New photo of Duchess of Edinburgh to mark her 60th birthday

In honor of her 60th birthday, a new photo has been released of the Duchess of Edinburgh looking happy and relaxed.

Sophie reaches the milestone age on Monday and will celebrate the occasion privately at home with the Duke of Edinburgh.

The photo was taken by London-based portrait, fashion and commercial photographer Christina Ebenezer at Bagshot Park this month.

The Duchess, wearing a cream-colored pleated skirt and a dark knit with long sleeves, is pictured sitting on a window seat.

She appears to have snapped mid-laugh at the casual portrait of Ebenezer, who is said to find inspiration in classic portraits and films.

Buckingham Palace said Sophie was interested in Ebenezer's creative photography style and wanted to support an emerging female photographer.

Ebenezer was born in Nigeria and spent her early years in Lagos before moving to her immediate family in London.

She has been named both a British Fashion Council New Wave Creative and a Forbes 30 Under 30 Arts & Culture Leader.

Two of her portraits were unveiled at the National Portrait Gallery in collaboration with Chanel last January.

The palace said that as the Duchess looks ahead to her 60th birthday, she has a renewed sense of excitement and commitment to her work around gender equality and looks forward to further embracing and championing this issue in the future.

A favorite of the late Queens, Sophie has risen to public prominence over the past year.

She has been hailed as a trusted figure in the downsized working monarchy, which has come under further pressure in the wake of the King and Princess of Wales' major health problems.

Sophie was pictured placing a comforting hand on Kate's back as the princess, now in remission from cancer, made a rare public appearance on Remembrance Day at the Cenotaph at the end of a traumatic year.

The Duchess also became the first member of the royal family to visit Ukraine since the beginning of the Russian invasion.

She traveled to Kyiv in April to meet with President Volodymyr Zelensky and First Lady Olena Zelenska to discuss how to support survivors of conflict-related sexual violence.

On a trip to Chad in October, Sophie was moved to tears after meeting refugees fleeing Sudan's civil war and hearing their devastating experiences of sexual violence.

PR director Sophie Rhys-Jones married Edward, Elizabeth II and the late Duke of Edinburgh's youngest son, Prince Philip, in June 1999 at St Georges Chapel, Windsor Castle, during a continental-style evening service where guests were told no hats to wear.

The couple became the Earl and Countess of Wessex and celebrated their silver wedding anniversary last year.

Edward is the only one of the Queen's four children who is not divorced.

In March, Sophie surprised Edward with a tearful tribute ahead of his 60th birthday, taking to the stage in Leeds to call him the best dad, the most loving husband and still my best friend.

In a television interview, Edward described his wife as his rock, adding: I'm incredibly lucky that I found Sophie and that she found me.

Romance blossomed when Edward and Sophie, who once had a job at Capital Radio, met at a real tennis event in the early 1990s.

They now have two children, Lady Louise Windsor, 21, and 17-year-old James the Earl of Wessex.

But Sophie's journey to motherhood was incredibly dangerous.

She was taken to hospital in 2001 with a potentially life-threatening ectopic pregnancy.

Two years later, her daughter, Lady Louise, was born four weeks prematurely, weighing 1.25kg, while Sophie was rushed by ambulance for a caesarean section, during which she lost nine liters of blood and is said to have almost died.

As the daughter of the son of a then-sovereign, Lady Louise had the right to be known as Princess Louise, while James, born in 2007, is actually a prince.

But Edward and Sophie decided against this, and announced on their wedding day that all children would not use the HRH style, and would instead adopt the courtesy titles of an earl's child.

Sophie had a close relationship with the late Queen, who had great affection for her daughter-in-law.

She also shared a love of carriage driving with father-in-law Philip, and was devastated when both the Queen and Duke died just over a year apart.

The Duchess faced setbacks as she and Edward initially tried to combine their lives as royals with a professional career.

The Duchess was caught in a Fake Sheikh sting by the News of the World in 2001 and was accused of trying to use her status to promote her business.

The Sophiegate controversy was hugely damaging and resulted in reports of indiscreet comments about a range of public figures, including Tony and Cherie Blair, and William Haag.

It led to a lengthy investigation into how working royals should be regulated.

In Queen Elizabeth II's Golden Jubilee year of 2002, Edward and Sophie finally announced that they were leaving their business to become full-time royals.

Charles presented his youngest brother with the title of Duke of Edinburgh from his late father on his 59th birthday in 2023, in accordance with his parents' wishes and in recognition of Edward's dedication to the Duke of Edinburgh Award youth programme.

It meant that Sophie became the Duchess of Edinburgh, a title that last belonged to Elizabeth II.

The Duchess has been praised for her regal fashion style, which in recent years has seen her ditch safe options for sleek glamor and flowy florals, wearing clothes from brands including Emilia Wickstead, Erdem, Beulah and Suzannah London.

Sophie, patron of the charity Wellbeing of Women, became the first member of the royal family to discuss their own experiences of menopause, covering hot flashes, memory loss and brain fog, and calling for more candid conversations on the subject.

She has also called for tampons and sanitary towels to be kept out of the cupboard to break the taboo on menstruation.

A champion of the UN Women, Peace and Security Agenda, Sophie has focused her charity work on raising awareness of the devastation of conflict-related sexual violence.

She has also long campaigned to prevent avoidable vision loss, after Lady Louise was born with an eye condition that required surgery.

In 2016, Sophie cycled 450 miles from the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh to Buckingham Palace as part of her Duke of Edinburgh's Award Diamond Challenge.

The Edinburghs traveled to Malta in October to visit the villa where the Queen and Philip lived in the early days of their marriage, recreating a photo of the couple on the roof of the house decades ago.