The rarely-seen royal who used to hand out Wimbledon trophies before Princess Kate
Before Princess Kate, another Royal Family member used to hand out Wimbledon trophies - but she isn't the most well known.
Before Princess Kate became well known for presenting trophies at the Wimbledon Tennis Championship finals there was another rarely-seen royal who used to hand out the trophies way before her.
Katharine, the Duchess of Kent, may not make many public appearances anymore but she used to attend Wimbledon every summer.
Katharine Kent, as she likes to be known, withdrew from public life in 2022, deciding not to use the style Her Royal Highness and reduce her royal duties.
But throughout her royal career since her marriage to Prince Edward, the Duke of Kent in 1961, she was known for presenting the Wimbledon finalists with their trophies
Edward was president of the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club from 1969 until 2021 and he presented many of the trophies during the tournament finals.
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His position has not been refilled and most of his duties are carried out by Princess Kate, who, as Patron of the All England Club since 2016, presented her first Wimbledon trophies in 2019.
Katharine herself has attended Wimbledon and presented the trophies to the winners on various occasions with one of her most famous moments being in 1993, when she comforted Jana Novotna after she lost to Steffi Graf.
Five years later, in 1998, the duchess, quite fittingly, was the one who awarded Novotna for her Wimbledon victory.
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It was previously unclear whether Princess Kate would hand out the trophies this year. Her possible replacement was rumoured to be the Duchess of Kent, who is also a tennis fan and has been Honorary President of the Lawn Tennis Association for 25 years.
The future Queen has been largely absent from royal engagements this year - she only attended Trooping the Colour in June - after she was diagnosed with a form of cancer in late February.