March 3, 2002	Sunday	Zilhaj 18, 1422

LONDON, March 2: Queen Elizabeth’s youngest son, Prince Edward, announced on Saturday that he and his wife Sophie would give up their controversial business careers to support the Queen during her Golden Jubilee.

Edward and Sophie have both been accused of using their status as members of the royal family to promote their jobs in film production and public relations respectively.

Speaking at an awards ceremony in Weston super Mare, western England, Edward said that running his own company had been “the biggest challenge I have ever faced and yet has turned out to be enormous fun, immensely rewarding and full of surprises.”

“It is quite obvious that in this year, the Golden Jubilee, we are required more than ever to support the Queen and to help my family shoulder some of the increasing responsibilities and workload...” he said.

“My wife has already ceased her day to day involvement in management of her company, and I will cease my day to day involvement at the end of this month when I will step down as Ardent’s director of production and joint managing director.”

“When we have fulfilled our current obligations we will cease to have any connections with our companies,” he said.

Both Edward and Sophie, the Earl and Countess of Wessex, have faced criticism for using their royal status to promote their private business careers.

Last April Sophie, co-founder of RJH Public Relations, fell victim to a newspaper sting when a reporter, posing as an Arab, trapped her into saying that her royal connections were useful in business dealings.—Reuters