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The royal family
CoffeeCantata · 05/09/2025 17:08

She was the epitome of elegance, humility, kindness and (sorry - hate this word, but) class!

RIP

LaMarschallin · 05/09/2025 17:10

DH told me this news. He's not normally interested in modern royalty (think he sees anything after Victoria as "celebrity gossip" rather than history 🙂) but even he said how sad it was and that she'd seemed a good person. Also presided at his degree ceremony.
The song is ended, but the melody lingers on.

CoffeeCantata · 05/09/2025 17:14

SeaAndStars · 05/09/2025 15:51

My mum and dad were married the same day as the Duchess of Kent's wedding and I was was their born in the same year their daughter. My mum always said that Katherine Worsley was the best royal bride ever and was interested in and admired her all her life. They're both gone now. Rest in peace.

I know I’m a sentimental old bat but your post illustrates why, for some of us, the royals mean something. I grew up watching their weddings on the telly with my grandparents and when I look back, I realise that these events are tied to events and periods in my own life. If you haven’t experienced this, or if you or your family were anti-royal, it will seem ridiculous- but it’s a powerful thing.

faffadoodledo · 05/09/2025 17:19

HRHTheDuchessOfBotox · 05/09/2025 15:37

I think it’s lovely that every single post on here is warm and affectionate for the late Duchess which goes to show the high regard that everyone held for her.

I knew her when I was younger. She was a very gentle person.

Yes, it's so rate to find this in a thread. I just thought she was beautiful - like a homemade Grace Kelly or Ingrid Bergman. You know, that kind of cool, all beauty.
It's been lovely to read how involved she was in her causes. She seems to have got things right

OhNoNotSusan · 05/09/2025 17:52

what a lovely lady
RIP

Vitriolinsanity · 05/09/2025 18:29

This was one of those death announcements that made me say “oh!” and feel sad.

Like other posters she always struck me as a gentle and good person. A really good egg. From my childhood she was utterly glamorous, her wedding dress was surely in the top royal brides.

I hope she is reunited with her dear, lost baby.

Hoppinggreen · 05/09/2025 18:38

Lovely down to earth Yorkshire lass even though she was born to privilege and married even more

WestwardHo1 · 05/09/2025 19:09

HRHTheDuchessOfBotox · 05/09/2025 15:37

I think it’s lovely that every single post on here is warm and affectionate for the late Duchess which goes to show the high regard that everyone held for her.

I knew her when I was younger. She was a very gentle person.

This has been my impression across the whole of social media. No one (that I have seen) has had a bad word to say about her. What a lovely, good person she was - a gracious, dignified, kind woman.

CurlewKate · 05/09/2025 20:01

I remember my mother- who wasn’t a royalist- being very moved by her miscarriage. I didn’t know about the still birth.😢

CurlewKate · 05/09/2025 20:02

I have a picture in my head of her in a lovely green evening dress..

Reddog1 · 05/09/2025 20:13

I wanted to see whether Jana Novotná had made a statement about this news, but when I googled I discovered that she died some years ago. I’m shocked. I didn’t know.

AliasGrace47 · 05/09/2025 20:24

What a lovely lady, by all accounts. The epitome of what a royal should be- or epitome of decent person, for that matter.

Monkeytennis97 · 05/09/2025 20:26

Rest in peace Mrs Kent. As a fellow music teacher thank you for bringing the joy of music to so many.

DBSFstupid · 05/09/2025 20:34

Thissickbeat · 05/09/2025 13:29

Her daughter, Lady Helen, was on the news yesterday tea-time talking about Armani as they'd worked together for years. How incredibly sad (and obviously even worse) for her to lose her mother the same day.

Yes I thought this too. There was something genuinely lovely about the Duchess of Kent which I feel Lady Helen has inherited from her.
RIP

WestwardHo1 · 05/09/2025 21:03

Reddog1 · 05/09/2025 20:13

I wanted to see whether Jana Novotná had made a statement about this news, but when I googled I discovered that she died some years ago. I’m shocked. I didn’t know.

Yes it was terribly sad. Jana died of ovarian cancer when she was only 49. Apparently they remained good friends for the rest of Jana's life.

There was a lovely interview the duchess gave when she was quite an old lady when the interviewer expressed surprise that she had...shock horror...given Jana a hug. Katherine said something like "how could I not? When someone is crying, you give them a hug".

RIP both women. Both wonderful people

HonoriaBulstrode · 05/09/2025 21:10

Martina has posted a tribute on X. The Duchess befriended her when she was quite newly arrived in the West from Czechoslovakia, initially by inviting her to tea at KP after one of her Wimbledon victories.

TokyoSushi · 05/09/2025 21:10

I worked in a hotel and we used to look after Mrs Kent, she was lovely.

LlynTegid · 05/09/2025 21:13

Apparently the Duchess of Kent listened to Eminem's rap- I wonder if he knows?

WestwardHo1 · 05/09/2025 21:33

HonoriaBulstrode · 05/09/2025 21:10

Martina has posted a tribute on X. The Duchess befriended her when she was quite newly arrived in the West from Czechoslovakia, initially by inviting her to tea at KP after one of her Wimbledon victories.

Didn't she also use her influence to help get Martina's mother out of Czechoslovakia so she could watch her daughter play at Wimbledon?

Friendlygingercat · 05/09/2025 21:42

I remember her wedding. A beautiful bride and a lovely and gracious lady. RIP.

ARichtGoodDram · 05/09/2025 21:51

Didn't she also use her influence to help get Martina's mother out of Czechoslovakia so she could watch her daughter play at Wimbledon?

She did. Sue Barker wrote about it in her book.

HonoriaBulstrode · 05/09/2025 21:57

She did. Sue Barker wrote about it in her book.

I must look that up. I remember hearing something about it at the time, but never knew details.

Lady Helen has always looked very like her mother.

ARichtGoodDram · 05/09/2025 22:01

HonoriaBulstrode · 05/09/2025 21:57

She did. Sue Barker wrote about it in her book.

I must look that up. I remember hearing something about it at the time, but never knew details.

Lady Helen has always looked very like her mother.

So, apparently at one of the finals Martina and the Duchess had a chat and that lead to Martina sharing that she'd not seen her family since she defected.

At the time the Czechoslovakian authorities wouldn't even allow her matches to be shown on tv.

The following year the Duchess personally, and quite publicly, campaigned the authorities to grant her family, inc her mum iirc, a visa to travel. They gave in to the pressure and they got to go to Wimbledon

AnAlpacaForChristmasPleaseSanta · 05/09/2025 22:09

Every time I see that footage of the DOK with Jana I'm 😭.

Just a fabulously warm and classy human being.

murasaki · 05/09/2025 22:16

I remember Jana Novotna crying on her and the joy when she got to present to trophy to her a few years later. She was one of the good ones. RIP.

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