As we discussed, the Princess of Wales refused to support her patronage, England’s men’s and women’s rugby teams, over the weekend. England’s women’s team, the Red Roses, made it to the final of the Rugby World Cup, which had been played across England for the past month. The Red Roses defeated the Canadian women’s team in one of the biggest audiences for women’s rugby ever. Canada’s Prime Minister Carney even flew to England for the final. Kate refused to go, even though she was in Windsor with her family, and the final was in London. I actually wondered if Kate was too lazy to go to the final because she had decamped to Anmer Hall in Norfolk. But no, apparently not. She was in Windsor on Friday night, and we know that because Kensington Palace leaked a cutesy story about Kate taking the kids to a “Hogwarts Express” something-or-other which has been built close to Forest Lodge.
When the Hogwarts Express pulls up in your back garden, it would be rather rude for one not to hop aboard. So when Hogsmeade Station was built on Windsor Great Park, which is just a stone’s throw from Prince William and Kate Middleton’s new home, Forest Lodge, the couple ensured that their three children pop along to the set to watch the filming of the forthcoming Harry Potter television series.
On Friday night Kate took Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis for a spellbinding visit where they met the cast which includes Dominic McLaughlin, 11, who is portraying young wizard Harry, and watched some scenes be recorded in what would have been a magical evening for the young royals who are huge fans of the movies. And Prince Louis, seven, had an extra special magical time as he did hop on the Hogwarts Express for a short ride along the half a mile of track that has been erected there which runs through the woodland, about a mile to the rear of the Waleses’ new home.
One on set source told The Mail on Sunday: ‘It was so special, Kate and the children met the young actors and the director on the set. There was only one night of filming there so it really was a magical ticket. And as for Louis, he got the chance to ride on the train with the driver. He seemed to absolutely love it. It’s the dream for most children to step aboard the Hogwarts Express.’
Earlier in the week Kate and William took the children to have a look at the £4million set which was built in Windsor, Berkshire, to replicate the Scottish Highlands where Harry Potter creator JK Rowling set her series of books. It is understood that they were then invited to return to watch live filming on Friday.
Notice the wording around who actually went to watch the filming on Friday – it sounds like it was just Kate and the kids, with no William. Which would make sense, because William was probably still in Scotland. Despite the narrative that William was in endless future-planning meetings with his father, Tom Sykes reported that “Charles and William are staying eight miles apart — and that William has spent much of his time shooting grouse with friends, while his father, who no longer shoots, has kept to other pursuits.” So Kate has been alone with the kids in Windsor since last Tuesday, and she took the kids to whatever Harry Potter thing this is, and then she skipped the Rugby World Cup final the next day, Saturday. Wow. Just lazy as hell. She was like “one public event in a week is fine, it’s not like Harry was in town.”
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images, Kensington Palace.
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- London, UK, 14 June 2025. Princess Catherine, Princess Charlotte, Prince George and Prince Louis leave Buckingham Palace for the King’s Birthday Parade, Trooping The Colour Buckingham Palace, London, UK.,Image: 1010934046, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: Lee Floyd/Avalon
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- (L-R) – Prince Louis, Prince William – The Prince of Wales, Prince George, Princess Charlotte, Princess Catherine – The Princess of Wales watch the flypast on the balcony as part of The King’s Birthday Parade Celebration also known as ‘Trooping The Colour’ at Buckingham Palace, London, England, UK on Saturday 14 June, 2025.,Image: 1010940247, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: Please credit photographer and agency when publishing as Justin Ng/UPPA/Avalon., Model Release: no, Credit line: Justin Ng/Avalon
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- Catherine, Princess of Wales and Princess Charlotte with Prince Louis and Prince George return to the palace during Trooping the colour on Saturday 14 June 2025 at Buckingham Palace, London. Number 7 Company Coldstream Guards Troop their Colour in the presence of His Majesty The King. Over 1350 soldiers of the Household Division and King’s Troop Royal Horse Artillery took part, including over 300 musicians from the Massed Bands.. Picture,Image: 1010947802, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: World Rights – Julie Edwards/Avalon.Red, Model Release: no, Credit line: Julie Edwards/Avalon
