Throughout this week, there’s been feverish speculation in the British media about whether the Princess of Wales will show up to Wimbledon. Kate is the royal patron and, in recent years, she’s had the task of handing out trophies for the women’s and men’s singles finals. Wimbledon’s tournament director has already made it clear that there are other royals who could fill in for the trophy presentations this year, royals like the Duchess of Gloucester. This whole thing is hilariously overblown, with so many royalists behaving like Kate would be the most important person there and that Wimbledon would crash and burn without Kate’s presence. Well, the royalists have gotten tired of screaming about Kate’s importance, so now they’ve got a new thing: the Sussex Squad is also desperate to see Kate. From Richard Eden’s latest Mail column: “Like all of us, the ‘Sussex Squad’ are feverishly awaiting Kate’s possible Wimbledon comeback… but for a very different reason.”
Her presence would generate more excitement among the Wimbledon crowd than even the moment a Royal actually played at the tournament back in 1926. That was when King Charles’s grandfather, George VI, competed in the men’s doubles tournament alongside his friend and mentor Sir Louis Greig. And, increasingly, there are hopes that the Princess of Wales, could attend the Championships this weekend to present the trophies after the finals.
Catherine’s attendance has, of course, been taken for granted in previous years. As Patron of the All England club since 2016, she’s become synonymous with Wimbledon as strawberries and cream. As a keen tennis player herself, as well as a family friend of former Wimbledon star Tim Henman, the princess has always relished the opportunity to watch games from the Royal Box.
This year is different, of course. She has not been able to visit because of her continuing treatment for cancer – and it may be no coincidence that spectator numbers have fallen, too. Although fans go for the tennis, there’s nothing like a spot of royal-watching to boost ticket sales. So it’s little surprise that fans are in a fever of anticipation about whether Catherine might make the Wimbledon finals.
But the speculation has, almost inevitably, led to a rash of unkind comments from the so-called Sussex Squad, those obsessive online fans of Prince Harry and Meghan who revel in criticising other members of the Royal Family. Their main point is that Catherine should not attend a sports event when she has been unable to carry out more serious public engagements. They claim, without any evidence, that it would ‘prove’ she hadn’t been sick at all. This is the sort of deeply unpleasant trolling that the princess – just like other royals – has to put up with on a daily basis.
Let us all hope that she enjoys a couple of good days this weekend and can bring the tournament to light by her presence. While we saw Queen Camilla attend with her sister, Annabel Elliot, yesterday, and have spotted other Windsors including Zara Tindall and Princess Beatrice among the spectators on other days, the Royal Box has lacked the winning touch that Catherine brings.
She should ignore the malign nonsense of the trolls. Most right-thinking people would understand that, while she might not be well enough for more arduous duties, a relaxing day at the tennis could be just the tonic to lift her spirits and aid her recovery. Not only would it be Advantage Catherine, but it would lift the nation’s spirits as well.
