Kensington Palace is being so unnecessarily squirrelly about the Duchess of Cambridge’s exposure to Covid and the timeline of when she was likely exposed and when she learned she was exposed. KP still refuses to say anything on-the-record about just what happened, but “sources” are being sent out to brief the Daily Mail and, I would assume, the rest of the Royal Rota. It’s looking like Kate was not *exposed* to Covid at Wimbledon on Friday, but that is where she learned she had been exposed to someone with Covid. The Mail did a pretty good tick-tock of Kate’s day at Wimbledon – her arrival on the outer courts just after 11 am, her entrance in the Royal Box on Center Court around 1 pm and her haste in exiting the Royal Box just before 5 pm. The Mail and their sources suggest that Kate actually found out about her Covid-exposure in the Royal Box, as she chatted with the Duke of Kent.
This is the likely moment the Duchess of Cambridge rushed herself from the Royal Box at Wimbledon having learned she had to self-isolate. Kate is understood to have been alerted personally and was not ‘pinged’ by the NHS Test and Trace app, leaving the All England Club at 5pm on Friday – significantly earlier than she has done in previous years – and missing the match involving her friend Andy Murray. She was alerted after taking her seat next to the Duke of Kent and in front of Body Coach Joe Wicks, but left ‘immediately’ after being told she had come close to someone who tested positive for coronavirus, according to The Times.
On Friday Kate spotted looking serious as she was driven out of Wimbledon’s gates heading for Kensington Palace, where she is holed up today and unable to leave – even for food or medicine. She is not permitted to have visitors in her home, including family and friends, and will even have been told to avoid contact with anyone she lives with as much as possible.
Sources stressed that she followed rules laid down at Wimbledon, which require visitors to wear a mask when moving through the grounds at SW19 but not while sitting in the stands.
The duchess is said to have had her second vaccination even though it is only just over five weeks since she released pictures of her getting her first at the Science Museum in London. Until yesterday, the guidelines stipulated an 11 or 12-week gap between jabs for under-40s not classed as vulnerable, although in some cases a shorter wait was allowed.
Her ten-day self-isolation period includes the day on which she was last in contact with the person who tested positive. If it was on Wednesday, she could, in theory, be free to return to official duties by the weekend.
MailOnline understands she was alerted about the contact with a Covid-infected person on Friday afternoon – after spending most of the day at Wimbledon with VIPs including Tim Henman, who is not self-isolating. It means she must quarantine for ten days even if she tests negative, which she has, up to four times, in the past seven days including before and after her Wembley trip with William and George.
It makes a lot of sense (with the timeline) if she was alerted by message or ping or whatever while she sat in the Royal Box on Friday. I assumed she was there to watch British players play back-to-back on Center Court – Brit Dan Evans was playing first (after the women’s match) and then Andy Murray after that. She didn’t get to finish watching Dan Evans’ match and she wasn’t there for Andy’s match. And the Mail absolutely seems to be suggesting that she was exposed on Wednesday, at the football match she attended with William and George. It’s very curious. Also curious how sources insist she’s had both of her shots even though they were supposed to be spaced out a lot further? Curiouser and curiouser!
Photos courtesy of Getty.
It couldn’t have been the soccer match. If it was, George and Wills would have been exposed, right? Or we would’ve heard about others isolating, right?
Ooh! I wonder if she took a different car than George/William to the match (cause George was staying with Dad for his weekend?) and it was her driver that exposed her? Or hairstylist?
Yeah at this point i think it was at some sort of private gathering that clearly her kids nor her husband were part off. Wasn’t there a story that kate was spotted at the park with louis the day of diana’s statue unveiling? Maybe it was there.
Maybe like Baldemort she engages in some recreational gardening?
Did she effectively just get the flu vaccine or perhaps nothing at all? She fits the antivaxxer mould, and this entire situation reeks of Keen deceit.
It appears the Delta variant can occasionally infect people who are fully vaccinated. It’s a beast of variant. It grows stronger as unvaccinated people spread it and then becomes so strong it’s a risk to even vaccinated people. (Which is why mandatory vaccines are desperately needed.)
It’s been in the UK longer, but we’re already hearing and being warned of such cases here in the US. So it is very possible she was fully vaccinated and is still at risk.
Oh I completely agree. I’ve been fully vaxxed for months now and still wearing a mask, especially with the delta variant wreaking havoc everywhere. I also know she has at least received a dose, we all saw that photo, but I couldn’t resist being a bit cheeky and obtuse.
