For years, Prince William was actually the honorary patron of the Irish Guards, but it was always expected that his wife would turn up on St. Patrick’s Day. It’s the tradition for the Irish Guards, to have a female royal come to their barracks every March 17th to pass out shamrocks to the guards and pin shamrocks on their Irish Wolfhound. In 2023, William had to step back from the Irish Guards patronage – he was given his father’s old Welsh Guards patronage, because he cannot have both apparently – and so that was when Kate was officially made the honorary Colonel of the Irish Guards. Her first St. Patrick’s Day as the stand-alone honorary colonel was last year, and she did not show up. Obviously, she was ill and in hiding. But she will make her grand return on Monday. No mention if William will join her.
Kate Middleton is set to toast with a pint of Guinness this St. Patrick’s Day! On March 11, Kensington Palace confirmed that the Princess of Wales will visit the Irish Guards at the St. Patrick’s Day parade in Wellington Barracks on the holiday. Kate, 43, was named the honorary Colonel of the Irish Guards in 2022 but was a regular at the annual March 17 event even before that, often accompanying her husband, Prince William, who held the position before her.
Monday’s appearance will mark a return to the event for Princess Kate, who missed last year’s parade amid her health battles. The royal was recovering from a January 2024 abdominal surgery, and she revealed later in March 2024 that she had been diagnosed with cancer.
The Irish Guards kept the Princess of Wales in their thoughts, giving her three cheers at the end of their celebratory parade.
At Monday’s parade, Princess Kate will take part in various traditions. She’ll award long service and good conduct medals to soldiers within the regiment before joining the parade to present sprigs of shamrock to the officers and guardsmen. Their Irish Wolf Hound regimental mascot also usually receives some shamrocks as well as a sweet pat from the royal. The parade will conclude with a royal salute and march past where Kate will take the salute as colonel.
I’ve always wondered why Kate didn’t embrace this more, or take on more military patronages before she was forced to when QEII died. It’s a pretty easy gig for a female royal – stand around in a dress or some kind of military cosplay and flirt with men in uniform. Diana used to love all of her military patronages, but she had a thing for men in uniform. Anyway, I hope Kate has a good time. They’ll expect her to have a pint of Guinness too.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid, Cover Images.
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- ALDERSHOT, ENGLAND – MARCH 17: Catherine, Princess of Wales meets with members of the Irish Guards and enjoys a glass of Guinness during the St. Patrick’s Day Parade at Mons Barracks on March 17, 2023 in Aldershot, England. Catherine, Princess of Wales attends the parade for the first time as Colonel of the Regiment succeeding The Prince of Wales, the outgoing Colonel.,Image: 763503510, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: *** NO UK USE FOR 48 HRS ***, Model Release: no, Credit line: Chris Jackson / Avalon
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- Aldershot, UNITED KINGDOM – The Prince and Princess of Wales – Prince William and Catherine – Kate Middleton to attend the St.Patrick’s Day Parade at Mons Barracks, Aldershot, UK. The Prince of Wales, outgoing Colonel, Irish Guards, will be accompanied by The Princess of Wales, incoming Colonel, to visit the Irish Guards at the St. Patrick’s Day Parade. Pictured: Catherine – Kate Middleton BACKGRID USA 17 MARCH 2023 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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- Aldershot, UNITED KINGDOM – The Prince and Princess of Wales – Prince William and Catherine – Kate Middleton to attend the St.Patrick’s Day Parade at Mons Barracks, Aldershot, UK. The Prince of Wales, outgoing Colonel, Irish Guards, will be accompanied by The Princess of Wales, incoming Colonel, to visit the Irish Guards at the St. Patrick’s Day Parade. Pictured: Catherine – Kate Middleton BACKGRID USA 17 MARCH 2023 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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- Aldershot, UNITED KINGDOM – The Prince and Princess of Wales visit the Irish Guards in Aldershot for St Patrick’s Day. Pictured: Catherine – Kate Middleton BACKGRID USA 17 MARCH 2023 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 during a visit to the 1st Battalion Irish Guards for the St Patrick’s Day Parade, at Mons Barracks in Aldershot. Featuring: Catherine, Princess of Wales and Prince William Where: Aldershot, United Kingdom When: 17 Mar 2023 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- The Princess of Wales speaks on stage with the Prince of Wales during a visit to the 1st Battalion Irish Guards for the St Patrick’s Day Parade, at Mons Barracks in Aldershot. Featuring: Catherine, Princess of Wales and Prince William Where: Aldershot, United Kingdom When: 17 Mar 2023 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- The Prince and Princess of Wales sit for a group photo during a visit to the 1st Battalion Irish Guards for the St Patrick’s Day Parade, at Mons Barracks in Aldershot. Featuring: Catherine, Princess of Wales, Prince William Where: Aldershot, United Kingdom When: 17 Mar 2023 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- The Princess of Wales meets members of the Irish Guards and enjoys a glass of Guinness during a visit to the 1st Battalion Irish Guards for the St Patrick’s Day Parade, at Mons Barracks in Aldershot. Featuring: Catherine, Princess of Wales Where: Aldershot, United Kingdom When: 17 Mar 2023 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- Prince William and Catherine, Princess of Wales visit the Irish Guards at the St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Aldershot. Featuring: Prince William and Catherine, Princess of Wales Where: Aldershot, United Kingdom When: 17 Mar 2023 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
Wonder what she will copy or coattail (about Meghan) at this brief engagement.
