A week ago, we were surprised when the Princess of Wales made an unannounced visit to Colchester Hospital, where she mumbled a statement about how she’s “not able to function normally at home as you perhaps once used to.” She also visited the hospital garden and planted a “Catherine’s Rose” bush. I didn’t realize it at the time, but Kate did the gardening without gardening gloves. The hospital staff apparently offered her gloves, but she wanted to “get her hands dirty.”
After speaking to patients and staff, Kate was invited to plant some ‘Catherine’s Rose’ plants in the hospital’s wellbeing garden, but surprised onlookers when she refused to wear gloves.
In this week’s episode of A Right Royal Podcast, Sky News royal correspondent Rhiannon Mills, who attended the event, shares why Kate chose to go without gloves.
“She was offered gloves when she was bending down to plant some of those Catherine roses, which were especially commissioned by the Royal Horticultural Society,” Rhiannon explains. “She didn’t want gloves. She had filthy hands. My cameraman, who was there, kind of zoomed in on her filthy hands. He was like, ‘Oh, is that appropriate or not?’ And I was like, ‘yes, it’s her getting her hands dirty’.”
She added: “So while the palace keeps saying, ‘We’re going to have to all get used to that flexibility in terms of engagements she’s doing’, I think, when she’s there… they are fully in.”
Not only did Kate get her hands dirty, and her hair wet, while planting, she also took part in a mini meet and greet that hadn’t been scheduled, staying longer than planned to chat with well-wishers.
Like many royal-watchers, I really go back and forth on what Kate is physically capable of these days and whether the palace would be better served by keeping a consistent narrative about what Kate is up to. We’re supposed to be like “good for her, getting her hands dirty and staying longer than people expected!” And then next week, we’ll be told that it’s practically a war crime to expect Kate to do one iota of work again before November, and that she’s desperate to have a five-month summer vacation. Add to all of that, I’ve always been astounded by how careless Kate is with Big Blue, which she was wearing at last week’s event. It’s one of the most famous rings in the world, and Kate was plowing sapphire-first into a dirt patch.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.
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- The Princess of Wales during a visit to the RHS’s Wellbeing Garden at Colchester Hospital in Essex. The visit coincides with the donation of 50 Catherine’s Rose plants, named after the princess by the RHS with funds from sales going to the Royal Marsden Cancer Charity. Picture date: Wednesday July 2, 2025.,Image: 1017655339, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: *** NO UK USE FOR 48 HRS ***, Model Release: no, Credit line: Stefan Rousseau/Avalon
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- The Princess of Wales during a visit to the RHS’s Wellbeing Garden at Colchester Hospital in Essex. The visit coincides with the donation of 50 Catherine’s Rose plants, named after the princess by the RHS with funds from sales going to the Royal Marsden Cancer Charity. Picture date: Wednesday July 2, 2025.,Image: 1017655843, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: *** NO UK USE FOR 48 HRS ***, Model Release: no, Credit line: Stefan Rousseau/Avalon
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- The Princess of Wales arrives for a visit to the RHS’s Wellbeing Garden at Colchester Hospital in Essex. The visit coincides with the donation of 50 Catherine’s Rose plants, named after the princess by the RHS with funds from sales going to the Royal Marsden Cancer Charity. Picture date: Wednesday July 2, 2025.,Image: 1017656275, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: *** NO UK USE FOR 48 HRS ***, Model Release: no, Credit line: Stefan Rousseau/Avalon
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- The Princess of Wales planting a rose during a visit to the RHS’s Wellbeing Garden at Colchester Hospital in Essex. The visit coincides with the donation of 50 Catherine’s Rose plants, named after the princess by the RHS with funds from sales going to the Royal Marsden Cancer Charity. Picture date: Wednesday July 2, 2025. PA Photo.,Image: 1017656800, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: *** NO UK USE FOR 48 HRS ***, Model Release: no, Credit line: Stefan Rousseau/Avalon
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- The Princess of Wales during a visit to the RHS’s Wellbeing Garden at Colchester Hospital in Essex. The visit coincides with the donation of 50 Catherine’s Rose plants, named after the princess by the RHS with funds from sales going to the Royal Marsden Cancer Charity. Picture date: Wednesday July 2, 2025. PA Photo.,Image: 1017656825, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: *** NO UK USE FOR 48 HRS ***, Model Release: no, Credit line: Stefan Rousseau/Avalon
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- The Princess of Wales planting a rose during a visit to the RHS’s Wellbeing Garden at Colchester Hospital in Essex. The visit coincides with the donation of 50 Catherine’s Rose plants, named after the princess by the RHS with funds from sales going to the Royal Marsden Cancer Charity. Picture date: Wednesday July 2, 2025. PA Photo.,Image: 1017656994, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: *** NO UK USE FOR 48 HRS ***, Model Release: no, Credit line: Stefan Rousseau/Avalon
