{"id":259347,"date":"2025-07-12T16:13:24","date_gmt":"2025-07-12T16:13:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/259347\/"},"modified":"2025-07-12T16:13:24","modified_gmt":"2025-07-12T16:13:24","slug":"princess-of-wales-given-standing-ovation-at-wimbledon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/259347\/","title":{"rendered":"Princess of Wales given standing ovation at Wimbledon"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Princess of Wales received a standing ovation at Wimbledon as she attended the women\u2019s final between Iga Swiatek and Amanda Anisimova. <\/p>\n

Kate, 43, who is in remission from cancer, took her seat on Centre Court after greeting the six-time singles champion Billie Jean King in the royal box.<\/p>\n

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After the match, the princess<\/a>, who is patron of the club and a tennis player herself, is due to present the trophies to both players.<\/p>\n

It is the first time she has attended the women\u2019s final since her cancer diagnosis last year. She watched the last men\u2019s final with Princess Charlotte, then aged nine, and her younger sister, Pippa Matthews, in what was only her second public appearance since announcing her diagnosis.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The princes, 43, arrives at Centre Court with Debbie Jevans, the former Wimbledon competitor who chairs the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club<\/p>\n

JORDAN PETTITT\/PA<\/p>\n

\"Princess<\/p>\n

She sat in the royal box with Billie Jean King, 81<\/p>\n

KIN CHEUNG\/AP<\/p>\n

It is hoped that Kate will return to Wimbledon<\/a> on Sunday with the Prince of Wales to watch the men\u2019s final<\/a> between the Italian world No 1, Jannik Sinner, and the Spanish world No 2, Carlos Alcaraz<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Last month she pulled out of attending Royal Ascot with Prince William at relatively short notice: the carriage lists in the royal procession still featured her name. At the time, royal sources said Kate was \u201cdisappointed\u201d to miss the race meeting with the King, Queen and William, but that she was seeking the right balance in her recovery.<\/p>\n

Pre-match meet and greet<\/p>\n

Before the match on Saturday, Kate, wearing a white skirt suit and her green and purple patron\u2019s ribbon bow, met Wang Ziying, the winner of the ladies wheelchair final who is the first Chinese player to win a wheelchair Grand Slam. <\/p>\n

She then spoke to Lydia Lowe<\/b>, eight, who is representing the Dan Maskell Trust and performed the coin toss for the wheelchair final. The charity supports people with disabilities who play tennis by providing them with specialist equipment and grants. <\/p>\n

Lydia suffered a brain injury in January last year, leaving her visually impaired and having to learn to walk, talk and eat again. <\/p>\n

\"Catherine,<\/p>\n

With Lydia Lowe, eight<\/p>\n

JORDAN PETTITT<\/p>\n

Kate also talked to Sophie Kneen<\/b>, 12, who is on coin toss duty for this afternoon\u2019s final and is part of the Women and Girls Inclusion Project, which is being funded by the Wimbledon Foundation and aims to increase female participation levels and help more women and girls into coaching and leadership roles in sport. <\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

With Sophie Kneen, 12<\/p>\n

JORDAN PETTITT\/PA<\/p>\n

She also met Bob Flint<\/b>, Wimbledon\u2019s longest-serving honorary steward, as well as Shaniah Williams and Jefferson Iweh from the \u201cWork at Wimbledon\u201d programme, which helps young locals from disadvantaged backgrounds into work at the championships.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

With Bob Flint<\/p>\n

JORDAN PETTIT\/PA<\/p>\n

\u2022 Who is the greatest tennis player? Our experts crunch the numbers<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

The princess is gradually returning to public life after undergoing chemotherapy last year for an undisclosed form of cancer.<\/p>\n

This month, in her first public engagement since pulling out of Ascot, Kate spoke candidly about the \u201clife-changing\u201d challenges of a cancer diagnosis and putting on a \u201cbrave face\u201d after treatment during the journey to recovery, which can still feel \u201creally difficult\u201d.<\/p>\n

During a visit to Colchester Hospital, Essex, where she met cancer patients, the princess said of life after treatment: \u201cYou\u2019re not able to function normally at home as you perhaps once used to. You put on a sort of brave face, stoicism through treatment, treatment\u2019s done \u2014 then it\u2019s like: \u2018I can crack on, get back to normal\u2019.<\/p>\n

\"Catherine,<\/p>\n

Kate visisted the RHS wellbeing garden at Colchester Hospital on July 2<\/p>\n

STEFAN ROUSSEAU<\/p>\n

\u201cBut actually the phase afterwards is really difficult: you\u2019re not necessarily under the clinical team any longer, but you\u2019re not able to function normally at home as you perhaps once used to. But it\u2019s life-changing for anyone, through first diagnosis or post treatment and things like that. Itis a life-changing experience both for the patient but also for the families as well. And actually it sometimes goes unrecognised: you don\u2019t necessarily, particularly when it\u2019s the first time, appreciate how much impact it is going to have. You have to find your new normal and that takes time \u2026 and it\u2019s a rollercoaster. It\u2019s not one smooth plane, which you expect it to be. But the reality is it\u2019s not, you go through hard times.\u201d<\/p>\n

During the conversation, one patient told her: \u201cIt can be very discombobulating, in that time when you\u2019ve finished active treatment. Your reality has completely changed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kate then spoke of the need for recovery time: \u201cThere is this whole phase when you finish your treatment that you, yourself, everybody, expects you, right you\u2019ve finished your time, go, you\u2019re better, and that\u2019s not the case at all.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Princess of Wales received a standing ovation at Wimbledon as she attended the women\u2019s final between Iga…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":259348,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7708],"tags":[5105,7710,519,448],"class_list":{"0":"post-259347","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-royals","8":"tag-royal","9":"tag-royal-families","10":"tag-royal-family","11":"tag-royals"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114841152202884387","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259347","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=259347"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259347\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/259348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=259347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=259347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=259347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}