The Earl and Countess of Wessex visit Whitton School
Posted on : 25-06-2009 | By : admin | In : Videos
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Their Royal Highness meet pupils learning about the realities of teenage parenting during an engagement on their 10th wedding anniversary.
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Straight Talking has benefited from donations from the royal couple’s Wessex Youth Trust, a charitable foundation they set up with the money raised from the television rights to their wedding in 1999. It has since raised almost £1.1 million and provided financial support to 158 charities affecting teenagers and young people.
Sophie and Edward were married at St George’s Chapel in Windsor on June 19 1999, after a mutual passion for the ancient sport of Real Tennis brought them together. They now have two children, Lady Louise Windsor, five, and 18-month-old Viscount Severn. During their visit to the school the couple shared some of their parenting experiences with the pupils involved in a series of workshops which included listening to testimonies from young mothers, working out a family budget and learning the practicalities of being a mother or father.
‘It is so much harder than you ever think it will be,’ the Countess told one pupil. Afterwards the couple looked delighted to be given a bouquet of flowers each and a card to mark their anniversary, which is traditionally celebrated with a gift of tin. Sophie beamed and rubbed her husband’s back as they posed for pictures. Wessex Youth Trust chairman Mark Foster-Brown, who was at university with Edward, said: ‘Sophie is very grounded. ‘A lot of us would struggle in the role she’s found herself in but they make a good team together.’


