The Prince and Princess of Wales stayed at a bed-and-breakfast in Wales last night, following their busy afternoon of abseiling, hiking and pizza-eating. I wondered if they would do any events in Wales today, and here’s my answer. They visited Aberfan, the site of the 1966 disaster which left 144 people dead. 116 of those people were young children. The Crown devoted an episode to the Aberfan disaster, and if you’ve seen it, you know how badly QEII mishandled and misjudged the disaster. She should have been there first thing, within 24 hours. Instead, she waited eight days to go to Wales and NOT comfort her subjects.
William and Kate visited the Aberfan Memorial Garden, which sits on the site of the former primary school which was buried in the landslide with more than a hundred children inside. They were shown around by Aberfan survivor David Davies and Profession Peter Vaughn. They also met with trustees of the Aberfan Memorial Trust. This was William and Kate’s first-ever visit to Aberfan.
For the event, Kate wore a new Zara dress, a Catherine Walker coat (which might be a repeat?) and a Mulberry bag.
Photos courtesy of Getty.
Her hair – LORD her hair. It needs an intervention.
And that second pic, interesting when we see pics of her untouched.
What it needs is a cut. When it was around her shoulders it looked so much better. And it suits her face more. Especially now that she’s getting older and it’s showing
My stomach lurches when I see her playing with her hair in public
And it is CONSTANT!
Funny how when Meg touched her hair there were articles galore. Even faking trying to immulate her. Catherine can’t get even a footnote about her looks, her constant hair touching, other than the usual. Even now that she’s trying her best to do what Meghan did in Britain. Sad even her husband don’t look at her.
The article about her trying to look like Katherine are just her haters and her people trying to get her name associated with anything CA does. She can’t keep headlines or articles going on her own name so it’s constantly filled with Diana, the queen, Margaret and of course Megan, just to keep her name out there.
Especially for this month where we’ll see Meghan getting two awards so how else is Catherine going to make headlines. Same way when Megan podcast was a huge hit they tried to piggyback Catherine name on it by saying Meghan wanted her to do a podcast on her own and she ended it with Andy Cohen😅. When will and Catherine did that one podcast, it was 😧 criticized for Catherine laughing at one point and the topic was mental health plus it didn’t generate interest in Britain much less globally so have they done one since.
Right now after the coronation what’s there for Britain to talk about. It’ll be buried once Meghan gets her awards. So now there is a somewhat attachment of Catherine name to Meghan hard work since the only thing to talk about for Catherine currently is her climbing down a rock 🪨 and delivering 🍕.
In the second picture is it just me but around her eyebrows does anyone else see the bubbles of where they inject the Botox. There’s bubbles around her mouth also. Am I the only one seeing this
I hadn’t heard of this tragedy. It was before my time and I live in a different country. But my god those poor parents and families. Those poor children.
Did they meet with any surviving relative or parents? I can’t imagine the horror and loss and shock.
And why do I feel like the queen was like – oh they lost their children. Yes yes. Wait they are sad? Oh. Ok. ….. days later….. what? I should say something? To whom? THE PUBLIC? Why? Those children? Wasn’t that days ago? STILL SAD?!?
@Moxylady, the Aberfan disaster took place in a small mining village in Wales, 1966. The colliery spoil tip had been created on a mountain slope directly above the village. Very heavy rain caused the tip to suddenly slide down onto the village. Directly in the path of this slurry was the primary school and some houses. The little school was engulfed and that’s why 116 children died, plus 28 adults, 5 of whom were teachers.
Virtually a whole generation was wiped out. Children who survived have been wracked with guilt ever since, understandably.
It was incredibly tragic and Aberfan is indelibly etched into the British psyche.
Meghan had flat-straight hair for her Ted Talk intro last week and lo, here we have Struggle Doolittle trying to copy it. Clearly the Welsh climate is not interested in helping Unable here. Love that for her.
Also props I guess to her stylist for not allowing her to wear hot pink to a Site of Mourning like she did when she visited Ground Zero in NYC. She’s actually wearing something appropriate to the occasion, for once.
Your second paragraph – was just thinking the same. And didn’t she wear some breezy floral outfit to visit a concentration camp in Poland? She does look appropriate here. Guess some of her listening and learning is finally paying off.
I”m not a fan of how that bow is falling with the neckline of the dress and coat but she does look appropriate for the occassion.
Her hair is giving strong sister wife vibes it is so so bad. Something nice…it matches the sister wife vibes of the dress!
