Duchess Sophie's secret heartbreaking journey with Lady Louise laid bare - Geo News

Prince Edward and Duchess Sophie are proud parents of their two children as they pursue their endeavours in life.

Recently, King Charles gave a special acknowledgement to his niece, Lady Louise Windsor, for her accomplishments as she graduated from St Andrew’s University.

While things are going great for the 22-year-old, there was a time when Sophie and Edward had to go through a tough time given her rare medical condition.

Apart from being a secret weapon for King Charles’s monarchy, Sophie had once been a doting mother, fiercely protective of her young daughter who had to get a surgical procedure done to her eye at just 18-months-old.

Louise, who will be marking her 23rd birthday over the weekend, was born prematurely via an emergency C-section and at the time suffered a placental abruption. She was born with esotropia; a form of the eye disorder strabismus where one or both eyes turn inward.

Sophie once shared that Louise’s squint was “quite profound” when she was little and it took time to correct it.

“You’ve got to make sure one eye doesn’t become more dominant than the other but she’s fine now – her eyesight is perfect,” Sophie added at the time.

An optometrist Jess Perri confirmed to New Idea that this condition is not just a cosmetic concern.

“When the eyes aren’t aligned, the brain may start suppressing the image from one eye, which can affect visual development, depth perception and contribute to amblyopia (lazy eye),” she explained.

“The aim isn’t to just ‘straighten the eyes’, but also to give the developing brain the best opportunity to establish good vision and learn to use both eyes together (binocular vision).”