Queen Elizbaeth's apt advice to King Charles' cousin after devastating car crash

02 January 2024 , 12:31

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Sophie Winkleman, Lady Frederick Windsor and her husband Lord Frederick Windsor (Image: Getty Images)

Peep Show star Sophie Winkleman has revealed the “typically thoughtful” advice given to her by the late Queen after a terrible crash left her believing she was "a goner".

The actress, who is married to Lord Frederick Windsor, the second cousin of King Charles and 53rd in line to the throne, revealed how she was helped by the monarch after she broke her back in a car accident and feared she would be paralysed.

While travelling from work on a film set in November 2017 the car she was in was involved in a crash which left the actress, also called Lady Frederick Windsor, trapped in the upturned wreck.

“I assumed I was a goner,” she said in an interview. “you just go into a strangely un-romantic mode of thinking, ‘Right, this is my last few minutes. I’ve got to do something practical.’ So I was thinking things like, ‘Hope my parents stay well to help Freddie take care of the children, hope he meets someone nice…’”

However paramedics were able to cut her out of the wreck and she was taken to hospital with a broken spine and foot. After three days she learned that she would not be paralysed but her recovery would eventually take months, she told Tatler magazine. However the royals rallied round and provided support to her and her family while she healed, she said.

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Lord Frederick Windsor and actress Sophie Winkleman at a pre-Oscar event in Beverly Hills, California in 2015 (Getty Images North America)

Prince Charles had his cook at Clarence House make meals for her family twice daily for months, which Winkleman described as “life saving”. Prince William reportedly asked his colleague in the air ambulance service to take “good care” of her and Sophie, Countess of Wessex, visited her in hospital.

However her recovery was slow and she was unable to pick up her children for a whole year. “It was quite sobering. Physio left me in so much pain, it wasn’t working,” she said. Her recovery came after she spoke with the Queen at a function. “She asked how I was, and she said, ‘We can’t have that. You have to go in the water.’ She told us that when horses had broken backs, they swam, and so she let me use her pool at Buckingham Palace. That’s the reason I got better. It was so typically thoughtful,” she revealed.

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