Is it just me, or does it look…redder than usual? Sort of like the color Meghan’s hair was the other day…is it possible that Kate works THAT quickly??
Her hair yes but………her eyebrows look like they’re trying to escape her head.
The dress looks like something a school teacher would wear in the 80ies… but at least the coloring and tone is appropriate for visiting a memorial site.
OMG! This is one of the ugliest outfits I’ve seen on her since Meghan joined the family. There is zero style match here. Horrible!!!
I think her long coats are horrible anyway, where the heck did she get them…
@Chewie – agreed. I was half expecting some happy color on her. Obviously the bar here is low, but I’m glad she wore darker colors for the occasion.
Every picture I’ve seen of Kate this week has been rough, damn! This is the woman that deranged royalists are claiming Meghan wants to look like?
Yes, and there is a story today claiming Meghan has had plastic surgery to look like her, just because she changed her hair! LOL
Hi Hail. See my comment down thread. Exactly, some of her recent photos have had the photoshop dialled down. I don’t believe any of her photos are ever completely unedited but some get through less “done” than others. There was one on the dm hiking story. A photo of true-ish Kate next to one of the 10s of photoshopped ones, and it is grim. Also, she can’t gurn at an event such as this, so her face drops.
Yes. That’s why she puts on her overdone hyena smile all the time. It’s to hide her sagging face.
Wait that’s a new dress? Zara or not its a waste of money bc she has one or two almost exactly like that (I’m thinking of one she wore last January when she and William did a day trip to somewhere in the north of England. or maybe not north, but outside of London.) But why am I not surprised.
anyway I guess its nice they finally visited this site. It would be nice if a royal could go every year on the anniversary (maybe they do?)
24 hours in wales and then I guess they’ll be back home; wonder how many engagements will go in the CC for this visit? More than 3 that’s for sure.
It’s hard to tell because this idiot constantly buys like ten garments that look exactly alike. It is so, so grossly wasteful.
This one really does not photograph well. She should rewear her quality pieces, like Anne does, instead of buying more Zara crap.
I see your point and agree, Becks.
Willnot should be embarrassed that this is his first time in Aberfan, but he won’t be, because Willnot.
Clearly, The Crown is influencing the Windsors, see above, re: Willnot has never been to Aberfan.
It’s not a new dress, it was a repeat. She’s worn t in 2020 and 2021 previously
Have they stopped airbrushing Kate’s photos? She’s looking mighty rough lately.
There comes a point that airbrushing becomes pointless. I really want to congratulate Billy and Kathy for visit but I don’t like giving out participation prize. These two are doing the bare minimum when it comes to Wales and they are hardly enthused.
I was just thinking the same thing!!! They really must be mad at her for disappearing for so long.
She looks tired worn out, face full of stress and wrinkling bad. Her face is falling much faster than is usual for a40 year old woman. Both seem tense, his jaw clenched her hands moving constantly he’d her face tense and sad. Something is very wrong. Not to mention the wide open fake smile.
Dear lord that second photo of her – she’s looking rough. I don’t mind the outfit but I just can’t with her hair, it does nothing for her.
Also the resemblance to Carol(e) is striking – she’s getting more and more like her mother the older she gets.
I guess that’s what a night with will at the BB would do you..
She needs to get a haircut and quit the dark makeup! I know from experience that the older you get you have to lighten the colors you use!
At minimum their visiting the site is supposed to be a show of respect.
Thankfully Kate was not guffawing all over the place.
I just have nothing good to say, W and K seem so useless.
Well she did remember to dress “appropriately” for the occasion unlike when she visited Memorial Plaza at ground zero and wore a hot pink coat.
All I can say is that this is exactly the kind of thing they should be doing – just much more often.
ITA. Although I have to give credit where credit is due— I think it’s hilarious that that baby grabbed her Mulberry bag, and she just walked away, letting him keep it for a while
@Lorelei: Kate letting the baby hang on to her bag reminded me of the infamous lip gloss borrowing: “Ew, you’ve probably got germs on it. You can just keep that…” 😆
Or perhaps she thinks peasants can barter a Mulberry bag for baby supplies at a baby bank?
How are the Welsh lessons going, Will? It’s absurd to me that he’s had decades to prepare for his investiture, but there is exactly zero possibility that he will give his speech in Welsh like Charles did.
They’re both looking rough. Sheesh. They’re practically always on vacation and even if they have marriage problems they can literally afford the best of everything and they still look like this.
