I love the cold weather. When it gets to 40 degrees, even 30 degrees, that’s perfect walking/hiking weather as far as I’m concerned. After an autumn “warm spell,” it’s finally gotten colder this week in Virginia and my walks have been amazing. That being said, I will never understand those Nordic traditions of swimming in freezing water. I will not try it. As it turns out, the Princess of Wales loves “cold swimming.” People Mag seemingly just around to listening to Kate and William’s appearance on Mike Tindall’s rugby podcast (which came out in September), and Kate spoke about how she loved to swim in freezing water.
The Princess of Wales, 41, revealed that cold swimming is part of her fitness routine — even though Prince William, 41, is not a fan! The couple appeared together with Princess Anne on an episode of The Good, The Bad & The Rugby podcast (hosted by Anne’s son-in-law, Mike Tindall!) last month as the Rugby World Cup kicked off in France. Prince William, Princess Kate and Princess Anne are the patrons of the Welsh Rugby Union, Rugby Football Union (of England) and Scottish Rugby Union, respectively.
Princess Kate spoke about the importance of being active, something she’s been encouraged to do since her childhood. Revealing one of her current fitness hobbies, the Princess of Wales shared that she’s into cold swimming.
“The colder, the better. I absolutely love it,” she said. “Slightly to the point where William’s like, ‘Catherine, you’re crazy.’ And it’s dark, and it’s raining.”
While meeting well-wishers in Wales earlier this year, Kate shared that she even had a robe for after her swims, a remark prompted by someone who was wearing a robe to keep warm in the rain.
“She said she wears one of them when she goes cold water swimming,” local mom Alison Cheeke told PEOPLE.
According to an article published by Harvard Public Health, cold water swimming is believed to provide mental health benefits in addition to physical exercise (although evidence is mixed).
Many athletes employ ice baths for recovery and some even go as far as using cryochambers. So I believe that cold swimming is beneficial for many but it sounds like Kate just swims in the off-season in Norfolk, really. And does William even care? His wife is swimming in icy conditions in the dark, in the rain. He’s probably not even around when she does it.
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- The Duke of Cambridge and Duchess of Cambridge go Boat fishing trip at Skidegate Youth Centre 28 DAYS UK OUT Royal Tour – Boat fishing trip at Skidegate Youth Centre, Haida Gwaii, BC, Canada, 30/09/16,Image: 513266614, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: WORLD RIGHTS – Fee Payable Upon Reproduction – For queries contact Photoshot – sales@photoshot.com London: +44 (0) 20 7421 6000 Los Angeles: +1 (310) 822 0419 Berlin: +49 (0) 30 76 212 251, Model Release: no, Credit line: – / Avalon
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- Britain’s Kate, The Duchess of Cambridge speaks to Ike Alter and Diane Stoller on a boat trip on Lake Windermere during a visit to Ambleside in Cumbria, England, Tuesday, Sept. 21, 2021. The Duchess embarked on a boat trip with two of the ‘Windermere Children’, a group of 300 child Holocaust survivors who came to stay in the Lake District in 1945 for a period of recuperation following the atrocities they experienced in concentration camps and the ghettos of Nazi Occupied Europe.,Image: 633209929, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: WPA POOL ALL IN, Model Release: no, Credit line: Scott Heppell / Avalon
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- 31st July 2022 Plymouth, Devon, UK THE DUCHESS OF CAMBRIDGE JOINS THE 1851 TRUST AND THE GREAT BRITAIN SAILGP TEAM IN PLYMOUTH. In Plymouth, Her Royal Highness will join a group of children taking part in the Protect Our Future programme by the 1851 Trust, the official charity of the Great Britain SailGP Team. After spending time ashore with Protect Our Future, Her Royal Highness will join the British team aboard their F50 foiling catamaran to take part in a friendly âCommonwealth Raceâ against their New Zealand rivals, ahead of the final day of the Great Britain Sail Grand Prix. The New Zealand Team will host environmentalist Lewis Pugh as its Guest Racer. With Sir Ben Ainslie at the helm, The Duchess will become a member of the British crew, working with the rest of the team to race the boat at speeds of up to 50 knots (more than 55 mph) against a skilled New Zealand outfit helmed by Peter Burling.,Image: 710998125, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: Jeff Gilbert / Avalon
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- Plymouth, UNITED KINGDOM – Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, Royal Patron of the 1851 Trust, visits Plymouth to meet with young people taking part in the Trust’s activities to promote sustainability and get a taste of the incredible speed and skill involved in the SailGP – the global racing championship taking place in Plymouth Pictured: Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge – Ben Ainslie BACKGRID USA 31 JULY 2022 USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