She will probably go the theme route so green obviously and some military nod and of course BUTTONS lots of buttons.
I’ve always thought this event was such an easy win for Kate and I’m not sure why she has dragged her feet over it. Put on a pretty green coat, pin some shamrocks, pet a dog, have a Guinness. It seems like one of the easier royal-military gigs out there. And its St Patricks day so everyone is happy and festive and in green.
But she’s Kate, so she either finds an excuse to hide or makes it a much bigger deal than it needs to be.
Wonder if she’ll have a new coat this year….
I think it’s probably a hierarchy thing?
But quite frankly i think it’s ridiculous that a woman with no military experience is a colonel of any regiment.
How do you mean, hierarchy? This tradition was handed off to kate years ago (from Anne I believe) and she has skipped it more than once. The first time she skipped it was the first time in decades that a royal woman hadn’t been there to hand out the shamrocks.
that said I’m with you on the colonel thing. I think its ridiculous that anyone without military experience is a colonel, even if it is honorary.
I have always thought this… such an easy, visible thing for her to do, and she acted like it was the most massive burden, and she couldn’t possibly be expected to attend every year. She “didn’t want to set those expectations” I recall. What in the world? Did she have yet another holiday? Is St Patrick’s Day that important to her private schedule?
I honestly thought she would find a way to shirk this year, but I am glad she is going to make an appearance.
Over under on whether she digs out a prior coat dress or finds the pennies for something new?
Given how she repeats outfits all the time now, I don’t think she will get to have a new coatdress for this.
I’m thinking she’ll wear red–it goes along with the ‘don’t expect anything from me!’ attitude & it’s her new signature color, dontcha know! 🙄😉
Exactly, this and the BAFTAS are the big events that I would never miss! Cute dog, cute soldiers, and all eyes will be on her in a brightly-coloured coat dress. I don’t see a downside!
But to riff on something Omid once said, when you are used to being able to do absolutely nothing, doing anything will seem like a huge chore.
This was the first event where she signaled years ago she was going to be lazy AF. To not attend because she didn’t feel like it was not a good look.
But William not attending with her clearly shows they don’t want to spend anymore time together than necessary. The photos from 2023 are wild with the nasty looks given to each other. Some of them are included here, but there were even more which showed the soldiers near them wondering what was going on.
Didn’t her team once say, she won’t show up each year because she doesn’t want to create an expectation for her presence? She doesn’t want to work. Wearing coat dresses and getting in front of cameras are all work for her. She wants to sit at her home and do nothing like she did for years before Meghan showed up.
Yes absolutely.. And one year she was caught holidaying when she’d made a bs excuse
Yep, they announced her patronage and said no one should expect her every year in the same article. This woman is the most coddled human in history.
Before she got caught out going to the ski resort she claimed she never would know if she could manage work until she got up in the morning.
Yeah that narrative hasn’t been brought up in a while. They are now saying yes she will show up to this as opposed to it depends on how she’s feeling. Which technically should be a sign that she’s in better health. And as Jennie Bond says she really seems to enjoy the events.
