Prince William and Kate Middleton nearly missed out on title to 'Queen's favourite'

Prince William and Kate, who married back in 2011, had previous titles which were nearly given to other well-known royals on their wedding day by the late Queen Elizabeth.

Prince William and Kate Middleton's major titles were "nearly given" to other royals. Prince William and Kate, who married back in 2011, had previous titles which were nearly given to other well-known royals on their wedding day by the late Queen Elizabeth.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge titles originally offered to Prince Edward and his wife, Sophie, the now Duchess of Edinburgh. But Prince Edward had his heart set on an alternative title, according to a Royal Family insider.

Speaking out to the Telegraph newspaper in 2010, a royal courtier said: "Prince Edward was going to be the Duke of Cambridge, but he watched the film Shakespeare in Love, which had a character called the Earl of Wessex.

READ MORE Met Office and BBC announce dramatic 24C weather shift to hit UK this week

"He liked the sound of it and asked the Queen if he could have that instead." He became the first son of a monarch to have become an Earl since the Tudors, as a result of his request to his late mum, who is also mum to King Charles, Princess Anne and Prince Andrew.

In January 2023 he presented the inaugural ‘Earl of Wessex Award’ – a new prize recognising efforts to promote diversity in production and make the sector more inclusive. At the time, his official Twitter/X account tweeted: "As @ProductionGuild Patron, The Earl of Wessex visited @MAMAYouth at Sky Studios today to learn more about the charity, which trains and supports young people from under-represented backgrounds to succeed in the media industry."

Edward is also Vice-Patron of the Commonwealth Games Federation, having attended every Commonwealth Games since Edinburgh hosted the event in 1986. The Duke made several visits to the West Midlands in 2022 ahead of the Games in Birmingham.

He also spoke at the Commonwealth Games closing ceremony that year, which wrapped up in August after a month-long event. The Daily Mail quoted a royal aide 2016 who said of Sophie: "She is trusted and relied on by the Queen in a way I couldn't say applied to the Duchess of Cambridge or the Duchess of Cornwall.

"She is like another daughter to Her Majesty, they are that close." "[The Countess] is probably the best example of an outsider coming into the family and learning on the job," royal biographer Robert Jobson told the paper.

"She's very much the Queen’s favourite, and you’ll notice that whenever there is a family holiday or gathering, Sophie and Edward often stay a while longer than the rest."