half-sister of ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ host Claudia Winkleman, 51, and who has starred in the Channel 4 sitcom ‘Peep Show’, said: “It was lifesaving, having this massive thing twice daily that I didn’t have to worry about.”

Sophie, known as Lady Frederick Windsor and who is also the daughter-in-law of Prince and Princess of Michael of Kent, also told Tatler about Charles’ work ethic: “I spend a bit of time with him. You see how he works all day long, has a quick supper and then disappears until about 4am to write letters.

“He cares about so many things and he comes up with brilliant solutions.”

Sophie also told Tatler how Prince William, 41, asked an air ambulance colleague to “take good care of her” in the wake of her accident, and how Sophie, Countess of Wessex, 58, came to visit her while she was recuperating in hospital.

The full feature on Sophie is in the February issue of Tatler, available via digital download and on newsstands from 4 January.