Today is the first time Prince William has had anything on his public schedule since January 28th, eight days ago. I even mentioned earlier that William hasn’t been seen all week, and I wondered if it had anything to do with the days-long controversy around the Epstein Files. First off, William met with His Highness The Aga Khan at Kensington Palace. King Charles met with Aga Khan yesterday, so big-boy William needed to have a meeting too! Scooter King, the global statesman of hand-shaking. After that, William and Kate went to meet the new Archbishop of Canterbury.
The Prince and Princess of Wales met today with spiritual leaders in London including the new Archbishop of Canterbury, Dame Sarah Mullally, and Aga Khan. William and Kate sat down with the first woman to hold the role of the head of the Church of England at Lambeth Palace.
Separately, they also met with leader of the Ismaili Muslims, Aga Khan, with the heir to the throne pictured shaking hands with him outside Kensington Palace. In a post on social media, the Prince and Princess of Wales said it was ‘a pleasure’ to welcome Mr Khan to the palace on Thursday morning.
It came after Dame Sarah took her place in the House of Lords in her new role as the Church of England’s top cleric. Dame Sarah Mullally already sat in the upper chamber as the Bishop of London, prior to her historic appointment. The Lords Spiritual have 26 places reserved in the unelected house for senior Church of England bishops, including the archbishops of Canterbury and York.
Dame Sarah was supported by the Archbishop of York, the Most Rev Stephen Cottrell, and the Bishop of Peterborough, the Rt Rev Debbie Sellin, for the short introduction ceremony in the Lords, where she swore the oath of allegiance to the King.
In a statement after the ceremony, Dame Sarah said she was committed to ‘bringing a compassionate voice to my role as an advocate for equity, justice and hope. I will draw on my faith and my practical and pastoral experience as a nurse and a priest, to help scrutinise and finesse legislation that improves the lives of all those who live and work in our country – of all faiths and none.’
The first female Archbishop of Canterbury was officially confirmed as the 106th person to take up the post at a service in St Paul’s Cathedral last month. She filled a vacancy left by Justin Welby who was forced to resign over his handling of a child abuse scandal.
The Church of England is lucky in one regard: after the men in charge f–k up really badly, the Anglicans can appoint a woman to clean up the mess. The Vatican can’t do that! The Catholic hierarchy is stuck having to appoint one dude after another to clean up the catastrophes created solely by dudes. The Anglicans have their fingers crossed that appointing a woman to the position of Archbishop of Canterbury won’t end in yet another child-predator scandal. Anyway, I guess it’s interesting that William and Kate made a point of meeting Dame Sarah. William doesn’t really give a crap about church or religion, but I would assume that Charles probably made the Waleses conduct these meetings.
Photos courtesy of Getty Images, Kensington Palace.
Kate has her “serious discussion hands” out and going
I find the shot of the side of her face as she tries to emote in conversation very…revealing. There’s a lot of muscles straining visibly, and a lot of spots where nothing is moving.
Her hands and neck give away the strain.
And then everyone with the silly crotch-hiding pose. Same with Aga Khan. I can’t believe there is no other way to pose for a photo in a dignified manner so they could switch it up sometimes.
Usually in such official photos everyone keeps their arms at their sides, and if they are clasped, then higher, on their stomach. I don’t know what’s wrong with their crotch.
I like the deep rich winter tones on Kate, I don’t even mind the mix of dark brown and what looks to be a burgundy jacket, nice gold jewelry and belt but those shoulder pads are a no. The style is too edgy – makes her look like a Bat queen – and it doesn’t fit the more conservative 70s style of the outfit. I assume it’s a McQueen rewear because that’s usually where she gets those strange shoulder pads?
Agree that as neither Kate nor William have ever shown any interest in any religion whatsoever (unless you count aimless wandering around forests talking about naycha) this is more deflection
The shoulder pads are giving villain vibes. As an American, I think religion, government, monarchy should not be so intertwined.
She has the same shoulder pads as the Romulans in Star Trek. It is ridiculous especially when she stands next to William who has normal shoulders going on.
I also think the outfit looks drab. The colours on their own normally look fine, but it looks like she’s wearing fall colours out of season.
Its not the kind of outfit where you are supposed to keep the coat on. Again it looks like she’s getting ready to peace out of there as soon as she possibly can (which is probably true.)
Coat seems fine, dress seems fine, but overall – it looks awkward with keeping the coat on the entire time. she used to do this all the time and it drove me crazy (if you were on WKW 8-10 years ago i was ALWAYS complaining about this lol, ElizaMo had some big explanation about how it was classier). But it just seems rude to me.
With some outfits the coat on works. but here, not so much.
They’re called pagoda shoulders, and as much as I like McQueen suits, I don’t like this profile. Too costumey.
There were definitely comments here about Kate never taking her coat off, especially doing indoor events. At the time she never wore suits which would have solved a lot of the issue, but she by now so this romulan coat dress just looks weird next to William and the archbishop.
I thought Kate was cosplaying a nun.
To me, the weird shoulders are the result of the jacket being a repeat (like Kaiser said), but she no longer has the arm muscles to fill it out and support the sleeve tops. So the padding at the top of the armscye pokes up weirdly. The armscye is the hole between the sleeve and the body of the jacket. (Forgive me: I love sewing, and a really well-tailored jacket has a little padding at the top of the sleeve itself, not just the houlder padding.)
This all-brown outfit is literally a copy paste of Meghan’s visit to Canada House from Jan. 7, 2020. The brown satiny slip flared skirt, brown heels and brown top. It’s worse though with the clunky accessories and shoulder pads jacket… Kate literally wears everything Meghan wears, but worse, and six years later. Constantly embarrassing she doesn’t have her own style all these years later.