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- Plymouth, UNITED KINGDOM – Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, Royal Patron of the 1851 Trust, visits Plymouth to meet with young people taking part in the Trust’s activities to promote sustainability and get a taste of the incredible speed and skill involved in the SailGP – the global racing championship taking place in Plymouth Pictured: Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge BACKGRID USA 31 JULY 2022 USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
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- Plymouth, UNITED KINGDOM – Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, Royal Patron of the 1851 Trust, visits Plymouth to meet with young people taking part in the Trust’s activities to promote sustainability and get a taste of the incredible speed and skill involved in the SailGP – the global racing championship taking place in Plymouth Pictured: Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge BACKGRID USA 31 JULY 2022 USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
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- Plymouth, UNITED KINGDOM – Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, Royal Patron of the 1851 Trust, visits Plymouth to meet with young people taking part in the Trust’s activities to promote sustainability and get a taste of the incredible speed and skill involved in the SailGP – the global racing championship taking place in Plymouth Pictured: Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge BACKGRID USA 31 JULY 2022 USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
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- The Prince and Princess of Wales visit East Boston with Mayor Michelle Wu to see the changing face of Boston’s shoreline as the city contends with rising sea levels. At Piers Park, The Prince and Princess explored the past, present and future of Boston’s waterfront Featuring: Prince William, Catherine, Princess Of Wales, Mayor Michelle Yu Where: Boston, Massachusetts, United States When: 01 Dec 2022 Credit: Doug Peters/PA Images/INSTARimag/Cover Images **North America Rights Only**
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- The Prince and Princess of Wales meet injured players who are supported by the Welsh Rugby Charitable Trust, before officially opening the Sir Tasker Watkins Suite, ahead of the Wales vs England Six Nations Match at Principality Stadium in Cardiff, Wales. Picture date: Saturday February 25, 2023. Featuring: Catherine, Princess Of Wales Where: Cardiff, Wales, United Kingdom When: 25 Feb 2023 Credit: Matthew Horwood/PA Images/INSTARimages.com/Cover Images **North America Rights Only**
That picture of W&K back to back. Very ominous looking.
I’m not kidding.
Is this a cry for help? Alluding to a possible unaliving situation?
If my marriage to a royal heir was in complete shambles and I knew the institution had offed his own aristocratic mother…. I wouldn’t be taking cold swims OR telling people I do. Too much opportunity there for an “accident”.
Isn’t that how someone was murdered in that potato peel literary society book? Someone went for a daily morning swim in the Channel and…. That was the last that person was seen?
All kidding aside, I do know someone who swims for a half hour every day, year round, in Lake Chelan, Washington. She loves it & it keeps her strong. Seems wacko to me, but there you go.
Oh good, I’m not the only one who found this dark and ominous.
Yikes! I’ve just flashed onto a scene in “The Closer’ when the DA (Diaz?) is swimming at home at night. Philip Strogh (sp?) in a wet suit, with an oxygen tank, hiding under the diving board, suddenly appears, grabs her and drowns her.
Drowning is one of my biggest fears.
My mum and I spent 2 weeks at Ripple Cove Inn back east and we swam every day in the lake even though it was very, very cold. We committed and we did it. One of my best memories of time with her 🙂 That said, I will never, ever do a Polar Bear swim, ever again. Once was enough!!!!
Yes, very fitting and foreshadowing what’s to come.
They don’t even bother to hide it anymore. Especially Willy.
Is that a recent photo? Like, from yesterday? Because Kate looks completely different there. I thought it was a much older picture for some reason.
In any case, agreed, it’s creepyAF. One of my favorite photos is the one of W and Harry standing with their backs to each other at the Diana statue unveiling, both looking like they’re deep in conversation with someone else, lol.
The picture with them with their backs to each other is older, you can tell from william’s hair, but I can’t remember how much older, if it was on a tour or what.
I agree that the back-to-back photo says… something but it would also depend on when it was taken. In that same vein, I would pay a small fee to know what Kate was saying while she’s wearing the red houndstooth jacket and is pictured with those two fingers up. Is it possible that she was saying, “And then I asked him, ‘Can you smell the taste by smelling it?’ Everyone was really impressed by my intellect after that.”
