Last Friday, Kensington Palace released a video and a message from the Princess of Wales. The big announcement was that on September 15th – aka Prince Harry’s 42nd birthday – Kate had a tea party at Windsor Castle for a group of people who had completed the Three Peaks Challenge. Kate allegedly completed the challenge earlier this year as well, but having a tea party about it on her estranged brother-in-law’s birthday was an extremely odd choice. When I covered the video on Friday, I even mentioned that the china spread out at the tea party looked lovely, and I wished we knew more about the china pattern rather than Kate mumbling about mountains. Well, here’s a hilarious update: this whole fakakta tea party was basically a promotion for Windsor Castle’s porcelain line.
Princess Kate gave fans a glimpse at a secret tea party she recently held at Windsor Castle, sharing an Instagram Reel and some sweet photos on Friday, September 25. The Princess of Wales, who completed the National Three Peaks Challenge this summer, welcomed some fellow mountain climbers to the castle, and one touching detail of their party was steeped in royal history.
Kate climbed the three highest peaks in England, Scotland and Wales to raise money for the Royal Marsden Hospital, where she was treated for cancer in 2024, and during her castle gathering, she heard why others chose to take on the challenge. As they sipped tea and ate pastries, participants used some very special china.
The Princess of Wales used a teapot, plates, cups and saucers inspired by the Queen Mother’s botanical porcelain collection. The late royal’s original pieces were made around 1750 by Chelsea Porcelain, England’s first porcelain factory, but the ones Kate chose for the tea party are available for sale from Buckingham Palace’s online shop.
I wondered aloud on Friday if Kate had been the one who picked out which china to use for her event, so this is something, right? They don’t let her use the real, historic pieces from all of their antique collections. Instead, they used Windsor Castle’s own merchandised china, which can be purchased in person or online. Here’s the link to the full Chelsea Porcelain line on sale, a line “closely derived” from the botanical pieces acquired by the Queen Mum. Someone said this is QVC royalty and it really is!! I can just picture it, Kate being tasked with holding up various gift-shop tchotchkes on Instagram. The real “Kate Effect.”
Photos courtesy of the Waleses’ Instagram.
As someone else already pointed on the other tea party post, they didn’t even bother to iron the tablecloth. They just grabbed some china and a tablecloth from the gift shop and threw it on a card table. And why bother setting up the cutlery when the guests are made to sit in armchairs out of reach of the table. I bet they weren’t actually allowed to touch the table setting until Kate had already left.
Saw that and thought, Oh they hate her. Or it was her people and they didn’t know any better.
Wouldn’t surprise me. Has anyone actually SEEN her eating?? At state dinners even in stills, she’s just pushing food around.
But yes, totally agree: this tablecloth was just yanked out of a plastic liner, and the creases weren’t even pressed/steamed out. Do you think Liz or Chuckles would allow THIS? A friggin’ CARD TABLE for them to preside over? Isn’t there even just ONE dining room available in Windsor? Or a buffet style table where guests can bring their chosen treats over to their seats with a coffee table or small drinks tables next to each chair? Who has a sit down tea with chairs a mile away from the set table (let alone chairs too large to even fit around said table??
This is SO tacky!
Well, as expected, it’s all just for the cameras! Is there even tea in those cups?! I bet those guests hightailed it to the nearest fast food place on their way home. Everything just to show that Kate is interested in something, anything but shopping and her fake hair! Ugh!
@Smart&Messy: I had the same thoughts about the set up of the table and armchairs. There’s no way they had tea with Kate. Furthermore it would seem that each group was brought in at different times to talk to Kate rather than then them having one gathering.
So do we there’s even tea in those cups at all? How bizarre.
Edit- so do we think there’s even tea in those cups, I mean.
Amy Bee, I was about to say the same thing.: they didn’t have tea all together but there seemed to separate the people invited: we have the same decor for the photos but different people (apart from Kate, of course). I believe this was hastily put together and they (Kate’s team) didn’t even bother to bring enough chairs and tea for everyone so they made them sit in turns for the photos (because everything they are doing is for the photos). I mean, come on, you can’t have only 2 little plates with sweets for all those people. Also, notice, nobody is eating, drinking or at least holding a teacup on the photos. Everything is part of the decor 🙄
There isn’t even a teapot on the table, just that pitcher that is probably empty like the teacups. Tacky as hell.
Not in turns. If you compare & contrast the photos, you’ll see different backgrounds & chair groupings to the two different groups–although, good gad, two different groups! This isn’t a party, it’s…I don’t know what this is. Propaganda, sure, but ill-conceived & poorly executed. Anyway. That’s a pitiful selection of food–one little pound cake with icing & some sliced banana bread (or similar). For nine people! I’m leaving out Kate, of course, because we know she’s not eating. And the video from Friday does show someone (some lackey) pouring the tea, so there was actual tea there.
I didn’t watch the video so the pic above is my first sight of how bad that tablecloth is. Did anyone bother to make any effort for this event?
So much for the royals having great staff who pay attention to the tiniest details (and I watched the documentary that showed them preparing the table for some big banquet).
“So much for the royals having great staff who pay attention to the tiniest details”
And that’s another thing. Cam would have that staff manage her events, is Kate ‘allowed’ to wield that privilege?