I don’t know if she actually enjoys these events because if she truly enjoyed them she would make a point of doing them consistently. Her showing up somewhere and smiling doesn’t mean that she enjoys it. She showed up to Harry and Meghan’s wedding smiling for the cameras while walking in and walking out but forgot during the service to fix her face.
Well yeah, I def believe that if she really enjoyed them then someone wouldn’t have to assure that she did…
The laziness here is truly next level.
Willie did say he was going to be the Zoom Monarch, while Katie would happily disappear into Mustique.
I wish these women dignitaries visiting would realize Smithwick’s is also a pro-Ireland and highly tasty option.
I remember the picture of Michelle Obama with a Guinness in front of her when she visited and it was clear it wasn’t going down. I have so many mental images of high profile women in Ireland staring down a pint of Guinness bug-eyed.
Ladies, ask for a Smithwick’s and remember the “w” is silent. 🙂
I’m Irish and I cannot drink Guinness. I can live with it in a beef stew, otherwise I am not touching it. Kate could enjoy an Irish whiskey or an Irish coffee for example. Indeed we have plenty of different beers! 🙂 I would not be offended if she didn’t drink Guinness. It is such a boring basic cliché.
I tried it once, once was more than enough.
Kate was known to out drink William during the bar stumbling days. She can probably handle a Guinness without issue.
I’ve never liked Guinness, but I do like a good dark beer. Here on Vancouver Island we have dozens of great micro-breweries and most have wonderful dark beers. My favourite is Dark Matter by Hoyne Brewery — it’s got flavours of chocolate, coffee, a hint of licorice — it makes Guinness tasteless by comparison.
I don’t think she’s healthy now. She looks old for her age. She’s quite thin in photos above, but compared to the ones of her recently, she seems to have lost weight she hasn’t been able to regain. She comes across as tired a bit too often. Whatever is going on with her (presumably she had some abdominal issue which led to the discovery of potentially cancerous cells, but the haziness of the reporting makes it difficult to determine what has been going on), she has not been able to maintain/ regain her weight from a couple of years ago yet. That is a red flag.
If she has/ has had cancer, weight gain is difficult. If she has something like Crohn’s or UC or even celiac disease, these can also be responsible. Obviously diet.
Being underweight can be more dangerous than being obese! If she’s suffering from stress or mental illness, the weight needs to be stabilized before she can get help. If your thinking is fuzzy, you cannot profit from therapy. Extremely low weight can lead to heart and CV disease and osteoporosis. If you come down with an illness, you do not have the reserves to fight it.
This family is not warm, welcoming or supportive. Kate might be getting a taste of her own medicine, but it’s still warped and wrong.
I agree completely, it’s wrong this woman’s illness—whether celiac, an ED, or something else—is on public display and nobody is talking about it, let alone, apparently, doing anything about it.
Charles let Diana starve and suffer. He likely expressed only annoyance and embarrassment at her ED when it came up at all.
It cannot help that W’s big dalliance was with a very very thin lookalike. I think Kate would get zero support from Will in trying to gain weight.
The heavy coat dress does not conceal that this woman is skeletal. @ML is right–staying this sickly thin is dangerous and then recovery would need to be monitored carefully. My understanding is that Karen Carpenter died of heart problems when she was actually trying to put on weight.
He had Dr. Van Der Post talk to Diana which was useless. Van Der Post approved of keeping mistresses (writing about this). Diana was fed large quantities of valium by the “doctors” sent to her and had to stop when she found out she was pregnant. Charles was seen going to the hunt club where Camilla was and leaving his wife who was not feeling well at home, not keeping her company.
I’m of the mind she did have cancer and it was related to bowel/intestines. Here’s my take. She goes in for abdominal surgery of some type. Once performed they find cancer was present and whatever they found/removed. With further testing they see there are still signs in that there are precancerous cells remaining or forming. Given that cancer had been present, and removed, the decision is made for preventative chemo, also called adjuvant (sp) chemotherapy to both kill those cells and prevent new ones as well as avoid any further surgery or recurrence.
But KP is crazy secretive and their comms office sucks. Plus they’ve a high handed attitude, a sense they don’t owe anyone an explanation of any sort and they’re cagey when they do say something. (No one knows Charles’s specific treatment or type of cancer but no one is demanding more answers or left confused. There doesn’t need to be a trade off of privacy.) There are vague timelines and even those shift. Months go by between hospitalization and the announcement video and then the walk-in-the-woods video.
