Kate was fashionable in a teal dress by Zara yesterday evening, as she greeted children and cast members at a performance of The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe. The Lion toy Kate clutches was a gift. Photo Credit: Rebecca Naden / PA Wire
The audience was packed with 150 school children from The Art Room, a charity of which Kate is a patron .
The Duchess made an effort to talk to both the children and the cast members at the performance, which was created by theatre company ThreeSixty.
“Having a royal patron like the Duchess of Cambridge is fantastic for a small charity like us,” Juli Beattie, founder and director of The Art Room told media. “To see the children’s reaction was overwhelming. It was a fantastic visual experience for all of them.”
Photo Credit: Rebecca Naden / PA Wire
Kate chats with the cast of the performance. Photo Credit: Rebecca Naden / PA Wire / Press Association Images
Kate chats with the cast of the performance. Photo Credit: Rebecca Naden / PA Wire
The Duchess poses for a picture with children and actors Photo Credit: SkyNews
The Duchess in Erdem. Photo Credit: Niraj Tanna/ Mark Stewartn
Look familiar? The Duchess in the same Erdem dress she wore last year in Canada. Photo Credit: Niraj Tanna/ Mark Stewartn
Doesn’t the pretty blue dress that The Duchess of Cambridge is sporting in the pictures above look a bit…no, VERY familiar? Well, it should; Kate re-wore the now iconic Erdem piece, on Saturday, to a friends wedding.
The Duchess originally wore the dress in Canada on a royal engagement, during her first official tour as a member of The Firm. However, this time she wore the piece to attend an altogether more personal affair.
The very same Erdem! Photo of Duke and Duchess in Canada last year (R) via Hollywoodlife. Photo of Duke and Duchess at wedding on Saturday (L) via Niraj Tanna/ Mark Stewartn
Pippa also turned up for the festivities on Saturday. Niraj Tanna/ Mark Stewartn
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge will attend the Mitsubishi Motors Badminton Horse Trials this year, say event organizers who have released a public statement.
The decision is an interesting one— given the Duchess has a slight allergy to horses. However, considering Kate’s new roll as an Olympic Ambassador for London 2012, she might be willing to tough out the event; it will be one of the last chances for eventers to “impress” the Olympic selectors, reports Horse&Hound.
The Duchess will also want to show support to her new family member Zara Phillips: “With the fifth spot in Team GBR very much open, the Duke’s cousin, Zara Phillips, will be hoping to impress with Trevor Hemmings’ High Kingdom, 10th at Burghley last year,” reports Horse&Hound.
The royal couple will watch the final jumping test section before presenting prizes to the successful competitors.
This will not be the first or final time the Duchess tries to overcome her horse allergy.
Kate usually watches William play polo from afar, though, she did attend a charity polo match last year at the Santa Barbara Polo & Racquet Club; It was there that the Duchess told a source she is trying to overcome the allergy: “According to Clarisa Ru, wife of Santa Barbara Polo Club president Wesley Ru, Kate has been working on overcoming her allergy,” reported PEOPLE online on July 11, 2011.
“I got a chance to have a conversation with Kate,” Ru told PEOPLE. “I asked if she was into polo before she met William. She said no. But she’s been riding horses for awhile and she hopes to play polo one day. She said ‘I’m actually allergic to them, but the more time one spends with them the less allergic you become.”
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were recently praised openly by their wedding day photographer, Hugo Burnand, for their ‘kindness’ and ‘good manners.’ Burnand toldBang Showbizof the lovely experience he had working with the royal couple last April:
Prince William and Catherine are the kindest people, they have the most fantastic good manners,” he said. “It was not just an honour and a privilege to have such an important commission but it was an honour and privilege to work with two such lovely people, they have such kindness and good manners. If everyone was like that life would be a dream. My favourite photograph was the one where they were sitting on the steps in the throne room with all of the bridesmaids around them and we had literally minutes to do that. We had almost run out of time but everyone was organised and we were ready to do it and we had bribes of jelly beans for the kids and within three minutes we were able to get everyone together and take the picture. The personalities of the individuals really shine through because we didn’t have time to stage anything and I think it’s wonderful.
The royal couple are set to celebrate the first anniversary of their marriage on April 29th.
The Duchess of Cambridge delivered her first ever public address at the East AngliaChildren’s Hospice (Each) today in Ipswich. Kate was supporting the opening of the charity’s latest facility, the Treehouse, and gave a three minute speech in honor of the occasion.
During her talk, The Duchess made a commendable attempt to connect with charity workers in the audience; she looked a bit nervous, but chose her words carefully, spoke slowly, and delivered the speech (which she wrote herself) fairly smoothly.