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- The Princess of Wales planting a rose during a visit to the RHS’s Wellbeing Garden at Colchester Hospital in Essex. The visit coincides with the donation of 50 Catherine’s Rose plants, named after the princess by the RHS with funds from sales going to the Royal Marsden Cancer Charity. Picture date: Wednesday July 2, 2025. PA Photo.,Image: 1017657021, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: *** NO UK USE FOR 48 HRS ***, Model Release: no, Credit line: Stefan Rousseau/Avalon
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- The Princess of Wales during a visit to the RHS’s Wellbeing Garden at Colchester Hospital in Essex. The visit coincides with the donation of 50 Catherine’s Rose plants, named after the princess by the RHS with funds from sales going to the Royal Marsden Cancer Charity. Picture date: Wednesday July 2, 2025. PA Photo.,Image: 1017657072, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: *** NO UK USE FOR 48 HRS ***, Model Release: no, Credit line: Stefan Rousseau/Avalon
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- The Princess of Wales arrives for a visit to the RHS’s Wellbeing Garden at Colchester Hospital in Essex. The visit coincides with the donation of 50 Catherine’s Rose plants, named after the princess by the RHS with funds from sales going to the Royal Marsden Cancer Charity. Picture date: Wednesday July 2, 2025. PA Photo.,Image: 1017657199, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: *** NO UK USE FOR 48 HRS ***, Model Release: no, Credit line: Stefan Rousseau/Avalon
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- The Princess of Wales during a visit to the RHS’s Wellbeing Garden at Colchester Hospital in Essex. The visit coincides with the donation of 50 Catherine’s Rose plants, named after the princess by the RHS with funds from sales going to the Royal Marsden Cancer Charity Featuring: Catherine, Princess of Wales Where: Colchester, United Kingdom When: 02 Jul 2025 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- The Princess of Wales during a visit to the RHS’s Wellbeing Garden at Colchester Hospital in Essex. The visit coincides with the donation of 50 Catherine’s Rose plants, named after the princess by the RHS with funds from sales going to the Royal Marsden Cancer Charity Featuring: Catherine, Princess of Wales Where: Colchester, United Kingdom When: 02 Jul 2025 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
OMG that hair.
I have to agree with her though – I hate wearing gardening gloves. I just get my hands dirty. And sometimes I also wear my wedding rings. I just forget I’m wearing them.
Oh well. It all washes.
Yes, whatever combo of real and wig it is, it’s TOO LONG. Shoulder length would look so much better!
Stole my line.
But it’s not a good idea when one is recovering from a disease as serious as cancer. Germs and Insecticides can impact immune systems.
Horse poo is good for roses. She’s definitely not allergic to them then.
As for the lack of gloves, the idle one doesn’t really garden. She should have worn her Hunter boots too because they’re practical instead of just being a fashion accessory to cosplay Jecca.
Her attire is so inauthentic. She wants to be a wannabe landed gentry, look at Zara and Anne’s outdoor outfits.
It seems highly unlikely the host would have asked the Princess of Wales to plant a rose bush with horse poop.
So she comes in unannounced and gets to plant Catherine roses??? Yeah right. These folks are full of BS.
Yup, she’s reborn from the forest now, so she’s perfectly able dive right into that soil and show everyone she’s just like us… she can’t stand meeting her sister in law without her shoes on, doesnt like to share lipbalm and doesnt like hugs, but she wants us to know, she’s fine with dirt and fertilizer.
uhhhh……..no one said she came in unannounced. they said the visit wasn;t announced ahead of time; thats not the same thing
I suspect that yes it’s performative and it’s directed to Meg who does garden. Don’t know if Meg wears gloves or not but she does care for her garden:
Meghan knows how to use secateurs!
Can we not make everything about Megan? Royals frequently plant things at charity visits.
No I can’t. Sorry but I stand behind my opinion as you stand behind yours.
My sister has a lovely rose bush on her property and you know what she uses? Gardening gloves because of the thorns. Anyone who regularly works in the garden uses gloves. She’s so thirsty and it’s getting funnier by the day.
You watch — she’ll have a spread in some magazine they paid to publish her writhing around one of the haunted castles the royals own.
Exactly this: roses have thorns in general. You need gloves! Unless its a special breed or sort without thorns. This is just silly
I never wear gardening gloves, even when I clip the holly. I find them so uncomfortable.
Ditto – I hate gloves. I might wear when shoveling because – blisters. But when planting or weeding? Never. Not even plants with thorns. Please don’t speak for all of us. I’m not Princess of Wales or Duchess of Sussex, but I do garden most days, and I live in the country on an old farm.
No worries about Kate damaging or losing Big Blue if it’s not the “real” ring that Diana wore. I’ve always thought that ring (which is easy to copy and only tremendously valuable because Diana wore it) is locked deep in the vaults where William knows he’ll always have it.