“Their main point is that Catherine should not attend a sports event when she has been unable to carry out more serious public engagements.” He got our ass. We actually did say that. That was one of the conversations outside of royalist circles – that Kate’s miraculous recovery in time for Trooping the Colour was more about Kate wanting to attend Wimbledon. That Kate would rather go to Wimbledon than do early years busywork or anything for charity. That it would probably look bad if Kate turned up in new couture at Wimbledon and yet could not Zoom in a charity. I’m curious as to why Eden would devote a column to amplifying this (well-founded) criticism of Kate though? Perhaps – and I’m just guessing! – the royal press pack loves nothing more than using “Sussex arguments” to poke at the Waleses.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
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- London United Kingdom 10/07/2021 DESCRIPTION The Duke of Kent and the Kate the Duchess of Cambridge seen at the ladies final at the 2021 Wimbledon Championships at the All England Club, London, United Kingdom,,Image: 620818194, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: World Rights, Model Release: no, Credit line: Peter van den Berg / Avalon
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- Tom Cruise with Hayley Atwell and Pom Klementieff,Image: 620944001, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: Antoine Couvercelle / Panoramic / Panoramic / Avalon
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- Kate, Duchess of Cambridge and William, Duke of Cambridge watching Novak Djokovic (SRB) playing his quarter finals men’s singles match against Jannik Sinner (ITA) on Centre court at the 2022 Wimbledon Championships at the All England Club, London, United Kingdom,,Image: 705268624, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: World Rights, Model Release: no, Credit line: Peter van den Berg / Avalon
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- Roger Federer and Catherine, Princess of Wales. Roger Federer was presented to the fans as he took his seat in the Royal box at the 2023 Wimbledon Championships Day Two at the All England Club, London, United Kingdom,,Image: 787119105, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: World Rights, Model Release: no, Credit line: Peter van den Berg / Avalon
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- Kate, Duchess of Cambridge prepares to present the trophies for the womens’ final on Day 13 at the 2023 Wimbledon Championships at the All England Club, London, UK, 15 July 2023,Image: 789315138, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: World Rights, Model Release: no, Credit line: Peter van den Berg / Avalon
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- Tennis : Wimbledon 2023 – Angleterre – Royal Box Kate Princess of Wales – Angleterre,Image: 789323878, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: Chryslene Caillaud / Panoramic / Panoramic / Avalon
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- Kate Princess of Wales in the royal box during the mens’ finals on Day 14 at the 2023 Wimbledon Championships at the All England Club, London, UK, 16 July 2023,Image: 789502109, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: World Rights, Model Release: no, Credit line: Peter van den Berg / Avalon
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- Tennis : Wimbledon 2023 – Angleterre – Finale simple Messieurs- Victoire de Carlos Alcaraz Espagne contre Novak Djokovic Serbie – Kate Princess of Wales remet le trophee,Image: 789505627, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: Chryslene Caillaud / Panoramic / Panoramic / Avalon
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- Tennis : Wimbledon 2023 – Angleterre – Finale simple Messieurs- Victoire de Carlos Alcaraz Espagne contre Novak Djokovic Serbie – Kate Princess of Wales,Image: 789705647, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: Chryslene Caillaud / Panoramic / Panoramic / Avalon
Well this is one Squaddy who doesn’t give two sh*ts if I never see her again. And Eden should be more concerned about the resounding boos that all of the Royals seem to be getting from his fellow countrymen and women.
Perhaps Eden is hoping for more dog treats from Kate’s brother. Glad to see the British media forced to acknowledge there are a sizeable number of Harry and Meghan supporters that see right through the Kate and Will shenanigans.
@Campbelli thought the same! Maureen must be trolling for some new treats/toys from the James & Ella collection for Windsor:))) Will give credit for the reverse trolling technique for doggie tchotchkes..well played Maureen, well played!
Now K, you know you wrong, girl… How you gonna use that photo of Kate, looking like she’s spittin’and chewin’tobacco while sitting on a
Southern porch in Miss.?
LOLOLOLOL❤️it.
Ha! Her spit bottle is just below frame, apparently!
Agreed!
I love that they’re afraid of the squad. This is probably the first time in history the British press and the BaRF have had a group of folks consistently calling out their giant lies. But Sussex Squad or not, who’s surprised that she magically intends to find a feeling-well day for another big event? I think they know the Squad are not the only ones calling out this nonsense; and I think that’s the mean fear. So label it as “Sussex Squad” so you don’t have to address the fact that the natives are restless.
I think that’s it. Blame it all on the squad when a lot of people are asking questions.
I have to wonder if this means that she will make a SURPRISE!!! appearance at the finals (e.g. he knows and is doing a slow roll).
Isn’t Wimbledon about the competitors not Kate. Spirits are supposed to be lifted by the tennis players not if Kate is sitting watching.
Hmmm Camilla is not going to like the Kate hyperbole that kate no t Camilla brings the winning touch
Honestly, it was enough for me to see she was alive. I don’t care anymore than that. Also, didn’t the royal sources / Kate’s friends say exactly that? That she was only gonna do things that she enjoys doing.
