Much is made of the royal family’s romances, but Lord Frederick Windsor and Sophie Winkelman’s love story might have begun with the sweetest start of all.

Lord Frederick, 46, is the son of Prince Michael of Kent and a cousin of King Charles, and married actress Sophie, 45, in 2009. The couple met on New Year’s Eve in the Soho neighborhood of London in 2007, when they both raced to catch the same taxi. 

“We were leaving two different parties, and we went for the same taxi. His very first words to me were, ‘You’re Big Suze, I love you!’ ” she told Tatler in 2024, recounting how her future husband called her by the name of her Peep Show character.

“I looked back at this ridiculously beautiful face and thought, ‘Oh, God. Hello, everyone. I’m going to be in trouble here.’ It was quite Richard Curtis,” she said, citing the screenwriter and director behind rom-coms like Love Actually, Bridget Jones’s Diary and Notting Hill. 

Sophie told Tatler that her family “definitely weren’t interested in me marrying into royalty. I think Freddie could probably sense that.” However, they got engaged after two years of dating.

He popped the question with a diamond ring that belonged to his late grandmother, Princess Marina of Greece and Denmark, and they wed at Chapel Royal at Hampton Court Palace on Sept. 12, 2009, in a private ceremony attended by 400 guests, The Guardian reported.

Sophie relatably said that in retrospect, she would have done her bridal style differently and quipped that her hair looked “disgusting,” but didn’t have time to dwell. She and “Freddie” moved to Los Angeles two days after their Saturday wedding, and she was soon cast in the sitcom Two and a Half Men alongside Ashton Kutcher.

The couple quietly lived under the royal radar in the U.S. and Frederick worked at J.P. Morgan, but they returned home to London after their first child, daughter Maud, was born in 2013. 

Sophie and Frederick’s second child, daughter Isabella, was born in 2016, and the family of four often attends royal family events like Kate Middleton‘s “Together at Christmas” carol service at Westminster Abbey.

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Today, Lord and Lady Frederick (as she’s technically titled!) pursue private careers and charity work, balancing family life with steps into the royal spotlight.

Sophie told The Telegraph in May 2025 that she’s a fan of her husband’s side of the family, explaining, “Family isn’t always brilliant, but this lot are very sweet. I love all of them.”