Lady Louise Windsor is being prepared for ‘a life outside the working royal family’

It’s been a minute since anyone has talked about Lady Louise Windsor, who is currently a student at St. Andrew’s in Scotland. In previous years, we were getting various “Louise should be a working royal, we need new blood in the Windsor clan” stories every few months. But those stories died down significantly. Louise seems to be pretty quiet – she’s still carriage driving competitively, and she has a boyfriend now (Felix de Silva-Clamp) who seems to have parental approval. But Louise doesn’t seem particularly eager to be part of the “working royal” group. The Duchess of Edinburgh’s biographer recently said that Louise and her brother James will probably just… live their lives outside of the Firm for the most part.

Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip’s four children all play very different roles in the modern royal family, and their own children have followed suit. Now, a royal biographer is weighing in on the possible future expectations for the late Queen’s youngest pair of grandchildren: Lady Louise Windsor and James, Earl of Wessex.

The children of Prince Edward and Sophie, the Duchess of Edinburgh — Louise, 21, and James, 17 — are years younger than their cousins and have largely been kept out of the public eye. As they reach adulthood and their parents have stepped into more senior royal roles following the accession of King Charles and Edward’s inheritance of his late father’s title, it’s believed that Louise and James may not be called upon for major royal duties.

“I think Sophie — and Edward — have been careful to prepare their children for a life outside the working royal family,” royal biographer Sean Smith recently told GB News. The author of a new biography on Sophie, subtitled Saving the Royal Family, Smith said he’s “confident that there will not be any pressure on Louise and James” to take on major royal duties.

Lady Louise is currently starting her final year at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, where she studies English. Like some of her cousins, she has also taken part in military training and holds the rank of Officer Cadet in the Army Reserve. Her most public royal connection, however, is her love of horses and carriage driving. She inherited Prince Philip’s driving ponies and carriage upon his death in 2021, and she recently competed at the National Carriage Driving Championships, where she was cheered on by her rumored boyfriend, Felix da Silva-Clamp.

“[She] is the only young woman of her age in the royal family, and I am sure she will be a great success at whatever she decides to do,” Smith said.

Meanwhile, James inherited his father’s former title of Earl of Wessex upon King Charles’ accession in 2023, having previously been titled Viscount Severn. He currently attends the all-boys boarding school Radley College in Oxfordshire.

[From People]

Around Louise’s 18th birthday, there was a lot of fuss about whether she would decide to become “Princess Louise,” a title which was her due given the George V letters patent. It felt like Sophie and Edward were pushing for the title upgrade and pushing for Louise to join the working-royal rank eventually. But then it all just fizzled away. Louise never grabbed the princess title and she just seems to enjoy the quiet student life. Something else I’ve noticed is that both Louise and James don’t seem to care much about showing up to Windsor-family events. Louise skipped Trooping the Colour this year, and James skips family events with some regularity too.

Photos courtesy of Cover Images.