On Tuesday, the Princess of Wales visited a women’s prison, where she highlighted the work being done by her patronage, Action for Children. Basically, Action for Children operates “units” where imprisoned moms can spend time with their babies and children. This is not the first time Kate has been sent to do a prison photo-op, she also visited a women’s prison in 2023. What was sort of weird about Tuesday’s visit is that she mostly repeated the same look she wore to the Royal Marsden Hospital last month, including a “new” Blaze Milano coat and a burgundy Gabriela Heart t-neck (which retails for £770). She did wear a different skirt. Was she making another point about how no one should talk about her fashion? Anyway, Katie Nicholl at Vanity Fair did a piece about Kate’s prison visit and she added some new details:
Kate Middleton visited a mother and baby unit within a women’s prison on Tuesday, as she continues her “gradual” return to work. Princess Kate, who is said to be “thrilled” to be back at work, visited HM Prison Styal in Wilmslow to highlight the importance of strong relationships between incarcerated mothers and their babies. The unit provides care for new and expectant mothers with support for babies who have to spend the first eighteen months of their life in prison.
The royal looked happy and relaxed as she toured the grounds in the rain, taking shelter at one point under an umbrella. Sources close to Kate say she wants to break down the stigma surrounding women having babies while in prison and focus on the importance of the bond between mother and child, even in challenging situations. The MBUs aim to help women break the cycle of reoffending.
Princess Kate spoke to some of the inmates about their experiences of having babies while serving a sentence – some are incarcerated for life – and talked to staff about the importance of inmates having the chance to form attachments with their babies.
Last year, Kate was forced to put her work on hold following her shocking cancer diagnosis, but having been given the all-clear in September following a course of preventative chemotherapy, Kate has been eager to get back to work.
Palace sources say while the princess has had a busy start to the year, she will pace herself over the coming weeks. While she is not set to join Prince William on an overseas tour this year, she is, palace sources say, committed to focusing on her projects and charity commitments “picking up where she left off this time last year.”
“She will pace herself over the coming weeks” – meaning, she’ll be on vacation with her kids during their school break. At least Kensington Palace is getting a little bit smarter about how they frame Prince William and Kate’s absences. KP sends them out for busywork just before a holiday, then briefs the press that W&K will “pace themselves.” After all of these years, they’ve created these cute little euphemisms for “Will and Kate are lazy and they’re constantly on vacation.” The bit about Kate not traveling for work is funny too, because she’s already been on a ski holiday to the Alps after Christmas, and I guarantee that Kate will be out of the country on another vacation soon enough.
Photos courtesy of Cover Images.
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- The Princess of Wales, Patron of Action for Children, during a visit to a mother and baby unit inside HMP Styal in Wilmslow, Cheshire, to highlight the importance of strong, loving and consistent mother and baby relationships to a child’s development, even in the most challenging of environments. Featuring: Catherine, Princess of Wales Where: Wilmslow, United Kingdom When: 11 Feb 2025 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- The Princess of Wales, Patron of Action for Children, during a visit to a mother and baby unit inside HMP Styal in Wilmslow, Cheshire, to highlight the importance of strong, loving and consistent mother and baby relationships to a child’s development, even in the most challenging of environments. Featuring: Catherine, Princess of Wales Where: Wilmslow, United Kingdom When: 11 Feb 2025 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- The Princess of Wales, Patron of Action for Children, during a visit to a mother and baby unit inside HMP Styal in Wilmslow, Cheshire, to highlight the importance of strong, loving and consistent mother and baby relationships to a child’s development, even in the most challenging of environments. Featuring: Catherine, Princess of Wales Where: Wilmslow, United Kingdom When: 11 Feb 2025 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- The Princess of Wales, Patron of Action for Children, during a visit to a mother and baby unit inside HMP Styal in Wilmslow, Cheshire, to highlight the importance of strong, loving and consistent mother and baby relationships to a child’s development, even in the most challenging of environments. Featuring: Catherine, Princess of Wales Where: Wilmslow, United Kingdom When: 11 Feb 2025 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- The Princess of Wales, Patron of Action for Children, during a visit to a mother and baby unit inside HMP Styal in Wilmslow, Cheshire, to highlight the importance of strong, loving and consistent mother and baby relationships to a child’s development, even in the most challenging of environments. Featuring: Catherine, Princess of Wales Where: Wilmslow, United Kingdom When: 11 Feb 2025 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- The Princess of Wales, Patron of Action for Children, during a visit to a mother and baby unit inside HMP Styal in Wilmslow, Cheshire, to highlight the importance of strong, loving and consistent mother and baby relationships to a child’s development, even in the most challenging of environments. Featuring: Catherine, Princess of Wales Where: Wilmslow, United Kingdom When: 11 Feb 2025 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
Very very gradual return to work
You cannot return to something you’ve never done.
very true
This was addressed by Zeno, right? Each week she gets half way to returning to work and so never arrives
‘A busy start to the year’ ….?
