{"id":399909,"date":"2025-09-05T12:01:14","date_gmt":"2025-09-05T12:01:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/399909\/"},"modified":"2025-09-05T12:01:14","modified_gmt":"2025-09-05T12:01:14","slug":"katharine-duchess-of-kent-dies-aged-92-uk-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/399909\/","title":{"rendered":"Katharine, Duchess of Kent, dies aged 92 | UK News"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Duchess of Kent has died at the age of 92, Buckingham Palace has said.<\/p>\n

Katharine – who became the oldest living member of the Royal Family when Queen Elizabeth II died in 2022 – was known for consoling Wimbledon finalists, notably a tearful Jana Novotna in 1993.<\/p>\n

A skilled pianist, organist and singer, she dropped her HRH style, preferring to be known as Mrs Kent, and retreated from royal life to spend 13 years teaching music at a primary school in Hull.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

Image:
\n The duchess famously comforted emotional Wimbledon runner-up Novotna after the 1993 final. Pic: AP <\/p>\n

The palace said in a statement on Friday: “It is with deep sorrow that Buckingham Palace announces the death of Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Kent.<\/p>\n

“Her Royal Highness passed away peacefully last night at Kensington Palace, surrounded by her family.<\/p>\n

“The King and Queen and all Members of The Royal Family join The Duke of Kent, his children and grandchildren in mourning their loss and remembering fondly The Duchess’s life-long devotion to all the organisations with which she was associated, her passion for music and her empathy for young people.”<\/p>\n

The Union Flag at Buckingham Palace was lowered to half-mast as a mark of respect shortly after the duchess’s death was announced. A formal framed announcement is displayed on the palace railings.<\/p>\n

\"Katharine<\/p>\n

Image:
\n Katharine meeting Nelson Mandela in 1998. Pic: PA<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

Image:
\n The duchess, who volunteered for Unicef, is greeted in northern India in 1996. Pic: PA<\/p>\n

An online condolence book will be available in the coming days and funeral details will be announced in due course.<\/p>\n

Katharine married Prince Edward, the Duke of Kent – who is the cousin of the late Queen Elizabeth II – in a grand ceremony at York Minster in 1961.<\/p>\n

The couple have three surviving children, George, Earl of St Andrews, Lady Helen Windsor, and Lord Nicholas Windsor.<\/p>\n

Read more:
Angela Rayner resigns<\/a>
Three Britons among Lisbon crash fatalities<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

Image:
\n The Duke and Duchess of Kent at their York Minster wedding. Pic: PA<\/p>\n

The duchess suffered heartbreak when she was forced to have a termination after catching German measles while pregnant in 1975. Two years later, she endured the devastation of giving birth to a stillborn son, Patrick.<\/p>\n

She led a separate life from the Duke of Kent for many years but the couple did not divorce – and were said to be closer than ever after Edward suffered a stroke in 2013, which prompted his wife to move back into their Kensington Palace home.<\/p>\n

Katharine’s famous Wimbledon moments<\/strong><\/p>\n

Her appearances at Wimbledon, where she presented the winners’ trophies, became a familiar feature of the summer sporting calendar.<\/p>\n

\"Venus<\/p>\n

Image:
\n Venus Williams receives the women’s singles trophy from the duchess in 2001. Pic: Reuters<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

In 1993, she put royal formalities and protocol aside to hug tearful runner-up Jana Novotna after she lost the ladies’ singles final to Steffi Graff.<\/p>\n

Her relationship with Wimbledon authorities later soured, when she was refused permission to take the young son of murdered headmaster Philip Lawrence into the royal box at the tournament.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Duchess of Kent has died at the age of 92, Buckingham Palace has said. Katharine – who…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":399910,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[77,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-399909","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-uk","10":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115151587695517499","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399909","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=399909"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399909\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/399910"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=399909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=399909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=399909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}