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- Trooping the Colour, The Kings’s Birthday Parade, London, UK. 14th June 2025. Prince Louis and Prince George ride in a horse drawn carriage in the procession along the Mall at Trooping the Colour, The King’s Birthday Parade, London, UK.,Image: 1011191267, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: Supplied by AVALON – Fee Payable Upon Reproduction – For queries contact Avalon – sales@avalon.red London: +44 (0) 20 7421 6000 Los Angeles: +1 (310) 822 0419 Madrid: +34 91 533 4289, Model Release: no, Credit line: Photo by Amanda Rose/Avalon
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- Prince George and Prince Louis of Wales seen during Trooping the colour on Saturday 14 June 2025 at Buckingham Palace, London. Number 7 Company Coldstream Guards Troop their Colour in the presence of His Majesty The King. Over 1350 soldiers of the Household Division and King’s Troop Royal Horse Artillery took part, including over 300 musicians from the Massed Bands.. Picture,Image: 1011197214, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: World Rights – Julie Edwards/Avalon.Red, Model Release: no, Credit line: Julie Edwards/Avalon
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- Members of the Royal Family during Trooping The Colour 2025 Featuring: Catherine, Princess of Wales Where: London, United Kingdom When: 14 Jun 2025 Credit: Cover Images
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- Trooping the Colour 2025 ceremony, marking the monarch’s official birthday Featuring: Prince William of Wales, Catherine Princess of Wales, Prince George, Princess Charlotte, Prince Louis Where: London, United Kingdom When: 14 Jun 2025 Credit: Cover Images
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- King Charles III leads senior members of The Royal Family during Trooping the Colour 2025 Featuring: Catherine Princess of Wales Where: London, United Kingdom When: 17 Jun 2025 Credit: John Rainford/Cover Images **NOT AVAILABLE FOR PUBLICATION IN THE UK**
Just like a normal family the Wales children get special tour of the harry potter set. Maybe footage of this will be shown in keens autumn commercial. It’s a blessing though that peggs did not take george on the hunting trip
“Lazy as hell” describes it. Think of the missed opportunity for a cute Kate-Charlotte outing. Or bring George and Louis along to cheer on the women–but maybe she can’t handle all three kids by herself? In that case bring Carole to wrangle the kids–or would that have highlighted that William’s still in Scotland shooting grouse?
These people.
Keen could have brought her sister along to the game. And brought the children
From this article it looks like she could handle bringing the three kids on her own to the set. So no reason they couldn’t all go to a rugby game. Louis is 7 and not a baby or toddler at this point.
Twice, she did that twice! Earlier in the week & then this Friday evening with the train thing. Katiekins is exhausted, I tell you! Exhausted! She couldn’t possibly sit at a rugby match!
Really the way to bring the monarchy down. The Wales version.
Are other children allowed to meet the cast and watch the filming? Or just the royal ones?
No just the Wales kids but ‘they’re having such a normal upbringing’!
The Queen visited the GOT set, Kate visited the Downton Abbey set, and William and Harry visited the Star Wars set. I think it’s just a thing royals do.
Yes but those were official visits, recorded in the CC, etc. this was about privilege, not work (although we could argue if visiting a movie set is work, but for these people it is.)
Ha, no. The wails children. This will go on and on with special treatment, no work, laziness and gold toilet behaviour. Sadly the kids will cop it, partly because this will be expected. It’s now a pattern.
All of the perks, none of the responsibility. Typical!
These kids already have absolutely everything they want and more and just got back from a yacht so the constant yammering of “it was so special for them, truly a once in a lifetime experience” from the press for all their VIP events is getting tiring. I’m happy if they had fun but this kind of reporting won’t continue the monarchy to put it bluntly.
Of course it’s absurd. Sadly that’s the job of the rota. They lie to sustain themselves. Britains have work this out and do something. Not easy when all the press down to the guardian and BBC prop these idiots up.
Just this year they have had multiple vacations, some on yachts, a Taylor Swift meeting and an exclusive set visit. To pretend these kids are close to normal is a huge joke.
After all the work of hunting party.and trip to harry potter set.time for another vacation.