Strongly suspect he’s being a jerk because this is where Kate really shines — being outdoors and doing sporty things. Honestly if she rebranded as Sporty Princess I think she’d do well, but maybe that’s why they are keeping her from doing it. Can’t “overshine” anyone.
This will be their Taj Mahal photo in a couple of years. Very sad.
I think if I was married to a Royal and it looked as miserable as hers does I wouldn’t be taking dangerous swims in the dark, but that may just by me.
Yeah, I commented below it sounds ominous to me 😬. I wouldn’t be telling anyone that for sure, with the regular danger they face and whatever’s going on internally.
Is this like as close to the cold dark release of life that she can get?
How are her protection officers letting her do this?
Is this a sensory deprivation thing cuz it sounds like it.
I don’t like her. But this isn’t concern trolling. Something is really really wrong here.
I sure hope her RPOs are nearby. Swimming in the dark, in the rain? If you like to do this, make sure people know when you’re going, where you’re going, and when you expect to be back.
Why is K a victim ? Historically, she manipulated and stalked her way into the brf, destroying any competition on her way. She has never worked and has never bothered to learn how to do her job as a royal. It is strange how Will is presented as her abuser, when her behavior has been constantly shown as nothing other than narcissistic. The media seems to present the opposite of what is happening with Harry and Meghan’s happy marriage. What if all the stories accusing Meghan of being an extremely nasty bully who abuses her husband and treats everyone badly are actually all about what K is really like and how vile she is to others. Women are abusers too, K is very cunning, there is no doubt she would have collected a lot of receipts on the brf. She would have been fired in any other job for being so totally mean spirited and useless.
Because she’s married to Bulliam and he visibly hates her and dismisses her. Anyone in his orbit is likely a target of his well-known rage and she is his wife, even if it’s in name only at this point.
@ales – Even bad people can become victims. Your is dangerously close to saying all victims must be perfect angels to be true victims.
Kate sucks. But that doesn’t mean she hasn’t been victimized.
We have literally seen kate bully Meghan in front of a global audience and yet this poor kate narrative still comes up.
She can divorce William if it’s that bad. She chooses not to. No one is forcing her to stay in a bad marriage.
I call B.S. Firstly, we would have heard about this before, she’s always talked about the sports she enjoys. Second, Cold therapy is good for toning your skin. This woman doesn’t have toned skin. She might have tried it in her back yard pool once but she doesn’t do it regularly.
I’ve done cold and cryotherapy and its really invigorating.
Cold swimming can’t fix damage from heavy smoking, drinking and not eating enough.
This is true.
I don’t think she’d drink much alcohol because of the calories. She’d be more likely to pop pills if she has access to them.
Yeah, interesting that she has never been seen or photographed doing it.
As someone who showers with extremely hot water, this sounds like a nightmare to me. I’d probably go rigid and sink LOL
Same!
Same, I loveeee hot showers, my bathroom is like a sauna. 🤣 the closest I could ever get to this is splashing my face with ice water in the morning first thing.
When I was 12, we visited Sliding Rock at Pisgah National Forest in NC. It’s a natural water slide and they have attendants at the top and bottom as well as ropes to grab to pull up and out at the pool at the bottom. My brothers and I went down it, that water is FRIGID at 55 degrees F year round. The attendants actually had to pull me out because I couldn’t get myself out fast enough. I didn’t understand the urgency at the time, but now I know it’s because they were worried about me being in it for too long. I can’t imagine doing…this lol
@Sass: Hey, I know that place! I worked on that Forest (& others in NC) for about a month years ago. We were there in the off-season, so no masses of school buses with kids about to get the scare of their life! Beautiful part of the country.
@beaniebean, that’s so cool! This was around 1997. We had gone up there for hurricane evacuation and I always loved it up there ever since. My husband and I took our first ever camping trip together there 10 years later.
I live in Colorado and there are tons of alpine / snow melt lakes here where people go paddle boarding.
And there are stories every year in the paddle boarding community of people who fell off and the shock at the change in temperature caused their muscles to lock up. If they aren’t wearing a life jacket they drown.
Most wear life jackets and they go into shock and freeze to death so quickly. Often with their friends trying frantically to pull them out.
Awful way to die.
I feel bad for her RPO
Yikes. Good point.
What a weird story, like the setup for a murder mystery. “I told her not to go swimming in the dark – It’s crazy, Catherine, I said…”
Yeah she handed them the means and manner of her “accident” publicly and said I do this regularly in unsafe conditions!
