With the death of Elizabeth II, who died at the age of 96, on September 8, 2022, she became the oldest member of the British royal family.
Katharine, Duchess of Kent, celebrated her 91st birthday this Thursday, February 22.
Born Katharine Lucy Mary Worsley in 1933, she is the only daughter and youngest child of Sir William Worsley.
She grew up at Hovingham Hall, near York, an estate that had been in her family since the early 18th century, and joined the British monarchy by marrying Prince Edward in June 1961. Her husband, now 88, is a direct cousin of the late Elizabeth II.
By this marriage, she was the first person without a title to marry a member of the royal family in over a century.
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The simplicity of “Madame Kent”
Despite her rank, Katharine always described herself as "a simple Yorkshire girl".
The Duke and Duchess of Kent could have married at Westminster Abbey, but Katharine absolutely insisted that the ceremony take place on her native land, she who always described herself as a "Yorkshire lass", a Yorkshire girl.
It was therefore at York Minister that the Duke and Duchess of Kent were married.
At their wedding, the young bride still wore the Kent tiara with diamond and pearl fringes and a dress designed by John Cavanagh.
The Duke and Duchess of Kent at their wedding.
(York Minster, June 8, 1961.) AFP
The Duchess of Kent cared so little for the prestige of her title that in 2002, when she retired from her royal duties and began a career as a music teacher, she wrote a letter to Elizabeth II, then Queen of England, to ask him to rescind his title reading "His Royal Highness".
She then explains that she introduces herself at her workplace simply as Madame Kent.
“Only the headmaster knew who I was,” she told BBC
Radio 3
in 2005. “The parents didn't know and neither did the pupils.
Nobody ever noticed it.
There was no publicity about it, it seemed to work.”
However, she remains referred to as the Duchess of Kent in the Court Circular, the official register of previous royal engagements.
A figure from Wimbledon
When she was still actively involved in her royal duties the Duchess of Kent became known for her constant presence at the Wimbledon tennis tournament.
For almost 30 years, she was the one who presented the trophies to the finalists.
A role today played by Kate Middleton, Princess of Wales.
One of the most memorable images remains that of the Duchess of Kent comforting Jana Novotna in tears, when she had just lost to Steffi Graf in the final of the 1993 women's tournament.
The Duchess of Kent consoles a tearful Jana Novotna during the final of the women's Wimbledon tournament.
(London, July 3, 1993.) Henning Bangen / Getty Images
Love of music
Before marrying Prince Edward, Katharine worked in a children's home in York and then in a nursery in London, before studying music at Miss Huber's Finishing school in Oxford.
A discipline to which she has devoted her entire life.
In an interview given to Oxford Mail in 2010, she confided: “music is the most important thing in my life.
This is the reason for being and the purpose of everything.”
It was moreover the teaching of music that she ended up devoting herself entirely to after retiring from her royal duties in 2002. She was then 69 years old when she moved to Hull to become a music teacher. music at Wansbeck primary school.
She stayed there for 13 years.
An uninhibited word
One after their marriage, the Kents welcomed their first child, George Windsor, Earl of St Andrew, born June 26, 1962. Two other children followed: Lady Helen Taylor (born April 28, 1964) and Lord Nicholas Windsor (born July 25). 1970).
After that, the Duchess of Kent experienced two sad events which led her to speak out on subjects which were even more taboo then than today.
In 1975, suffering from German measles, she suffered a miscarriage.
Two years later, on October 5, 1977, she gave birth to her fourth child, a stillborn son named Patrick.
I quickly realized this happens to a lot of people
Katharine, Duchess of Kent
In an interview with the
Telegraph
in 1997, the Duchess spoke about the depression that followed this bereavement.
“It had the most devastating effect on me.
I had no idea the devastating effect such a thing could have on a woman.”
She then says she first “threw herself” back into her royal duties before being admitted to hospital for seven weeks of treatment.
“I am not at all ashamed of this period,” she said about it.
It wasn't a good time, but once I came out of it and got my senses back to reality, I quickly realized that as horrible as it was, it happens to a lot of people. »
Although retired from public duties for several years, the Duchess of Kent remains in very high esteem within the British monarchy.
However, she did not attend the funeral of Queen Elizabeth in 2022 or the coronation of King Charles last May.
Katharine's most recent royal appearances include the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle in May 2018, as well as the RAF centenary flypast on the balcony of Buckingham Palace that summer.