Agreed, it’s not the “real” (Diana’s) ring. I think Charles or Diana picked it out of a catalog though, so I’m sure it wouldn’t have been hard for them to get a duplicate (or a few duplicates) – either decades after the fact (when Kate started wearing it) or maybe even from the get-go (in case something happened to Diana’s ring).
I like your idea that it was a duplicate from early on, because that means William didn’t have to spend a dime. We know he doesn’t like to spend money on jewelry.
oh lordy. The praise for this woman. “she may not work a lot but when she does she may even stay an extra few minutes and will get her hands dirty!!!!!!!”
And it was a very performative “getting her hands dirty” for the camera. Bc that was the message she wanted to get out there. She wanted Rhiannon Mills to say this very thing and Mills did.
I’ve been known to garden without gloves here and there, but why would she? They weren’t beige-tan like her outfit? Her hands don’t exactly look like they’ve seen a lot of work, so does this relate to her new ‘be one with nature’ cause? “Feel the dirt to become one with nature” powerpoint incoming
She must’ve changed her mind from earlier this year about focusing on the causes she “champions” over her attire…
So she needs a flexible schedule but when she’s there she is fully in? Sure.
Didn’t she bake pancakes or some dessert, sans washing her hands too??
Or am I misremembering?🤨🤨
I usually wear gloves, because I don’t like getting dirt under my nails. But I love the smell and feel of freshly dug soil. It’s good for my soul.
Why does she need to put her hands in dirt when her fingerprints are over so many dirty smears directed at her sister in law? What a joke.
Am I supposed to give her a cookie for getting her hands dirty? The royal reporters always talk about Kate as if she’s a child.
I have mixed feelings about this. Absolutely everything Kate does is performative and likely some racist passive aggressive swipe at Meghan. On a larger scale, debating in writing whether someone is “physically capable” or not is extremely abilist. Most people with any kind of physical or mental disability have their physical capabilities ebb and flow each day. As a person with a physical disability, sometimes I can hike, sometimes I need a wheelchair, sometimes I think I’m fine and I’m not. Kate is an asshole and she had cancer and chemotherapy. Most people I know who have had chemotherapy have similar experiences to me afterwards when some days they feel like they could do anything and some days they feel the weakness and can’t even get out of bed and require assistance. You want to slam Kate’s many cruelties fine, but please keep in mind what you are doing to the wider community of people with disabilities and people in recovery when you fancy yourself qualified to put in writing your speculation about whether or not a person is physically capable. It’s this kind of I’m sure unintentional micro aggression that has people with disabilities harassed every day for needing devices, parking closer, and even asking for a proper straw to eat. Unless you are a medical doctor, please think twice about the harm you cause others when you speculate about anyone’s physical abilities.
thank you for writing this.
I think the same when people talk about how she looks ‘old and haggard’ — as a 56 year old that actually does look 65 – it is painful to read.
Cruelty has become OK as long as it is aimed at someone who ‘deserves it’– it is all very MAGA.
MAGA punches down.
Kate is not a victim. She’s a freaking princess who has shown cruelty to her biracial sister-in-law.
She also has plenty of resources, so when we point out that her scraggly hair looks like it was styled by an angry cat, we’re punching up.
(I write this as someone who has a chronic illness.)
Then it’s lucky you’re not being gossiped about Wendy. Meanwhile, Kate looks haggard. From one of the wealthiest families with access to everything, she’s had multiple plastic surgery operations, loads of botox and fillers. She gets airbrushed and still only looks – OK. Starving yourself and smoking does no favours. Her personality shows on her face. That’s quite common.
Big blue isn’t “big blue.” She surely wears a replica. Can sapphires that size/color be labgrown? She probably has 6 big blues the same way she has 6 of every color coatdress. Keener ain’t “right.” She needs benched until whatever is going on with her is sorted out or divorced/out of the public eye permanently if she cannot handle the role she desperately wanted. Being queen isn’t worth being unalive, especially with 3 kids involved. She looks miserable with willy, looks faintly demented during solo engagements and the kids look on edge during family events. The rota regularly slammed every member of the royal family decades ago. How is she wandering around in public dressed/groomed like that looking half baked and not getting called out in the press? The cancer “story” neatly covers up a lot, but she has been declining since she landed that cursed ring. Divorce already.
To be fair, my hands are the same shape as Kate’s I need an eight and a half or nine for the length and a seven for the width. I have to buy men’s gloves to get the length and they can be frightfully baggy.
I wouldn’t care about big blue either. The ring isn’t hers. Even if they stay married until they die the ring will go back to the family and either George will use it for his future bride (I wouldn’t) or Charlotte will be offered it (I wouldn’t) or most likely it will become part of the royal collection and after Kate dies or divorces the next time we see it will be as an ill advised broach worn by some future royal.
It’s just crossed my mind that there have been many photos of Meghan gardening, or going to or from the garden.