Wtffffff
I mean, Diana flat-out said (or wrote? Whichever) that she knew she’d die in a car accident. That’s still so creepy and sad to me.
‘Yeah she handed them the means and manner of her “accident”’
Maybe she said the quiet part out loud about someone else’s “accident”…
Kate has seen and heard a great deal in her royal life. If her uncle is threatening to write a book then any NDA Kate is made to sign won’t make a difference.
That just sounds ominous. If she was a happier person it would be the first sign of a personality. And where is she swimming if they’re in windsor?
Cold swimming in the dark and rain requires some much needed deep psychoanalysis is what I’m thinking. There’s no way in hell I would torture myself like that voluntarily.
My money says all of their pools are heated.
I remembered reading Charles turned down/off the heated pool(s) at the palace(s):
https://www.tatler.com/article/king-charles-turns-the-pool-temperature-down-at-buckingham-palace
And? So, the temperature used to be as warm as the womb, and Charles either 1) turned it down once upon a time, during the summer, just for that story, or 2) he turned the very heated temperature down to lukewarm, and that’s it. These people are so performative that I just don’t see them depriving themselves of any creature comfort, especially when they can get a sympathetic story in the British media with very little effort. I’m with Lulu on this.
Charles reportedly lowered water temp at BP where staff can use the pool. Trust, the rf will not be inconvenienced, the pool will be warm, meals cooked by private chefs and they will travel by helicopter and private plane.
I was thinking, swimming in a heated pool when it was cool and Rainey might be fun. But swimm8ng in the dark? Not so much.
She has no body fat. I imagine she’s freezing cold in a 68-degree room. I cannot see her cold swimming.
But self-punishment can be a part of eating disorders, so who knows?
She probably wears a wet suit. My daughter is married to a Brit and his whole family swims wearing wet suits on the Atlantic coast.
I think that would defeat the purpose of cold swimming, right?
Your body burns more calories when exercising in cold conditions, sadly this may be part of the appeal for her.
Is she swimming in open water or the pool? because those are two very different things.
But regardless, we heard this a few months ago, so People must be really bored with royal news lately to be bringing this up again.
Or paving the way for something unfortunate ……
Jesus this family.
Yeah, my first thought was this podcast is relatively old so why bring this up. Surely, they could have talked about her keen biking in Scotland. They’re really scraping the barrel. There was that story about Charles not heating one of the pools in BP or KP?
Unless she is swimming in the winter off the coast in Norfolk, she is not swimming in cold water. She’s probably so spoiled with heated pools, because there is definitely one at buckingham palace, that she thinks the pools for normal non rich people are “cold swimming”.
They have a pool at Anmer though, right? Although it doesn’t seem like she’s spent much time there in a while, so who knows.
ETA If Charles made a big deal out of announcing he was turning the heating down/off at the BP pool, I can ABSOLUTELY see William being petty enough to turn it up as high as possible at Anmer, just as a petty little act of rebellion. Because if we know one thing about William, it’s that he’s pettyAF.
Read all of this about Kate and thought…fascinating..(Not) then thought…that’s 3-4 minutes of my life I’ll never get back. There really is literally nothing interesting left for the media to say about this woman and her husband.
@Jojo, they really are so, soooo dull. Whenever we hear reports of “small talk” they make with people, it’s always so cringey.
Is she trying to tell us that she’s so cold inside she doesn’t feel the coldness from outside ?
Many athletes centre their recovery around cold water activities, but this just sounds beyond sinister. Is this a cry for help? Is she doing this in her own pool, or just some random lake in Norfolk? She’s so odd.
I hope this isn’t the case because I wouldn’t wish this on anyone, but I’m getting uneasy flashbacks to my bad days when I took freezing cold showers and got obsessed with hot yoga because forcing your body to regulate its temperature while you exercise burns slightly more calories.
Yup this is the first thing I thought of as well, extreme temp burn off more calories.
Well as far as Most of us in the UK are aware, her POOLS are heated! So I’m calling BS on this. But katey dear, please STFU about swimming in the dark and rain. Just be glad none of your pools have tunnels
This is bizarre. Wild swimming is a very popular upper middle class female pastime in the UK, but this just sounds unhappy. I have to say I swim in my local lido (in London) at night all year round and I love it, even in the rain, but it is heated.
I bet Kate’s got that stupid green and pink Dryrobe that half of Chelsea wears.
