The Duchess of Cambridge attends the Sarah Everard vigil

[JamesMiddletonsMarshmallows]

My respect for the Duchess has just shot up. For a Royal, this is pretty bold and brave.

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/sarah-everard-vigil-kate-middleton-london-b1816862.html

Not forgetting other women - if you attended the vigil tonight, thank you for sticking up for women's rights. Let's hope this is an opportunity for the Met Police to review and change how they treat both offending officers and female victims

@JamesMiddletonsMarshmallows

Like she's ever been in the same position as the victim was.

considering she lived as an unintentionally famous woman without protection in London for 10 years I imagine she absolutely has

It's SO boring that people are mentioning MM and speculating about the apparently awful things that would have been said about her. It's ironic that they preface this by slagging Kate off for going.

FWIW I'm not a Meghan "fan" but I'd have thought the same if she was still I London mad visited, which I'm sure she would have

I suspect the irony goes over their heads, as I've witnessed so many times this week.

Kate is and always has been discreet, so yes, this does raise eyebrows, understandably but if the same level of cynicism was shown for the Oprah charade, they'd have a point.

@allthesharks

The thing is though, if it were a publicity stunt then her PR would have had her wearing a mask and ensure that she was filmed, recognised and it broadcast that it was her. I actually think that her not wearing a mask indicates that it wasn't a publicity stunt and that she was doing it through her own fruition - most likely thinking it's an outdoor space, people are there for the victim and not to hound her.

Either way, good for her for going. And the comment about her not going to pay respect to other less publicised victims, how do you know that she didn't and it just wasn't publicised?

Yes to this, totally agree.

She damned if she does and damned if she doesn't then

Reported the spammer

Mask or no mask, security or no security, flowers or none, P. R. stunt or not... I could not care less.
She has as much right to go there today as anyone else.

Oops... anyway another poster put this on a different thread. A national survey about violence against women. I wanted it to be a question on the next census but this must be as good or at least some help

@PeterRabbitsLuckyFoot

I think it’s great that she went, but clearly a PR move. Why wasn’t she wearing a facemask? Almost everyone in the pictures are wearing them, so it was clearly necessary. She wears them to events, so obviously doesn’t have an issue wearing one. She probably wouldn’t have been recognised if she had a mask on

She wasn't wearing a mask because she wanted to be seen. That's the whole point. Yes she wanted to pay respects but also to make a statement in support of women. And I'm so glad she did.

There's no requirement to wear a mask outdoors.

SO WHAT if she wanted to be seen. Can anyone give me a good reason as to why she had to hide being there?

An awful lot of you sound a bit like misogynists actually - yes little woman, you can do it but do it DISCREETLY, without fuss and remember to STFU too

She wasn't wearing a mask because they are not needed outdoors.

@JamesMiddletonsMarshmallows

SO WHAT if she wanted to be seen. Can anyone give me a good reason as to why she had to hide being there?

An awful lot of you sound a bit like misogynists actually - yes little woman, you can do it but do it DISCREETLY, without fuss and remember to STFU too

Because it's NOT ABOUT HER, it's about Sarah Everard. But I don't for a moment believe it was an appearance arranged solely by KM, it has Palace PR written all over it.

A woman has been murdered and the suspect is a police man.
A terrible tragedy, yet this whole thread is women pitting one privileged woman against another. Unless we, as women, stop feeding this stuff about other women, we are never going to defeat misogamy. I have no interest in a Kate/Megan slanging match but if Kate paying her respects to a female victim of murder raises the profile of our streets being unsafe for women that can't be a bad thing. A slanging match focused on these two women is at the very least in bad taste in the context of Sarah's murder.

I think not wearing a mask may have been intentional, so she would be noticed. However I don't see it has a PR stunt, I see it as an act of solidarity on her part. To me her motives seem sincere.

@RampantIvy

She damned if she does and damned if she doesn't then

Yes the royal family always are. That’s why we’d be better off with a republic. Democracy. No more dramas.

@CausingChaos2

Kate has gone up in my estimations for this. I don’t doubt for a second she has the same insight we (women) all do around the understanding and empathy of what was done to Sarah.

Of course Kate had security with her! To protect her from the 99.99% risk of male violence! Shame the irony in that is lost on some.

Yep, this

Lol I’m not a spammer I just have bad WiFi!

Maybe people should have their own “hate Kate” group because they really seem to hate her. Sad to see but they won’t be won over, they love to hate

Because it's NOT ABOUT HER, it's about Sarah Everard

I'm confused - do you think women attending a memorial about a murdered woman are making it about them?

How exactly did KM make it about her? Seeing as she didn't utter a word, or speak to anyone? Seeing as she seemingly laid her respects and went home?

*paid

Why is most of this thread debating whether or not it’s PR? Of course it’s PR!

This is the RF. There would have been discussions beforehand. Public reaction to mask? Public reaction to no mask? Every possible reaction that is now playing out on MN would have already been discussed.

If CM wants to do something privately, none of us will know about it.

Everything that you see and hear about the RF is PR. You are never ‘peeking in’ on a private moment. Never.

Maybe the reason behind this ‘PR’ is that someone is genuinely trying to add their (relatively famous) presence to effect positive change. Their personal reasons for doing it? We will never know. But they walked into this eyes wide open. And they knew there would be a backlash. Would you have done the same?

None of my friends in marketing and PR say that it wasn’t a PR move.
It’s such an obvious move, it’s like the Brand Johnson and all else that has worked in the past few years for keeping the status quo.

It's good she was recognised. They cant arrest/fine anyone else for covid rule breaking without doing the same for her.