I should’ve clarified that it is odd that no one is reporting about the rest of the people around her observing self-isolation, Tim Henman was sat next to her and while he is mentioned in articles, there’s very little context on people around her being asked to self isolate. So was it at Wimbledon? Or the Euros? I shudder to think what the cases will look like in a couple of weeks, after the final match in Wembley is played at 75% capacity with the delta AND alpha variant in mutation.
I absolutely agree with mandatory vaccines, I’ve only just started the process of grieving this past year (involuntarily, might I add, depression is really rude and untimely) and I cannot understand how people wish to remain unprotected from this virus.
They said on TV that if you got the Pfizer vaccine you still have almost a 40% chance of getting the variant, however, you would not be hospitalized or die from the Delta virus. Kids could get it too who are not vaccinated.
I got the Pfizer jab and this is why I’m staying put and wearing a mask this summer. While I might get a mild case, I don’t think I could live with the guilt of perhaps infecting someone else who might not fare as well.
That would be some scalding hot tea if they were to dig deeper, but they won’t. Pity…
Aside from this there are plenty of insinuations about their marriage being just about duty and nothing else, and of course his infidelities. So those rats may already be sitting on dirt, they’re just bidding their time.
For the Mail, this is deeper than I thought they would go, even bringing up the inconsistency about her vaccination dates and implying she jumped the line, which people were insisting would NOT happen. I mean its not really saying anything scalding hot, so to speak, overall, but for the DM, which has been so pro-Cambridge over the past few years? It’s interesting.
So there is someone following the royal family and who they interact with in order to know who has covid? How are they able to find out whether they have been exposed ,especially when dealing with crowd events. I had also never heard of this NHS pinging device.
There’s an NHS app you can download and it’ll tell you if you’ve been in contact with someone with COVID. It’ll also let you input your positive test so the app can warn others. When you go into a venue, there’s a QR code you scan through the app and that’ll store your details so it can do the contacting.
That’s the “track and trace” system
My country also has this app, we call it Trace Together.
A lot of our states have a system like that too. I have it on my phone for Nevada, even though I am fully vaccinated.
Apps like the NHS ones are available in a lot of EU countries, they were part of the big track and trace campaign for the second Covid wave, with some working better than others. I have the Italian counterpart of it called Immuni it also holds the EU green pass which is necessary to access special covid free events in Italy and travel in the EU after you complete your vaccine cycle.
For what it’s worth I had my jabs spaced out by 6 weeks because my GP contacted me for my second appointment. I didn’t skip queues or anything and I don’t have any health issues. My husband was the exact same (6 weeks) and my neighbours had an even shorter span between the two shots. So… it’s not like some rule here in England you MUST wait 11 weeks. Also, there is a big push to get people fully vaccinated now (damn you, Delta variant!!) so more and more folks are getting their second jab earlier than people were like 4 months ago. Just wanted to clear that up in case the article confuses anyone.
Lucky you! Tried to have my jab a few weeks earlier and they told me I had to wait the full 8 weeks.
So annoying, especially considering how proactive you were! That’s the kind of behaviour that should be rewarded. I really hope you get your second jab text soon. I was literally DELIGHTED to get my second one last week. It was a huge weight off my mind.
I definitely do want to get it as soon as I can. I’ll try to go into another walk in centre next week or so and see if they’ll just shrug and give it.
I keep seeing these royal TikTokers talking about her self-isolating and Wills not having to. If she was exposed and he was there, wouldn’t he have to isolate as well. The one TikTok I watched was suggesting that Baldinham and Keen were living apart.
Again, I doubt it was the football match. Otherwise William and George would be isolating too. And I’m assuming they all interacted with the same people so again, William and George should be isolating too.
I still maintain she got it during her private time like at a restaurant or something.
im thinking the same thing. If it was at the football match then william stepping out yesterday was completely irresponsible.
Here to agree with you again, Sofia! The only way she could’ve been exposed without Will, George, or budding bicyclist Louis also being exposed is if it was some private event or contact.
What doesn’t make sense is, why wouldn’t KP just say straight out that Kate was exposed through a private contact, like dinner out or through her assistant or something, rather than stoking public hysteria that there could’ve been an outbreak at a football match attended by thousands or (before this latest clarification) at a tennis match attended by the same?
I’d think that KP would WANT everyone to know that (a) those public events were not the nexus event and attendees are safe, and (b) the all-important heirs were never exposed.
I think this article is meant to drive a more pointed answer out of KP. The tabloids are concern-trolling again – they’re saying “tell us where Kate got infected or we’ll keep speculating about how many thousands of people were potentially exposed through her.”