The difference being Meghan looked good in that all brown outfit.
Pre-2018, aka pre-Meghan, Kate did wear 2 chocolate brown dresses but they were knee length and more twirly with tights and heels. They were nice actually. Girlier though. One could argue she’s just following the trends in fashion and going for more mature looks. But then one could also say that Meghan was a trend-setter and ahead of the curve as she was seen in these styles years before.
Yeah she’s worn all brown before so thats not what stands out to me. This outfit wouldnt even stand out ot me that much except for the satin skirt, which is definitely not something we’ve really seen from Kate before. They are trendy now so maybe thats it – or maybe she saw Meghan wore it, pinned the outfit on her mood board, and decided today was the day. Its probably somewhere in between. Kate is never on the cutting edge of fashion and does not start trends in any way, whereas Meghan is a bit edgier (not that her style is “edgy” just that we’ll see her wearing things at the start of a trend, while Kate waits years.)
@jais, becks1
It’s not that Kate has worn this color before. It’s that she’s wearing the color/style immediately after Meghan. She started with a red dress…
– Meghan … July 2016
– Kate … September 2016
https://cdn.images.express.co.uk/img/dynamic/12/590x/secondary/Kate-middleton-meghan-markle-red-dress-4419642.avif?r=1669390783422
And it’s like that every time. One time, you could call it a coincidence, but not every time, and it often applies to the entire outfit. Now we have Kate and a brown coat, identical in color and length to Meghan had 10 days ago at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/3AMHC7J2zwFjZgruFQ9ndB-1024-80.jpg.webp
More than that, it’s her way of ticking off Meghan’s IG 2025 day 0 look off hee moodboard. The onne with the private event where Meghan had worn that chocolate dress from ALC
Let’s hope she doesn’t have any scandals from her past that flares up any time soon. 😏
The institution at the pinnacle of the ‘British establishment’ has been exposed as morally flawed. Considering the origins of the Church of England, King Henry VIII, one should not be surprised.
Yes future King of Handshakes who doesn’t seem to care too much for religion was there front and center to meet the new archbishop. Look at me doing big boy meetings!
Hooray for Dame Sarah Mullally! The Church of England is an archaic institution that is finding a way to join the 21st century.
What on earth are those shoulder pads?!
I agree. I’m so happy to see a female figure as Archbishop of Canterbury! If only the Catholic woke up and stopped their archaic patriarchal rules and would name a woman Pope.
Little Kate is certainly leaning into the Dark Academia look. She’s fracking princess for heaven’s sake. Dress like one.
I’m very surprised to see the two of them out today. But I guess this is necessary since they’re going to disappear for about the month when half-term starts soon. Those shoulder pads make Kate look like a line backer. I get what she’s trying to do but it just doesn’t look good.
it’s so… weird… seeing them all putting their hands above their crotches because william does it. I wonder what his problem is.
It’s appalling that the head of the Church of England has to swear allegiance to the king. She should swear allegiance to just one king, the heavenly one (sorry to go all pious here).
I keep saying it because it’s likely true: Kate is keeping her coat on because she doesn’t have enough body fat to keep her warm. She needs help.
And keen got to go along. Using the jazz hands
so whats interesting is that when you look at KP’s post. there’s a signature book that they signed. It has a fancy date announcement next to it (with classic calligraphy like an old bible) that states it is the “visit of his royal highness the prince of wales.” I wonder if it was too much to fit “their royal highnesses the prince and princess of wales” or if Kate wasn’t scheduled and was trotted out as a distraction.
but does she really distract from anything??
Really, Mr Khan! The Aga Khan is a title, it would be like calling Charles Mr. King! The current holder of the title is Prince Rahim al-Hussaini. The Daily Mail gets increasingly sloppy.
Thank you, I wondered about that but assumed I was missing something.
Could they be asking forgiveness for covering up for Uncle Paedro? No? Didn’t think so.
Never apologise, never explain.
Wasn’t Edward caught on the hop? “Not the place for such questions “ The raised eyebrows must have given him just a clue that he was on a hiding to nothing with that answer so had to do a quick swerve.
It is not a coincidence they are taking photos with the Archbishop as the Epstein scandal is blowing up in the UK. They will disappear soon for skiing or Mustique and so the last photo of them with a religious figure will provide a temporary glaze of not being complicit in covering for Andrew.
There’s William’s Saudi Arabia visit and then he goes directly into vacation time. And yeah, being photographed with archbishop, a woman at that, can’t hurt at this moment in time. Which I’m sure they know.
The cancer video message and this visit is to promote their caring and spiritual image. Andrew ‘s rottenness versus the “virtuous heirs” is the look that the Firm wants to promote.
Someone should tell Kate to sit on her hands.
I think the children will be on break next week or the week after. So Katie and Willy will be in the wind for probably 2 weeks . She will need it , two days of work in one week is really really too much to ask of this poor sausage. Won’t someone think of the princess and the pea .
Kate looks like she’s putting a hex on her.
The archbishop did say she had in mind those of different faiths “or none”. That’s the very first time I’ve heard a religious leader acknowledge the non religious and I’ll take it as progress. I’m including William in the no faith group.
Cathy has never cared about religion or what it means
This is judged on her disgusting behaviour in church on more than one occasion . Usually caused by Meghan being present. Giving Meghan the evils at the Commonwealth Service and whispering to Camilla during Harry and Meghan’s wedding service
I do not think she knows anything about it other than another dress up event
She glorified in her children’s baptisms, not because of the meaning of it but making herself the centre of attention as usual.
Pretty sure Charles also meet with the new Archbishop yesterday, maybe the day before.