If it were about the kids, a rugby game would be *so* much more fun than a film set. I used to work on a network tv show around the millennium after I left uni and it is booooooring. And we moved much faster than a cinematic shoot because it was tv, & 50% on location, 4 days in the studio, 4 days outside, an episode every 8 days. Which sounds impossibly frantic and yet those days are looooooong. You spend two hours waiting for the lights to get set up & power cables working. Dull, dull, dull. Then they shoot for 10 minutes — maybe 20 — and you move onto the next set up. A rugby game would have been *amazing* for the kids, but I suspect none of this is about them. The men in grey don’t want Kate to be out & about, working, laughing, connecting to the public, like Diana did. Especially when her husband is not in town. *Especially* when he’s shooting grouse. This is just public relations.
Please. It’s not the men in grey who do not want Kate out and around. She just doesn’t want to mix with peasants. Can you imagine the horror. That’s not the normal she wants for her and her kids.
I thought the same ParkRunMum- why would the set of an effects heavy TV show be particularly interesting? Green screens A-go-go, no? Most of the magic would get added in post production, I assume. I’ve been to the HP ‘Experience’ they have tried to cobble together in Hertfordshire with I think bits and bobs from the old film sets and that wasn’t great and I’m sure its better that they have down there which is a workplace, not an amusement park. I suppose it will be good for the children to see adults doing a proper day’s work for a change, maybe that’s the benefit.
To be fair, most kids love trains, so maybe that was the real appeal? And what are the chances that all three Wales kids will put on some robes and have filmed some sort of blink-and-you’ll miss it cameo on the train when the series comes out?
I can actually see that. Apparently that wouldn’t be too Hollywood.
Non royal kids had no chance to watch filming and meet the actors.
Who thought this was a good idea to leak this? It makes Kate look even lazier than she would have otherwise – because she can’t attend the rugby finals but she can take her kids to this – and it emphasizes the insane privileged bubble that those kids live in.
For all the emphasis on the Wales children having a “normal” upbringing its clear that their upbringing centers around vacations and privileged access like this, like meeting Wimbledon champions, like meeting Taylor Swift, etc.
There is nothing down to earth or normal about those kids’ lives and while we all knew that would happen and its to be expected to a certain extent, it just makes it all the more eyeroll inducing when we’re told w&K can’t work because of the children.
Truly. Who thought this this was a good idea to share in this moment? At first I thought the visit was at the same time as the game. But this wasn’t even that. She could’ve done both. But thanks for letting us know about the super special visit, jeez. What a bad look.
Not that anyone should have expected anything else, but like – watching the new series just gives money for jk rowling to fund her anti-trans campaign unfortunately. so if you need to, buy the books used. kate of course couldn’t care either way.
Yeah I made the choice a while back not to give JK Rowling any more of my money so I won’t be watching. I’m sure many will. I just won’t be one of them.
I loved the series from early days. Bought all the movies on different formats. Hard cover books. Since I’ve donated everything and I’ll never watch hp anything again. I did try those other movies and found them unwatchable, but that was before she showed herself. Never again. Anyway, her writing was pretty tragic, but right story, right time. Like Dan Brown.
That woman has too much money and now thinks she can dictate how people think. She’s also bashing Emma Watson even though Watson was very diplomatic in a recent interview and erred on the side of caution. Despite that Rowling has to rant and attack.
Hmmm!! I wonder how much the production company paid the Crown Estate (Duchy of Lancaster) to set up and film in Windsor Great Park…must be a nice sum. 🤔
Interesting to inadvertently find out ways the royals grow their wealth. 😉
Monies mostly go towards the upkeep of the Great Park with the monarch getting 25%. Marvel just paid a ton to film Doomsday there for a few weeks.
So as far as her patronages go, it is any old tweet will do because she’s got better things to do with her time such as spoiling her kids! Pity Harry Potter is not called William Potter so she wouldn’t be reminded of her banished BIL!
Hmm. Seems she needed to do something like this because Harry and Meg took their kids to Disney and it is still talked about so Can’t found something to take the kids to like Disney but Harry Potter.
@Susan Collins
I was looking to see if anyone would make this very obvious link! LOL Not just the Disney outing for the Sussex kids, but also, they were on their mother’s S2 set.
lol this was my thought. Watch her and the kids be special Royal guests cuddling up to JoJo RoRo at the premier of whatever this mess is.
The Sussex’s went to Disney so the left behinds when to see Harry Potter!
