Katharine, Duchess of Kent, spent the last two decades of her life largely out of the public eye, having quit royal duties in 2002 to pursue a more ordinary way of life. However, while she was rarely seen on the royal stage after this time, she did make the occasional public appearance.
One of these was at Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s 2018 Windsor wedding, which is the last royal wedding she publicly attended. At the wedding, the duchess was seen to be all smiles, wearing a long patterned dress with white trainers. She accompanied the look with a fascinator.
While the late Duchess seemed happy at the wedding, which took place seven years ago, she also appeared to be quite frail.
This is because she was seen being assisted by a member of royal staff out of the car and up to St George’s Chapel, with the Duchess holding onto the staff member’s arm the entire time.
This was the last time she was seen publicly attending a wedding, and was only seen a handful of times in public in the years afterwards.
Her last public appearance was last year, when the duchess was photographed outside Wren House – the home she shares with her husband Prince Edward, The Duke of Kent – on the Kensington Palace estate.
The Duchess was spotted sitting in a wheelchair as she watched a performance by three pipers from the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards to mark the Duke’s 89th birthday. Before that, she was last spotted at Wimbledon in the summer of 2018.
The Duchess’s death has caused much sadness among royal fans, who have rushed to pay tribute.