Princess of Wales makes surprise appearance at Buckingham Palace garden party
20 May 2025, 19:25
The Princess of Wales surprised crowds as she attended her first Buckingham Palace garden party since her cancer diagnosis.
Listen to this article
Loading audio...
Kate, who has returned to the public eye in recent months following her diagnosis, joined Prince William and fellow royals Princess Eugenie and Zara Tindall at Buckingham Palace.
The Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh and the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester also attended the garden party as Princess Kate met with the family of Liz Hatton, a teenager who passed away from cancer last year.
Kate met 17-year-old Liz at Windsor Castle last year, shortly after announcing her return to public duties
Liz passed away in November from a desmoplastic small round cell tumour, a rare and aggressive form of cancer.
After their meeting, William and Kate said it was an “honour” to spend time with the “brave and humble young woman”.
Around 8,000 guests, including Liz’s mother Vicky and younger brother Mateo, took to the palace lawn to enjoy the Spring sunshine.
Also in attendance was Holocaust survivor Steven Frank, who met the Princess in 2020.
Kate’s surprise appearance comes after the Duchess of Sussex compared gardening to running a business, saying some seasons are for "blooming" and others for "tending to the soil".
Meghan's latest podcast episode was released just a day after known gardening enthusiasts the King and Queen visited the Chelsea Flower Show, meeting former footballer David Beckham and seeing a rose named in Charles's honour.
Former Suits actress Meghan spoke with founder of sustainable hair and beauty brand Kitsch, Cassandra Thurswell, for her Confessions Of A Female Founder series, and told listeners that with a strong vision "Oh, that garden will grow".
The duchess said: "OK, so I think you guys know, I really like being in the garden, and running a business, funnily enough, it's a lot like gardening.
"Some seasons are for blooming. Others are for planting seeds, but most of the work, especially early on, it's tending to the soil.
"It's the foundation. It's what everything is going to grow out of."