This is why they never should have encouraged the photo shopping (which admittedly I am just assuming Kate did – or at least she didn’t complain). She seems older because we are so used to seeing her photoshopped. If we had seen her gradually aging like a normal person, it wouldn’t be as shocking!
Hér birthday photos did not resemble her one bit
I miss Mulberry bags, used to splurge on the sometimes during the sale or find them second hand. But my budget is looking better now that I stopped buying leather. *sigh* Still.
The outfit is appropriate, I don’t know why people can’t accept that this is simply her style. It’s not mine and if I had her budget and height, I would hire the best stylist and have them compile a super nice capsule wardrobe with the occasional new purchase for really special occasions. Would love it if we could stop the “she’s looking rough” comments though. Guess that’s not happening.
The amazing capsule wardrobe is what she would do if she was a professional and the charities were the focus. If the clothes were consistently high quality nameless pieces that were repeated all the time, they’d have to focus on the substance of the visits, not the clothes. Since it’s the other way around, it just adds to their being unserious people.
Of course they would have to focus on substance. Oh, wait, they don’t know how to do that. I can’t believe they didn’t even bring a flower to put on the memorial not even one, let alone a bouquet or wreath. No promises of help for the survivors either (they got nearly none of the money, most went to the clean up and the memorial.) I’m sure they would have liked to have perhaps had a private visit with them. They never do anything and they don’t even have staff trusted enough to backstop them when they go places with empty hands. It’s nothing more than a publicity stunt.
They are so Useless!
They do nothing that benefits anyone, these photo opps.
If the idea is to bring PR to the agencies like the Rescue team pics yesterday, bring a donation of their own money to the opp.
We all end up talking about their looks and clothes bc their visits do not cause any true help or change.
Useless is the word of the day.
They need to be doing engagements like this and more x 1000. Meaningful work, true engagement, out there everyday. Having children is no excuse. Everyone juggles countless things in their lives, and with far less money and support than they have. Will and Kate have given very little in 12 years (their wedding anniversary is tomorrow). I doubt this will change, but they need to try harder.
This was a terrible time in Wales, the mud slide from the pits burying that school was heartbreaking, AND the tories who owned a lot of the mines were never brought to justice. The Royal family at the time did all the wrong things, left it to long to visit, did nothing for the grieving families and DIDN’T donate there and then to the memorial garden. These two muppets turning up for 5 minutes does NOTHING to my estimation of them. It’s just another photo op on another day, and looking at the people stood behind that fence, they weren’t overjoyed to see them either
Copied Megs hair ✔️. Photo Op complete✔️. On to the next. Nothing to see here.
Remember when Meghan handed her coat to a woman to help keep her baby warm in the cold Dutch weather last year and how we all predicted we d get something similar to that from copykeen? Yep that happened
It’s not quite right that tories owned the mines. At the time mines had been nationalised and so were publicly owned and under the control of the National Coal Board, who failed in their duties. The chairman of the Coal Board at the time was Lord Robens, a trade unionist and Labour Party politician. In his role, he oversaw massive cuts to mining across the UK. He was heavily criticised in the subsequent investigation (he refused to visit Aberfan after the disaster for example) but kept his position as chairman for several more years. And the Charity Commission (another public body) was disgraceful in how it handled the distribution of funds that had been donated to the families by the public.
It all comes back to their utter lack of caring or responsiveness outside of themselves. It’s not a function of their vast privilege generation to generation
Brooch in the shape of a leek. Check.
Dress in The Prince of Wales plaid. Check. Yes, that pattern is called The Prince of Wales plaid.
Wiglet that doesn’t match the rest of her hair. Check.
Dowdy outfit. A little house on the prairie look.
I love it. This is how she used to dress before Meghan came on the scene. Long may it continue.
Amy Bee. I don’t know whether you’re being sarcastic? Please don’t be offended if you’re not! It’s just me. I actually like the dress, too. And I think she looks better in what was her” look” before Meghan. I honestly think she had what she thought worked for her until she wanted to copy someone else’s style. Style is such a personal thing. Apart from the coatdresses, which I hate, I think she tends towards a more flowy/older look.
She looks annoyed with William. So much for the posed happy couple pictures
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aberfan_disaster
I looked this up on Wikipedia: ouch! Heartbreaking. In Groningen (Northern Holland) the government doesn’t want to come to terms with earthquakes and damage caused by fracking, but there’s never been this level of a disaster here. Yet. It’s good that they went to pay respects, because I learned about it. And now I can offer condolences to those touched by this disaster.