I doubt William commented on her “Cold swimming.” He would have to care.
… as if she’s trying to feel something for once. Like cutting. Sheesh this isn’t healthy.
I swim in a cold lake throughout the winter. I love it! yes, I even go at night. I don’t have any deep seated psychological problems (no more than most!!) I just love it. Sometimes a swim is just a swim.
Edit: I don’t understand the hate for all the cold water swimming I’m reading here. So many people do it. And I’m not a posh twat either. I just love swimming in cold water. It’s helped my depression, anxiety and so much more.
hear, hear! it’s the first thing i’ve ever found relatable about her. i bet it’s glorious & exhilarating
Swimming in the ocean off Norfolk at night though is going to be very different from swimming in a lake.
no one is hating on cold water swimming in general.
ETA but to clarify I would never go into a lake or river or anything at night. I am terrified of what lies beneath, even if I know its nothing but some fish, lol.
Danbury, I think people should do what they want (if it’s legal!!!!). I’m having difficulty thinking of a member of the rf going to lakes or rivers or the coast to cold swim. On a consistent basis. Wouldn’t that be something her security would advise against? How many RPOs would it take to do this in the dark? If they’re talking about a swimming pool very close to where she lives on palace grounds, that would make more sense.
Frankly, she could get the same from taking a cold shower and exercising–if that’s why she’s doing it. Something doesn’t sound right.
Most royal estates have moats or deep ponds on-site of their estates don’t they? All the castle tours I’ve visited and castle insta accounts I follow have freshwater sites for swimming (Houghton, Montagu, etc)
If she does this, which I doubt, rest assured her bodyguards are swimming along side her or paddling in a boat next to her. Literary point: the great and underrated Virginia Woolf, age 59, deliberately drowned herself by stuffing her pockets with rocks before going into the water.
Agree, made pretty much the same point below. It’s rubbish. It’s Kate trying to sound not so Middleton. We’re all meant to find this mysterious and wow but it’s just bollocks. She is so dull.
As someone who now suffers from chronic autoimmune disease…being able to work out in a cold pool then getting into the hot tub …thanks to my WONDERFUL PARK DISTRICT ❤️ has been a GAME CHANGER for me from a therapeutic aspect….HOWEVA…there ain’t NO WAY I would be doing that in a cold & dark LAKE …no way in THE 🌎! ESPECIALLY if I’m the future Queen of England in a dodgy AF Royal Family like she’s in
They are setting the stage.
TheVolvesSeidr, Setting her up for an “accident,” like Diana’s “accident?” But why would Kate say that, then? Even I can see it’s a terrible thing to say you when your husband would love to get rid of you.
I doubt they will use an accident…but that information can be used as a way to pretend an insane fan attacked her while she was swimming which they learned from the media. It will definitively bring way more bonus points than an accident….
This is utter rubbish. She’s trying to sound ‘out there’, daring, as if she has this great secret life the public can only guess at. In reality she is as dull as ditch water, which I suppose is some kind of cold water she’s familiar with, hence why she comes up with this crap.
Must be a slow news day.
It’s meant to be beneficial for mood and weight loss. There are a lot of health claims and most celebs seem to be doing it. Ice baths are a HUGE thing. Also Dr Michael Mosley featured cold water swimming on one of his specials. It’s basically free if you live near very cold water. Same thing as a brief cold shower.
On another note, Wank have the WORST posture! That back to back pic is painful. For someone who exercises a lot, I can’t believe her posture isn’t better. His hip thrust just looks uncomfortable
I agree. Cold water swimming is a thing and Kate might very well enjoy it (unlike her overheated husband) but as a story even of mild interest this barely qualifies.
I really don’t know who’s more boring, william or kate. This is the second time I’ve heard this yawn of story about her swimming proclivities; seriously, both she and William are trying way too hard to appear cool. Wake me up when she starts talking about that time when uncle Gary, the Baron of Le Maison de Bang Bang, took her and Pippa shopping.
As with most things kate says, I’ll just assume that this is another lie. My guess is another women kate knows and is jealous of, maybe rose or Pippa, probably does cold water swimming, and Kate decided to hijack that hobby for herself and add the night time element just to go one further.
February Pisces, that does make sense for Kate. She hijacks other women’s outfits, why not their lives, too?
Well. This all makes so much sense. She’s soon undertaking a metamorphosis like a Stephen King supernatural villain. How very appropriate!
😂