Same. She’s alive. Cool. I’m not concerned with the nuances/quality of that life. They can pretend that her very presence sprinkles glitter on every event if they want. I’m not engaging to mock or in outrage. That island means nothing to me as long as they keep H+M’s name out their mouths.
MrsCope says:
“I’m not engaging to mock or in outrage. That island means nothing to me as long as they keep H+M’s name out their mouths.”
Well thats just it, isnt it? That island’s shitmedia and its cowardly royals in palaces and their henchmen in public institutions and on social media, will NOT “keep H+M’s name out their mouths.” Or stop trying to find ways to stifle them.
And so, since at least 2017 the SSquad has been fighting back. And it has been a very successful pushback because never before in their 1000 year history or, more recently, since these german descendants decided to anglicize themselves in 1917 and became “Windsors” have they ever seen this sustained and unrelenting level of opposition to their shenanigans and other downright criminality.
So kudos to the OG SSquad and all the folks around the world for whom the scales are being removed from their eyes. This time, the windsors will not be allowed to “off” anyone from their ranks who they consider to have “gone rogue” and do so in peace.
PS: as more and more SSquaddies learn how to pushback without engaging directly with the RF’s online foot soldiers, the royals and their cohorts will continue to be thwarted.
MrsCope says:
“I’m not engaging to mock or in outrage. That island means nothing to me as long as they keep H+M’s name out their mouths.”
Well thats just it, isnt it? That island’s shitmedia and its cowardly royals and their henchmen in public institutions and on social media, will NOT “keep H+M’s name out their mouths.” Or stop trying to find ways to stifle them.
And so, since at least 2017 the SSquad has been fighting back. And it has been a very successful pushback because never before in their 1000 year history or, more recently, since these german descendants decided to anglicize themselves in 1917 and became “Windsors” have they ever seen this sustained and unrelenting level of opposition to their shenanigans and other downright criminality.
So kudos to the OG SSquad and all the folks around the world for whom the scales are being removed from their eyes. This time, the windsors will not be allowed to “off” anyone from their ranks who they consider to have “gone rogue” and do so in peace.
PS: as more and more SSquaddies learn how to pushback without engaging directly with the RF’s online foot soldiers, the royals and their cohorts will continue to be thwarted.
2ND time this has happened to me this week: I swear I input my name and email but the post comes out: “Anonymous.”
Same here. She is alive and I’m relieved. I was seriously worried for her, the whole situation was so dark and ominous. Now? I don’t care if she ever does another fake interested charity event or goes to a tennis match or not. Those six months showed us how inconsequential her appearances are for the monarchy and her husband went out of his way to reinforce that notion. Fine with me, keep it that way. And I’m not interested in the coverage of this will she /won’t she either. What I want to know about is how William spends his time. Not because I care that he is a welfare-receiving billionaire, but because it’s fun gossip (if you discount the Sussex bullying. What is happening behind the scenes with Carole, the Craig family, Rose, the Russian lawyer, and other mistresses, and a deep dive into the Royal Foundation and Duchy finances? That’s what I’m interested in, not Kate.
Every bit of this.
Okay, Maureen. The audacity of a man who pretended to be someone else so he could spread online hate about the Sussexes is really something.
Aren’t tennis players the ones who boost ticket sales . Why would Kate make an iota of difference
Is there a problem with ticket sales for Wimbledon? I was just sitting here thinking that in a country of 66 million people, your chances for scoring a ticket to Wimbledon must be astronomical. There are probably people on that island who have tried for 30 years to get in without success. I’m not sure of the price, but the cost for these tickets is probably well out of most people’s budgets as well.
Eden seems to be insinuating that spectator number are down. I have no idea if that’s true. That said, the weather during this year’s games has seemed not great?
I normally think that summer starts in Britain at the start of the second week at Wimbledon, but not this year.
We are too busy watching the standing ovation to even care who attends what over there. America and the Sussex Squad love Prince Harry and his beautiful wife Meghan, The Duchess of Sussex. The kind of royals to be proud of.