Girl, get a haircut. This has been on my mind for weeks. If she is so desperate for attention, why doesn’t she update her hair? Doesn’t she even realize how much attention she would get? BUT then there would be differentiation between her and M, and her obsessive competitive personality can’t handle it.
Honestly, I wish one of them would cut their hair. If M did it first, like a cute shoulder length bob, K would follow soon after and the whole world would get a laugh.
It’s not her hair. She just puts it on and takes it off – and she has got several.
But you’re right: if M cut her hair then Kate would follow in a heartbeat, and she wouldn’t be subtle about it either.
Only the royal rota miss her. She brings nothing to the table.
Well, yes and no. Even with Kate doing absolutely nothing, they still churn out daily stories using photos from her & Will’s dating years (e.g., yet another Casa de BangBang story). I do like the use of ‘gradual’ in quotation marks, though. ‘Gradual’ as in, nearly non-existent? ‘Gradual’ as in, well, actually, she’s going on vacation again?
She needs to pace herself? Good grief. I find it ironic that the author of this piece – Katie Nicholl – was diagnosed and treated for Liver Cancer and yet has been back to work and regularly scheduled activities for a while. Not a fan of hers but it’s also worth noting that she has spoken publicly about her condition to educate the public.
Imagine wanting your brother (in law) to leave his wife to work for your firm so that you and your wife/children can go on vacation in peace.
Imagine having the British subjects house you in multiple mansions whilst you vacation
It must be even harder for her to write about cheater “cancer” when she knows she never had it.
She absolutely is ‘picking up where she left off’ – she’s still doing the bare minimum.
I’m all for breaking down stigmas but how about we look more generally at incarceration rates and whether the amount of people we currently lock up is truly in the best interests of society? Of course not, that’s ‘too political’. Sigh.
She has never done the bare minimum, she’s always done far far less.
This!
@Sarahcs
She didn’t do “less”. SHE NEVER DID ANYTHING!!
Photoshoots are not work. Her visits usually last no longer than 15 minutes, which is the amount of time needed for a photoshoot.
Kate is not an expert on this. She should bring in people that are and give them credit. Mentioning agencies available to help should be emphasized
What’s William and Kate going to do when William becomes king? That work at their own pace won’t fly for long.
And yet, I think they will continue to do the same. Very little while briefing the press nonsense like claiming they’ll have to pace themselves as they adjust to their new roles, which will take decades, I’m sure.
They are priming the pump to lower expecations for when they are K&Q.
Interesting that there was little coverage of the catcalls and cries of “WE NEED MORE FUNDING” from the inmates at the prison when Kate arrived, as reported by Sky…same sh*t different day for the RR!
Doesn’t rewearing the same outfit reinforce that idea that she wants to be known more for substance than style? But apparently, according to the recent clarification, Kate never said that. So which is it?
Wearing the same outfit so soon after she wore it before wasn’t a good move. When I saw the pictures at first I thought they were from her visit to Royal Marsden.
Exactly. She has more old coats and dresses. Why happened to them??? Did middletons sold them to pay the debts???? My first thought after this post was like, she did another visit on same day and posting it on Tuesday day. May be KP came with this idea of changing a dress or accessories in the caravan, do another visit, post it later and fake the numbers of working days.
Yeah, those were my immediate thoughts. A same day visit being passed off as a different day by changing a few items. But news outlets are saying it was yesterday so sure? Otherwise, why? Maybe she’s staying somewhere and didn’t have access to her full closet so she had to rewear the coat? Maybe she’s sending a message that she’s a serious person by rewearing the coat so quickly? But she’s never reworn something so quickly. And they just clarified that Kate absolutely did not every say that her fashion couldn’t be discussed. As she proceeded to wear brown for the next few weeks. Anyways, I got no idea but it’s weird imo.
The Midds have paid no debts, at least no business ones. Legally.
They were allowed to change the nature of PP from shady off-shore (money laundering?) to shady on-shore without any investigation into the finances (illegal). That 2.4 million that destroyed some small businesses? The Midds legally don’t owe a penny of it to anyone.
Yup, this is just the same old same old. She did a few events over the last few weeks so when she goes on vacation with the kids the press won’t complain because shes “pacing herself.”
Lazy is as lazy does I guess.
