The unexpected royal family duo that are a 'force to be reckoned with'

Kate Middleton and Duchess Sophie of Edinburgh are the 'real stars' of the Royal Family thanks to their fun friendship and down-to-earth touch, according to one royal expert.

• According to a royal expert, Kate Middleton and Duchess Sophie are the two key senior royals who are a 'force to be reckoned with'. 
• The expert puts it down to their 'elegant, engaging and empathetic' personalities that shine through time and time again during royal engagements. 
• In other royal news, Prince William ‘looks up’ to Kate Middleton’s parents and has taken inspiration from their ‘down-to-earth’ parenting style.

King Charles may have been crowned the hardest working royal of the last decade, but according to one royal expert he needs to watch out for this duo who are a 'force to be reckoned with.'

Often described as the Royal Family's 'secret weapon' and previously known as The Queen's 'rock,' when Duchess Sophie of Edinburgh teams up with Kate Middleton, who stepped out in a stunning green summer dress yesterday for a royal engagement, the pair are the 'stars' of the Royal Family.

The pair have formed a deep friendship over their years of royal service, bonding over their mutual desire to seek a normal life for their children and likely finding comparisons between their relatively 'normal' upbringings away from royal life. 

So while Kate recently admitted that she is 'still learning' how to be a royal, the BBC's royal correspondent Jennie Bond believes her and Sophie's partnership makes them the 'key' senior royals whose 'elegant, engaging and empathetic' approach to meeting royal fans keeps public opinion on the monarchy's side. 

She told OK! Magazine, "It is so much more evident now that Catherine and Sophie are key members of the list of working royals. At a Buckingham Palace garden party, we saw them taking their place as senior members of the family.

"I think people have really taken Sophie to their hearts in the past few years, especially after she showed her obvious grief at losing Prince Philip and Queen. Her evident closeness with them was so much more than a bond, it looked like a deep affection for her in-laws.

"Both she and Catherine have a common touch…perhaps because they lived 'normal' lives before marrying. They connect with the people they meet and look as if they really want to chat. They are the new female stars of the show - elegant, engaging and empathetic."

But their relationship goes further than just work according to a body language expert who has analysed the pair's interactions. According to them, Sophie and Kate have formed a tight-knit and fun-filled friendship since Kate married into the family back in 2011, with the Princess 'admiring' Sophie's parenting style as well as her approach to royal life. 

Speaking about the pair's Royal Ascot appearance in 2017, when Sophie stumbled into Kate while trying to climb into the royal carriage, body language expert Judi James told The Sun, "The two women meet face-to-face here and Kate’s raised brows and eyes widened in mock shock produce a matching, open-mouthed response from Sophie, showing those strong bonds of shared fun that clearly seem to exist when the two women aren’t out in public."

As for Kate's admiration of Sophie's parenting style, in her book The New Royals: Queen Elizabeth's Legacy and the Future of the Crown, royal commentator Katie Nicholl shares, "Kate is said to admire the way Prince Edward and his wife, Sophie, are raising their children — Lady Louise Windsor and James, Viscount Severn — in the bosom of the Royal Family but prepared for life in the real world."