If this was leaked as justification for why Kate didn’t attend the Rugby game, it’s a poor excuse. One event was on Friday, the other the next day. Plenty of us have had busy weekends where we attended events both days and don’t get the down-time we want. That’s just life and it’s not every weekend. Also, unlike most of the world, after her busy 2 days, she could have taken this week off while the rest of us return to work. She could have and should have done both.
Yes, she could’ve done both. She hadn’t worked in 4 days since the previous Monday. But apparently they visited the HP set twice in that time. And then didn’t attend the game.
The coverage I read said it was a very special, once in a lifetime opportunity because they were actually filming on the train that day. Kate has always loved a special treatment and special access meet and greet trip to a film or TV set. I’m old enough to remember when she visited the downtown abbey set “officially” for no apparent reason before Carole and Pippa then got to privately do the same
The Downton TV series was wrapping up, so it didn’t need promotion at that time. Kate just wanted the tour and special treatment. I’m sure this Harry Potter thing will fail without the royal visit to boost it (sarcasm).
Yeah and am sure at some point we will hear about James and Pippa going with their families for a private tour.
Yeah, I guess I’m not surprised that Kate is totally fine with her and her children being used to promote this series and make more money for JKR’s horrible transphobic campaigns. I’m also curious about whether the Wales kids are really into HP, or whether this is another one of the “George just loves [whatever the event is about]!” If I had to make a guess, I would bet that Kate is the huge potter fan, not necessarily her kids, but she thought this would make for a great photo op. I’ll bet she (and KP) are downright puzzled as to why it’s not landing in the same way as when she waved a wand in Diagon Alley on the set of one of the HP films.
Speaking as a parent in roughly the same age bracket as Kate, the kids in my orbit are decidedly NOT reading or watching Harry Potter. Minecraft? Dogman? Bluey? Yes. But HP has been in the wilderness for awhile – that’s why they are trying to make this new series a thing. I’ve had plenty of discussions with other parents about not wanting to introduce the series to our kids even if we devoured it as children. There’s just too much baggage to say the least, and so many other fun series to try. But maybe that’s just my little enclave? Are other people’s kids into Potter?
Kate forces anything considered quintessentially English onto the kids so that’s undoubtedly why. I also do think it remains a cultural touchstone in England in a way it doesn’t in the US. Camilla has also been quoted saying Charles read the books out loud to her grandchildren – although she said that at least 7 years ago now.
This means Kate was in Windsor over the weekend and could have gone to the Rugby on Saturday.
The palace p.r. advisors probably thought they could get some family photos to rival the Sussexes photos at Disneyland. Playing catch up as usual.
I would roll my eyes at Kate and her spoiled lazy privilege lifestyle but I am getting a headache because of her and wank and their utter lack of empathy and regard for anyone other than themselves and it sounds like those children are not going to learn any different.
That lack of empathy clearly extends to trans kids. Because if Kate had any, she’d be careful not to associate with any JK Rowling product.
We loved the HP books and took our kids to the midnight bookstore events when new titles in the series were released. We’d buy 2 copies each time, so we could circulate them as quickly as possible among us two parents and two kiddos … And we had a lavish HP party to celebrate one graduation.
Now my kids are grown and they — and we — won’t give Rowling another penny of our money.
I mean she was beaming at Trump so I don’t think she is concerned about trans kids. Unfortunately, many people are not concerned about trans kids as the demonization from the right against trans people and trans kids just trying to live their lives has been ongoing for a while now. And JK has been a huuuuge part of that. I can’t unsee it.
Kate couldn’t even let her kids be near their biracial cousin so she’s not giving a shit about trans kids.
Well, if it was within a mile of their new home, it’ll never happen again, given the new restrictions on access. Also–they built a half mile of train track for one night of filming? Seems wasteful. And how did the train get there if they had to build a half mile of track for it? 🤨. This really makes no sense to me!! Are there tracks running back there anyway & they built a little spur? Within a mile of the new sacred Wales home?! If there are tracks already there–within a mile of their home–are W&K going to insist the trains be diverted when they’re home?
I wonder who greenlit this series. NOBODY has been clamoring for it.
jesus.
If JKR wasn’t such a out+about-creep these days, Harry Potter would just remain yesterday’s news. It was fun, but of its time. blah blah.
Let it go.
UK has a great film/tv industry. Couldn’t she feature something new and baggage-free? I suppose the HP set was just too convenient to resist.