“What you do is inspirational,” Kate told the audience of charity workers. “It is a shining example of the support and the care that is delivered, not just here, but in the children’s hospice movement at large, up and down the country. The feelings you inspire – feelings of love and of hope – offer a chance to families to live a life they never thought could be possible.”
The Duchess is patronizing only four charities at this point and “Each” is one of them.
Photo via: IB Times UK speech footage
Photo via: IB Times UK speech footage
Photo via hellomagazine.com
Below, footage of the Duchess speaking, via the BBC:
Later, the Duchess helped to plant a commemorative tree.
Photo Credit:shesomajor.com
Photo Credit:shesomajor.com
Photo Credit: Ian Gavan/Getty Images
Photo Credit: PA
Photo Credit: PA
Photo Credit: Ken Goff/ Goffphotos.com
Photo Credit: AP
Photo Credit: AP
Below, the full transcript of Kate’s speech:
“First of all, I’d like to say thank you. Thank you for not only accepting me as your Patron but thank you also for inviting me here today.”
“You have all made me feel so welcome and I feel hugely honoured to be here to see this wonderful centre.”
“I am only sorry that William can’t be here today; he would love it here. A view of his – that I share – is that through teamwork, so much can be achieved.”
“What you have all achieved here is extraordinary.”
“You as a community have built the Treehouse; a group of people who have made every effort to support and help each other.”
“When I first visited the Hospice in Milton, I had a pre-conceived idea as to what to expect. Far from being a clinical, depressing place for sick children, it was a home. Most importantly, it was a family home, a happy place of stability, support and care. It was a place of fun.”
“Today I have seen again that the Treehouse is all about family and fun. For many, this is a home from home – a lifeline, enabling families to live as normally as possible, during a very precious period of time.”
“What you do is inspirational, it is a shining example of the support and the care that is delivered, not just here, but in the children’s hospice movement at large, up and down the country.”
“The feelings you inspire – feelings of love and of hope – offer a chance to families to live a life they never thought could be possible.”
“So thank you again for inviting me here today. I feel enormously proud to be part of East Anglia’s Children’s Hospices and to see the wonderful life-changing work that you do. Thank you.”
Photo of Duchess via Getty; Sketch Photos via Raymond Press Partnership; collage work by Elspeth Lodge
The Duchess of Cambridge is to receive a special present when she begins her Diamond Jubilee tour duties as a member of the royal family next week; when she arrives in Leicester on March.8 with the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh by her side, she will be presented with six sketches of shoes created by students of De Montfort University (in the schools renowned footwear design course), say sources. Kate will choose her favorite design of the six; a design which will then be made into a real pair of shoes especially for the Duchess. According to the Daily Mail, there were over 100 students that applied for the chance to show their sketches to the Duchess.
Take a look below at some of the shoes the Duchess has worn on past royal engagements.
Photo collage of Kate's shoes via catherine-duchessofcambridge.tumblr.com
Kate will not be alone in receiving a gift during the visit to Leicester, however: “The Queen will be presented with a picture of a Corgi drawn by a primary school pupil in a competition to be judged by celebrated artist Sir Peter Blake,” reports the Daily Mail. “She will also receive a headscarf designed by a De Montfort University textiles student.” And “The Duke of Edinburgh will be a given a lenticular – a 3D image – of himself driving a horse and carriage.”
When the royal party arrives in the area, the trio will be greeted by a crowd of 8,000 at Magazine Square. Here, the Queen and Kate will witness a fashion show created by four 2011 graduates of the university. The Duke of Edinburgh (who probably has less of an interest in fashion than the Queen and Duchess of Cambridge) will meet staff and students involved in university’s Square Mile Project— an endeavor which aims to improve the lives in Fosse Road North, Tudor Road, Woodgate and Newfoundpool.
This is a landmark event, as it will be the first time the Duchess and the Queen have been on a public engagement together.
Maybe the Duchess of Cambridge has healing hugs … Six-year-old Diamond Marshall, who was chosen to present the Duchess with flowers at the Calgary airport earlier this year, is now in remission from her cancer.
Photo Credit: radaronline
Photo Credit: radaronline
Diamond’s father told the Mail he believes meeting the Duchess helped his daughter fight the illness. The Children’s Wish Foundation of Canada arranged the meeting.
When Diamond saw the Duchess in July, she was so excited that she ran and flung her arms around Kate’s neck. Not only did Diamond then present Kate with flowers, but also a heart shaped box with a friendship bracelet inside.
A St James’ Palace spokesman told the Mail: “I passed the news to Their Royal Highnesses, who asked me to convey how pleased they are to hear the news and their best wishes to Diamond and her family at this happy time. They hope for a joyful 2012 for Diamond and her family.”
Diamond lost her mother, Memory Marshall, to cancer four years ago.