I think they found signs the cancer could easily and quickly recur. I believe they decided to undergo this course of treatment. And I believe there’s still a fear that, while she’s finished chemo she may not be entirely out of the woods. And with a certain type of abdominal/bowel cancer you can be left with some very unpleasant side effects, including anemia, even if cancer free. This could limit her public appearances at certain events as well as making large term plans unfeasible. It can also keep you low energy and with trouble putting on weight.
I’ve said she was too thin for years. You just need to look at photos. But she used to have energy at least. Maybe not in terms of working but now I can’t picture her doing anything sports like as in the past or even exercising like crazy like has previously been mentioned. She does *not* look well.
What they found was pre-cancerous cells. Nothing occurred except a bunch of scrambling and lies.
BQM, This could be true. She’s younger, so cancers tend to be more aggressive. With something related to her GI system, like Crohn’s for example, her risk of cancer goes up anyway. My FIL (blood cancer) has lost kilos, and he’s still 40 kg down from his ideal weight, which he cannot seem to regain even though he’s in remission at the moment. He looks old, has no energy, can’t maintain his body temperature and he’s no longer an optimist. What you’ve sketched above could be true, though as stated, the stupid comms and crazy secrecy leave room for doubt.
A former coworker lost his daughter (17) to anorexia. People around his family either were empathetic, or they blamed him and his wife for not forcing her to eat–watching him go through that was heartbreaking. They were completely helpless; you have to get someone to eat to treat, because otherwise you don’t have the nutrition to support your brain and other systems.
She can’t disguise how incredibly thin she is (whatever the reason[s]). Nor how tired and aged. They have lied about whatever is going on, and it’s obvious that something is still seriously wrong and it looks like she’s being “encouraged” to work and certain family members are behaving chilly towards her.
In a normal family, this wouldn’t happen. In a normal company, it wouldn’t either.
Your opinion, I stick by mine. And I mentioned the precancerous cells.
Who cares about her; give us pictures of Seamus!!!
Seamus is adorable!
It just dawned on me that the royals used to showcase more cute animals than they do nowadays. I also miss other dogs and ponies.
That picture of her with the dog…
It astonishes me that someone with her money regularly has hair that looks as unhealthy as hers. Or is full of winglets or is as poorly styled.
But, then, look at her clothes choices.
The problem with her posture in the dog picture is her very high stilettos. I can’t imagine getting down low with a dog in those stilettos.
@Wolfmamma, It’s not her money. I suspect she is often reminded of that.
I look at her & William standing there in the rain & think, nobody thought to bring an umbrella? I can understand William not wanting to be under one, ’cause all the uniformed men are out there getting wet, but Kate? They Kate cover up skinny little Kate freezing her butt off?
Do we think KC had a little pep talk with heir and wife to remind them of their obligations or did he delegate said task to a flunkey? Both do appear to have been told to show up more? Tabs were fed up about BAFTAS no show and this does seem to have translated into them being more visible.
To me there does seem to be a correlation between the revealing tab articles about their vacationing and Willy ‘blowing off steam’ with Suzanne (I forget her last name). It seems they needs to appear to work, at least a little, to stop the presses leaks.
Guess I’m feeling petty today, but People magazine and other publications keep referring to her as Princess Kate. She is not a blood princess, but due to her husband, she is Catherine,Princess of Wales. Why not just say “”Kate” or the Princess of Wales? Same with Diana, Princess of Wales . People still called her “lady di” or the Princess of Wales. She kept her title after the divorce.
Diana was most often called Princess Diana after they married. She was called Lady Di when they were dating and maybe early in the marriage. I never heard anyone refer to her as Princess of Wales, only Princess Diana.
I think that’s how KP wants her referenced tbh. There were a ton of stories from William’s camp (or maybe Kate/Carole)before they got married that he wanted the Queen to issue a new letters patent giving Kate the title “Princess Catherine” and William wanted to stay “Prince William” and didn’t want to be Duke/Duchess. The Queen said no.
As an American of Irish descent, it just annoys the hell out of me watching the British royals do performative crap like this.
They should have to apologize every March 17 to the Irish.
Why do her smiles always look so forced and ungenuine?