You have earthquakes? And fracking? I didn’t know that at all. I’m from Germany and we don’t really have any problems with that. As far as I know…
If you live so “close” to Düsseldorf, do you go to the Invictus Games?
Fracking causes earthquakes in places that typically didn’t previously have them. It’s one of the reasons people are trying to stop the practice.
That Zara dress is not new she’s worn it at least twice in the past. William and Kate probably should have visited Wales on a more regular basis before they got the titles.
I’ve always thought Pippa vaguely resembled Wallace Simpson, but in the second picture, Kate made me immediately call the Duchess of Windsor to mind. I thought Kate’s outfit was appropriate and the dress and coat went well together. When posters make comments like “the dress is something like a school teacher would wear,” is that an insult against school teachers?
Is there anything wrong with looking like a school teacher? The woman obviously loves buttons and bows, and I think they work fine for her. They also tend to hide what looks like extreme thinness.
@Tamsin, I think it’s that some of Kate’s dresses look like the tired old stereotype of a dowdy “schoolteacher,” and also, Kate dresses like a very prim schoolteacher in the early 1980’s.
Diana made the Princess of Wales title a force to be reckoned with, and part of that was absolutely the way she dresses. Kate falls far far short of the mark both in looks and dynamism .
Aberfan was a dreadful tragedy, and one of the queen’s biggest regrets for not visiting there in the immediate aftermath. The kid who nabbed her bag. If only it had looked inside and answered the question we’re always asking on here: what the hell does she carry around (apart from the supposed alarm)? Which brings me to what surely must be a fear of hers – that some day either a little kid or a gale will drag off her wiglet. And, Kate being as unaccomplished as she is, will be exposed for not having her famous big hair and it will be the beginning of the end for her, who has so little else to claim as noteworthy. Goodness, also, in some of the photos she looks dreadful. There was one yesterday in the hiking on DM where they had a photoshopped one right next to a not-so-edited. It is jarring. I think they sometimes sneak one through to rile her and keep her in check.
The Fail already has an article up with someone praising her, saying it was “the right thing to do” to wait so long to visit 🙄
I’m shocked that people still support the DM or any of the other UK tabloids after the hate campaign they’ve waged against H&M.
is it me or since meghan left her fashion is not good, no meghan to copy and paste gosh!!
I don’t think this is a new dress, I swear we’ve seen her in this before? And if not, she’s worn a very similar style previously. She loves 1980s secretarial looking dresses that are dowdy and unfashionable.
As an aside, I really am not a fan of fashion in general right now. We’ve swung back into 1990s fashion (Gen Z has truly embraced it) and I was really young during that decade so I didn’t really care what I looked like. My mom was doing the bulk of my shopping and picking my clothes but I truly get a huge laugh whenever I see kid pictures of me. But as an adult looking back, I am not a fan of the oversize trend and I pretty much hate everything in stores–how many nap/prairie dresses do we truly need? I hate them all lol! I guess I just won’t do a lot of shopping for the next 5 years or so, however long this trend lasts.
I absolutely love Wales! It’s so beautiful and worth a visit for anyone going to England.
They both were born after the tragedy happened yet it took 41 years before they visited? Kate has an excuse until 2011 but it is not sincere to pretend they care when this is the first time they have been.
And we all know they watch the Crown so the episode where they showed it was several years ago. That could have sparked some interest back then. This is all shallow PR.
I mean, I could be wrong but I don’t think it’s entirely up to them where they visit and when. I think visiting aberfan while Charles was still the prince of Wales might have been encroaching on Charles turf tbh. I would guess they had probably been holding it for will and Kate to visit in the leadup to the coronation week as some sort of sign of goodwill or something.
They are just so meh … so blah …
I don’t love her or Camilla in suede boots. Well, frankly I don’t like suede boots on anyone. I’d much prefer her in leather boots.
Every time I think I’ve accepted Kate has no style she does this and I just want to cry. The styling is fug, the dress is fug, the hair-lawd Jesus I can’t take it. So much money to look so bad, SMH.
Tony Snowdon was the only member of RF to rush to Aberfan and even came with a shovel to help with the digging.
https://www.townandcountrymag.com/society/tradition/a29280373/lord-snowdon-antony-armstrong-jones-aberfan-disaster-response/
As they are now PoWs I expected them to pay their respects to a community that dug with their bare hands to locate their own children and kin. In view of her reported comments on “enduring” a brief car journey with her SIL, I suggest Kate might like to reflect on what the bereaved of Aberfan have had to endure since 1966.