He’s just irritated that the Squad people ‘mute’ WanK’s comings and goings, depriving KP of trending when the attention would be useful to them but Squad accounts talking amongst themselves about the hypocrisy trends after the fact and for longer. He keeps trying to camouflage KP’s intentional hate campaign by telling anyone who will listen that its the H&M supporters who are the ‘dangerous obsessives and trolls’ rather than their lot.
No one cares about Keen. Her vanishing act became a story because Will-not tried to use her illness as an excuse not to work despite his tax payer funded privilege. His poor PR skills made her vanishing act a major story. The rota are barrel scrapping.
This sounds more like he’s looking for engagement from the Sussex squad so that he can write more articles, then them actually targeting anyone. And the point is the question is that people are asking are pretty valid. If Kate can attend a tennis match on one of her ” good days “, then why can’t she record a zoom updating about the status of that 60 page early years project she just supposedly read? Or maybe solicit donations for charity and offer a match from the Royal foundation? Or highlight some of the achievements this year of the charities that she’s the patron of, in a recap video since they love doing Instagram reels. They want to act like H&M are behind people asking quite reasonably why her and her husband can only be bothered to do ” work” things that everyone else on the planet would consider recreational activities for themselves.
Maureen is trying to troll-bait us, because he’d much rather put a negative spin on anything Sussex-related in order to indirectly criticize the Left Behinds than report about… dunno, the ESPYs, maybe?
Or say outright what ails him about those overpaid and underworked civil servants who couldn’t care less about doing anything of substance if they don’t feel like it.
But he would never do that, because then he’d have to pay for the dog food again.
Like others have said, it would be sad and Middletonedeaf if Sick Notes Missington were to make an appearance for the Men’s Singles final, and make everything about her lazy self, when the focus should be on the achievement that is winning one of the four major tournaments.
If I were her, and “sick”, I’d keep myself at home and let Brigitte Gloucester handle it. But I’m not her, and Kate’s sole reason for being is to show off and let the peasants enjoy the gurning and the rectus grin, new dress and improved wiglet included.
“improved wiglet” She hasn’t had good hair since the turn of the century. In her early 20’s her hair looked amazing. Her years long dismal wiglets journey has yet to capture what she once had.
Interesting …. Eden’s new found fascination with the sqaud, articles about Rose being deleted.
Points HEAVILY to Eden working in concert with CarolE.
Again I HEAVILY suspect Kate had some sort of breakdown.
He made a point of posting he received dogfood from Kate’s brother so I suspect they have an ‘in’ with Eden now that Camila Tominey has retreated to political commentary.
I agree about Kate having had a breakdown. There might be other health issues, but I had been expecting her to collapse at some point since last fall. She always looked like they could barely make her get it together for a half-hour meet and greet. It’s probably fanfic on my part, but I had the feeling that driving out the Sussexes, especially Meghan, created a kind of partnership between her and William. And I think it was the first time he made her feel that way in their relationship, like an actual partner and not an asset that he manages through her mother. Then he snatched it away after the Sussexes left and even blamed her for the poor (for him) outcome of the Sussexit. It got worse year after year since 2020, even her mother was limited in her reach to manage their life. Add the Middletons’ public humiliation and her mind and body couldn’t handle anymore.
I just had a thought while reading this article : what if Camilla shows up and steals Kate’s job ? I could see her showing up, looking like a horse, smiling like a cat and just handing out these trophies herself. She loves to steal stuff from people.
“Their main point is that Catherine should not attend a sports event when she has been unable to carry out more serious public engagements”
Mmmmkay but are we wrong? Kate isn’t a private citizen, not even through the lens of normal fame/celebrity. She is tax payer funded. Her “work” involves cutting ribbons and “offering smiles”. Even before her great disappearing act, the numbers she’s done by court circular standards (which we know have been padded by everything from 10min meetings to phone calls) for well over ten years of being a royal have been embarrassingly low. How is it that she can get away with costing the British public a mint, and expect no one to ask follow up questions?
Kate can get away with it because nobody expects her to seriously work at anything, even if she were capable of it. Her real work ended when she had Louis – at this point, the only expectation is that she show up once in a while and look nice. Any questions that are asked about her should be asked about the whole institution – she’s just a useless cog in a useless machine.
