 Sophie Piper was a close confidante to her brother Axel von Fersen the Younger, known as a favorite and rumored lover of Marie Antoinette – for reasons of caution the letters between Axel and Sophie make numerous references to that relationship, but out of caution Marie Antoinette is never referred to by name but always as "She" or "Josephine"; the Swedish historian Alma Söderhjelm has demonstrated that these are aliases for Marie Antoinette.In their correspondence, Sophie reproached Axel for his sexual relationship to Eleanore Sullivan out of consideration for the feelings of Marie Antoinette