It was the Princess of Wales’s most poignant official engagement since the start of the year as Kate stood in solemn silence in honour of the nation’s war dead.
Kate made a rare appearance at the Remembrance Sunday service at the Cenotaph – a sign of both her gradual return to duties and the importance the royal family places on the annual tribute to the fallen.
In the absence of the Queen, who is recuperating at home with a chest infection, Kate, a future queen consort herself, was due to take to the central balcony alone.
Kate chatted with and smiled at Sophie at the start and, as they retreated from the balcony at the ceremony’s close, Sophie was seen to place her gloved hand on the princess’s back in a comforting gesture.
Her high-profile appearance comes after the Prince of Wales candidly described how 2024 had been “brutal” and “probably been the hardest year in my life”, with both Kate and the King diagnosed with cancer.
She was seen joining in with the national anthem, and singing alongside the duchess for a hymn as they held their song sheets.
Her diamond and pearl drop earrings belonged to the late Queen, and she also wore her silver Queen’s Dragoon Guards brooch – in a nod to her role as the regiment’s Colonel-in-Chief – beneath her poppies.
She was pictured in 2011 in a black double-breasted coat by Diane von Furstenberg and a small brimmed hat with a large bow by couture milliner Jane Corbett.