This is true. The problem is, that when Meghan entered the picture, Kate all of the sudden wanted to be taken seriously and compete with her sil. Broken Britain, the original name of her early years project, all started as a competition to Meghan’s together cookbook. So in her jealousy, she played a part in raising the bar of what was expected of her. The last few years have been a spiral as she tried to keep it up while also wanting to go back to the bare minimum. The bar is currently being reset.
Yes let us not forget that Becky English tossed out the broken Britain thing the Friday prior to the launch of the cookbook. That was sign number one that kate was jealous and competing against Meghan.
And then absolutely nothing was done until over a year later with the pathetic survey.
Anyone who watches tennis does not give a flying fuck if kate is there to hand out the trophy or not. It is about the match. The classic final between Nadal and Federer will never mention who was there to give the trophy. And it won’t matter this year either.
The tennis players are the ones who deserve the attention. Eden is just such a pathetic sycophant that he pretends people care if kate is there or not. She’s irrelevant and replaceable.
But but but – she brings magic!!! It will lift the spirits of a nation!!!!
lol he’s so full of BS. I’m with the others who think this is about trying to get reactions from the Squad.
This is an excellent point. She fails to mention that several very popular tennis players have retired—like Serena Williams. These retirements are a much more plausible reason for changes in ticket sales—which are outrageously expensive (as noted above). This woman is clearly not a tennis fan and should maybe write about what she knows, which is not tennis.
No one tuned-in for Kate. However, people did remember to look at her to see how ridiculous she would be this time.
I said ages ago that the press regrets running Harry away. They didn’t actually want him to go. Kate/family thought she wanted Megan to go but obviously realize she is next for the nit-pik train.
The press just wants something to write about.
Squad doesn’t care if Kate goes to Wimbledon but it will be talked about. Her just doing flirty events will be laughed about.
Are we wrong though? If she’s too sick to work then she can’t go to Wimbledon.
Exactly. It just infuriates me that the British media has set the bar so low for William and Kate that there is practically nothing they do, or don’t do, that merits criticism. Anyone else would never be able to claim to be so sick they can’t work for 6 months – and counting – but get praise for standing on a balcony or potentially watching a tennis match. In the real world people get fired for pulling stunts like this.
Amy Bee. You are not wrong. I can’t have had the only mother who said that if you’re too sick to go to school you’re too sick to go to the mall.
I’m so tired of the nauseated inducing bile that is media acting like this horrible woman is the second coming of Jesus.
Hi Maureen. We’re not complaining. We’re mocking. You all make it too easy.
Meghan’s jam and her ARO launch are more exciting than Kate anyway.
Her attendance was mooted in the DM a couple of weeks ago. The BTL reaction was almost wall to wall negative – she’ll attend because she likes tennis but woe betide attending for some real work; she’s a freebie loving royal; so much for being too ill. It’s not the Sussex Sqaud who’ll be up in arms. It’s the British public. Once all the applause and photos come to rest, the resentment will pick up. I wouldn’t go if I were her.
Aw, look at Eden still trying to make fetch happen.
They need to tie K to something as she hasn’t really been breaking the internet 😂. The only time K broke the internet when she was missing/gone.
On social media, the Prince and Princess of Wales called Anne a “super trooper” and added it is “so great to see you back so soon”.
Are they trolling us with the above comment?
They are such narcissists. Anne doesn’t have any social media accounts which is not unusual for a 70 something woman and if they are that close they would pick up the phone and call her Privately . This social media post about her is performative.
But Anne does put them to shame in terms of her quick return to work after a serious injury. Anne simply showed up and didn’t put out announcements about it.
Kate is still playing games with her good day / bad day stuff that for some reason she can predict in advance, hence she skipped the women final today but also announced today that she will have a good day tomorrow for the men’s final.
They are playing the public for fools.
Honestly, now that I saw Kate emerge from her “cancer” treatments with a face lift, I have written the whole family off.