I think it’s when she got her hair done because you can see her hair colour is a bit darker on Friday than it was at the euro game. But they don’t want to say that because Kate gets defensive about hair extensions and the like.
I agree. If it’s a private event, they should just say it. A simple “she went out to eat at a restaurant and got it from there” or “Her staff got COVID” or “she went to do her hair and got it from the salon” or “She went to her sister’s house and got it from there” or whatever. She’s allowed to do all of that so it’s not like KP are scared she will be criticised for breaking the rules.
But I also can see the DM using this to stir the pot. They want to criticise government protocols and they also want to know where she got it so they can write stories about it.
@Nic919 you may be right. I went back and compared photos and her hair does look a teensy bit longer and lighter at football than at wimbledon.
In looking back though I was reminded of another weird why-isnt-kate-there moment – when Will announced that Kate was going to be a sponsor of a naval battleship in Scotland on Tuesday. There’s no reason why Kate couldn’t have gone with them to Scotland if she was going to be named a sponsor, so why wasn’t she there? Will managed to get back in time for the football match just fine. Combined with her missing the unveiling, there being no separate family photoshoot at the statue, the Bucklebury house story etc, none of it really adds up to anything but it all vaguely feels like obfuscation around what’s really happening with Kate. It makes it all seem much more sinister and notable because they won’t just come out and say “she got her hair done and her stylist has covid, end of.”
I think it was something private as well, but agree with you all that its weird KP won’t just say that. This wouldn’t be such a weird thing if they just said “the Duchess was at a restaurant for lunch on Thursday and that was the source of the exposure.” Kate is allowed to go out to eat (I’m assuming, I don’t know current UK protocols lol.)
So this could be as simple as just total KP incompetence, and they’re not saying anything more and its just adding fire to the flames, which it could be – or they don’t want to tell us where she was exposed because…..why? It reminds people that Kate isn’t normal? (if she was eating at a $$ restaurant, or if her hairstylist came to her house* or something) – or because it exposes something we’re not supposed to know?
*If her hairstylist came to her house I’m assuming more members of the household would have been exposed, so its more likely she was at a salon, and maybe they dont want people knowing what salon she’s using these days? Do we know that?
I find it “interesting” that the timeline lines up nicely with a photo of Kate looking at her cell phone while at the match. I agree with @Lauren, they should dig deeper……
But if she was exposed at the football match then so were william and george and william should 100% be isolating as well.
I don’t understand why people aren’t wearing a mask at sporting events! I’m fully vaccinated but still very not comfortable being in a big group of people without my mask, I would definitely still wear my mask at a football / soccer game even if it was allowed to take it off.
Really put out a message with someone from KP on the record and pick a story. This back and forth just make people more suspicious. I think Kate actually has COVID.
I mean she should have her test results back by now.
A case of long covid would be a plausible excuse to keep her out of sight for months on end. Just say she’s staying next door to her parents while she recovers. That could buy time for cosmetic surgery, inpatient treatment, or working out the details of a split.
Honestly until further details develop I don’t believe their story or that she’s isolating at all.
We wouldn’t know because it’s not like she works regularly. Sure, missing the NHS thing was obvious, but does she even have anything else scheduled for…..ever? Besides Wimbledon?
Hmm — she’ll turn up in SA next to recuperate with Charlene?
Nope, she’ll retreat to Bucklebury and the Middleton compound like she always has, lol.
Some people are getting their vaccinations closer together now (there’s walk in pop up clinics in parks and at county shows and all sorts) but current guidance is minimum eight weeks, up from the four weeks originally given. Scientists in the press over the last few days saying this increases effectiveness.
So yet again, the Cambridge’s timelines don’t add up. Shocker.
Are they saying that for all vaccines or just the AZ? Is it possible they got Pfizer or Moderna and got their second shots three weeks later like advised in the US?
This is entirely speculation based on the photo of her looking at her phone and her leaving early. If they had any concrete information they wouldn’t keep saying that she’s been tested “up to 4 times.” They’re saying ‘up to’ because someone told them she had 2 negative tests since coming in contact with the active case, and because the official protocol is twice weekly testing. They don’t actually KNOW, as usual.
This raises more questions than it answers, because like I’ve said on other posts, there’s no way Kate was exposed at the football match and nobody else was. What about bicycling with Louis on Thursday, was he exposed? If Kate was in contact with William and William was in contact with Harry, was Harry exposed?
I have to say (again) that these guidelines that allow everyone around Kate to go about their business without isolating even though she spent several hours laughing open-mouthed in their faces are completely useless, just a total joke.