Pace herself are the new words for she will be as lazy as ever.
I can see the BM scouring through a thesaurus to find new ways to say “won’t work.”
Here’s one her new schedule will take on a new trajectory. She will be doing things in the slow lane for a bit.
According to an article in the Guardian yesterday, the charity Action for Children (provided the deco in these pics) that the FewchaKween is patron of, had to apologize to a former inmate, who is a Black woman who was separated from her baby in prison, for a racist incident. Among other things, her baby compared to a monkey.
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/feb/12/moj-apologises-woman-racism-prison-mother-baby-unit-new-hall
But hey, “strong relationships between incarcerated mothers and their babies” “shocking cancer diagnosis” “pace herself”.
@Nanea, thank you for sharing the link. This story is so heartbreaking. A spokesperson for Action 4 children said:“We.. are very sorry for the racially emotive comments made by a FORMER staff MEMBER on 2017.“ But the victim’s words suggest that there was more than one offender though. Why did it take so long to settle the case and offer the apology? 🤔
That story is devastating. I’n glad the mom eventually reunited with the baby but they took them away from her while she breast feeding! Omg, that made me rage. Yeah, this patronage was likely desperate for some positive coverage. I’d like to think they’re doing better now since they’re still directly working with moms.
The Fail didn’t even bother to report on this prison trip, although it’s been two days and apparently Kate’s camera crew were there. Vanity Fair is American. Did any British outlet besides Sky (complete with catcalls about prison funding) cover it? What gives?
That’s very interesting. I was about to make a snide comment about Kate’s alleged desire to lower the stigma while giving the Daily Mail exclusives was so hypocritical. Knowing the press didn’t even cover it…. Wow.
Pretty sure Becky English covered it for the DM. Which yeah. She’s a damn liar. But she did write about the visit.
Thanks, and you’re right although it’s not on the Royals page I see and I had to search on Rebecca English. The comments are satisfyingly skeptical for the most part.
@Me at home
Perhaps the British media did not write about it because the visit took place on some “Tuesday”, not this week, and they did not want people to connect these facts.
The BRF is fast losing its relevancy. Of course it’s happened in the past. Now we get to see really terribly lazy and ineffectual people swanning around, living a lavish lifestyle while their tenants suffer horribly. Let them eat cake!
Notice the reference to not accompanying her husband on any overseas tour this year? The last joint tour was the disastrous 2022 Caribbean one and no one wants to see a repeat of that anytime soon. Forget the Fail bitching about the BAFTAS no-show, FO should be wanting them to do the standard 2 tours a year that Chuck used to do as PoW.
Wow, I didn’t realize W&K didn’t do any other tour after the Caribbean tour where they did all the wrong things. They were gonna go to Italy together, but then #KateGate happened. So, now Charles is going there with Camilla. Interesting.
There was also their joint appearance at the Earthshot Prize ceremony in Boston later on that year.
Kate had a busy start to the year? She’s only done 6 engagements in 6 weeks.
@Amy Bee a co worker is on a 4 week phased return to work and next week is her final week of reduced hours. Most UK organisations offer a 4 week phased return after an operation and physical rehabilitation. Kate has had 4 months off after chemo ended and a snail pace return to work. Do US organisations offer phased return to work after consultation with occupational health?
@Lady Digby: I would imagine some places do. As a federal worker, I’ve had the opportunity to do ‘light duty’ after an injury; it’ll be for however long your doctor says you need it. More recently, after a hip replacement surgery, I took four weeks off per doc’s recommendations–but I had the sick leave & annual leave hours to cover all that. For subsequent physical therapy appointments, I used more annual leave (I was out of sick leave by that point).
@Lady Digby
What chemotherapy? She never had it and never had cancer.
Kate is the embodiment of a work-shy malingerer.
She definitely does not look relaxed. She looks like she is ready to bolt . Hence why she never took off the coat and why she is perched on the edge of the couch. She doesn’t want the prison to keep her for any longer than she has to be there .probably because she was already locked away a lot of last year. Allegedly
What else could she be doing other than to go on holidays ? She literally doesn’t have a real job.
Do us all a favor and retire with the vapors to Buckleberry with your grifter parents. Come out once a year with the kids in tow. That’ll be enough – more than enough, really
I think that is a great idea, she doesn’t do much more than that to begin with anyway.
I wish I could pace myself, but bills won’t pay themselves. I’m not saying she has to work like a dog like the rest of us, but if I were in her position, I would either make a big statement recognizing the privilege or make a point to separate financially from taxes and live like an average person. Sell off some clothes and create a grant for working moms, etc