It couldn’t have been the football match. If it was, everyone in that damn box from Will, George to Ed Sheeran and David Beckham would also have been exposed and told to isolate.
And as much as I would like it to be some juicy secret liaison, it’s probably someone like her hairdresser or another person she works with.
But it’s still evidence that she and Will don’t live together since he doesn’t have to isolate as well.
It’s only evidence that the UK guidelines are completely useless. The current rules state that other members of the household do not have to isolate unless or until the exposed person actually tests positive. Since Kate has (allegedly) tested negative, Will, George, Ed Sheeran et. al. do not have to isolate (yet). It makes no sense and almost guarantees widespread infections, but those are the rules.
You do bring up a good point, however, which is that IF everyone at the stadium had been exposed and pinged through the track and trace system, there is no way the media would be able to hide that (or want to, for that matter). “Thousands exposed, including David Beckham and Ed Sheeran!” would be splashed across every single paper. Even if the media wanted to cover up the infection as duty to the tory government, they would not be able to resist the celebrity angle, nor would they be able to shut up Beckham or Sheeran if they decided to announce that they too had been exposed like so many public figures do.
This seems like such a generic statement: “to avoid contact with anyone she lives with as much as possible.” Really, “anyone” she lives with? As if they don’t know *specifically* who she is living with (her kids? her husband? someone else?).
At the end of the day, remember, this woman was around and touched food, with no gloves, that went out to people.
Blurg. *shiver*
omg! She’d have handled every berry to cut them! Blurg *shiver*, is right.
So, now every person that we saw in that Royal Box with her, they are all in isolation now too, right? Right?!?
It kind of shows the risk of going around without masks. If Kate was infectious while at Wimbledon there are a whole lot of people who interacted with her when she wasn’t wearing a mask and all the people she sat next to would be at risk.
I suspect she got exposed when she got her hair done, which was after the euro game and likely on Thursday while the statue thing was happening. Of course they don’t want to say it was there because they still pretend that Kate actually styles her own hair and doesn’t wear extensions.
But they said she didn’t have it. Just was exposed. So technically she wasn’t infectious and can’t pass COVID to anyone because she does not have it. (As far as they say….)
I agree that it is irresponsible to be in the crowd and touching food, etc maskless regardless of exposure because ITS A PANDEMIC! And the fact that she was exposed shows how much of a risk it is.
I had wondered why she wasn’t here to watch Andy and Felix. (GO FELIX!!!)
Okay, am I the only one who’s enjoying the Daily Mail’s hilariously dramatic description of Kate’s isolation?
“Kensington Palace, where she is holed up today and unable to leave – even for food or medicine. She is not permitted to have visitors in her home…”
They are making it sound like she’s trapped in the tower, starving and wretched. YES, you can’t have visitors, that is the whole point of isolating that you can’t see other people, especially children, because most people don’t want to risk unknowingly giving others a terrible disease. Gah!
Many of us have had to do this, or have been doing this, for more than a year now. For me, it just highlights the inequities at work- Kate won’t lose her job because she has to stay home, she has childcare and someone to cook her meals, she even has a ready made separate residence/space, not to mention superior medical access compared to most. I hope that’s what she takes away from this experience.
Seriously! I’m a mom of a 10 yr old autistic son and haven’t left my house besides for a bike ride or a drive in over a year. My poor son will have to rediscover life which was hard enough for him as it was before. We have so much work to do to try to reintegrate him into school, etc.
Cry me a river, Princess.
That hole is just getting deeper – Kate and the Mids need to stop digging. Someone is keeping this story going for a reason and the press know what that reason is hence the passive aggressive reporting around this. Drip drip drip is the leaks.
When was the engagement of her touching the food?
Friday, before the second match she watched at Wimbledon.
April, I don’t think that information is right (with 2 doses of Pfizer, 40% chance of getting Delta variant). Don’t know if you’re in the States, but I’ve read that the Pfizer vac (both doses) provides 88% protection against the Delta strain. That’s quite a difference. I also read the CDC isn’t keeping track of “breakthrough infections” unless the person is hospitalized or dies. So breakthrough infections are probably being under-reported. Scarily, a breakthrough virus can still give long-term Covid health problems. Interesting, I just read that in Israel that Pfizer vaccines only protect 64% of Israelis from the Delta variant (meaning you have a 36% chance of getting it). Seems like the data is moving quickly as the virus mutates and attacks fully vaccinated people. Of course, it’s the unvaccinated people who are driving the spread of Covid.