If Houghton Hall offers china plate for sale, that underlines her status as a peeress, if Meghan offers pantry goods and cute little leather bookmarks, that underline her status as As Ever’s founder, if CIII offers Duchy products, it underlines the fact that he was making a way for himself as POW.
Kate’s event unintentionally shows she has spent decades as William’s spouse and has so little to show for it the palace doesn’t even provide her staff for an afternoon event. She sits at staged table for a photo op using the same tea cups the public can buy. That underlines the fact that Kate is as demoted by the royal family as her guests in terms of being hosted by the palace; none of them were provided with the means to meet and interact as guests at the palace all at once with the Princess of Wales.
Not ironed and see-through. Do they not have an underlay available? A nicer table? A chair that is not ripped?
This is a terrible look. No one could possibly think that they had tea when seated so far from a table. They got their merchandise in a photoshoot and pretended that lazy had tea with someone. Abolish the monarchy – they don’t even pretend to care anymore.
@Josephine: no need for an underlay when the table beneath is just a card table. I am gobsmacked once somebody pointed that out. I mean, in my old family photos of Christmas or Thanksgiving gatherings you’ll see the card table pulled out for use as the kid’s table, but for royals to use these at official events? At a CASTLE?! Mind boggling.
@InterestedGawker and @Josephine and @Beanie, right? I find the obvious use of a card table to be so egregious considering the BRF has literal warehouses full of furniture, but apparently these people weren’t “worth,” it. The one they’re using looks like the cheap one we store in our basement for overflow on Thanksgiving. The staff at the Palace should be ashamed.
Not to mention the UPROAR the tabloids would have made if Meghan, while still a working royal, had done this, and they found out the china was for sale; they would have torn her to shreds for “merching” or whatever nonsense.
That is the LAMEST tea set up I have ever seen. I hope those mountain climbers were offered something else after the photo shoot because that is jut pathetic.
Now that we know the tea set is available for sale on the website, I watched the video again from last Friday. There’s a very clear close-up of one of the teacups. Just that. It’s an obvious commercial for their china! I am just laughing myself silly at all this. Is Carole Kate’s personal assistant now? This is totally Party Pieces style!
Yeah, the card table is really tacky, and you can see it clearly through the creased table cloth. Whoever set this up does not know how to throw a party, or style a photo. The people there are just watching her jazz hands and thinking, WTF is she mumbling about, lololol.
Did anyone else notice that in the fourth photo, you can see a large rip in the upholstery on the back of the armchair.
😳 That’s a huge dilapidated rip, wow!
🤣🤣 Oh, my, this just gets better & better! Threadbare chairs! Ripped upholstery! Even my working class parents were able to have our sofa re-upholstered when it needed it. Or do the aristos think they’re above that? They people the people who inherit furniture rather than pay their hard-earned money for it. Side note: in going through my mother’s things I came across a payment booklet for that sofa, from 1962. They bought it on an installment plan. So darned straight, once it started fraying at the edges it got re-upholstered!
I was about to say the same thing. What in the Downton Abbey would never is going on with hawking goods on a tablecloth with fold lines?
We are very much not a family that commercialises our royal status lol
They took the time to steam the top of the tablecloth only lol and left it as is on the side because it could pass as trendy lol.
is this lifestyling with Kate Middleton? Guests having a tea party with the host but unable to touch their food or tea while the host is there? PROOF that this is for photo op.
How much Vaseline are they smearing on the lens before they photograph Kate these days?
That insane fake smile dream scene blurring picture is ridiculous. She is such waste of a position and resources. An utter disappointment.
It’s clear just how photoshopped these pictures are after the ones we saw last week, when her fillers were so obvious.
The china pattern looks too modern to be from the Royal collection.
Well of course, they wouldn’t let the great unwashed anywhere near the good china – the very idea.
This whole event just looks very awkward. I bet it was about 10 minutes before they were ushered out.
I’d like to know more about Kate’s fundraising. How did she raise funds by doing the 3 Peaks Challenge if she didn’t tell anyone about it beforehand? Wouldn’t that have been a better thing to do – use her reach to encourage the public to donate to the charity? An easy win, you’d think.
She’s a chicken sht.She didnt want to commit/didnt know if she was gonna make it so waited to the end before saying she participated by being a ghost there. Stealing thunder from the real people who made the true effort (not going peak to peak by helicopter)!and then trying to get credit for funds raised and inviting them only to sell stuff that was gonne go on markdown. These people have no shame.
Watch them say it went out of stock after we saw her with it. Looks like a new branding for kate is birthing. Lazy azz copy china from the Queen.
I still don’t understand how she claims to have done them all in 24 hours without using a helicopter. They’re not that close together, and there’s a lengthy drive in between at least two of them. I guess when they can put their flashing lights on and bypass traffic, it’s not an issue. But I find it so gross when they do that; the only time that should be permitted on the roads is during actual emergencies, when ambulances and fire trucks need to get somewhere. It should not be allowed to be done as a matter of course when shuttling members of the royal family around, JFC.
Wow that looks seriously awkward and not fun. Zero thought about guest comfort.
So the tea party was really to promote the Palace’s tea set. I said it before but the Royal Family are the real grifters.
Is this the beginning of “With Love, Catherine”?
You bet it is! I laughed out loud at your comment, but I can absolutely envision an entire “Princess of Wales” product line with tea linens, second rate china and silver plate serving sets.
These pics are filtered into oblivion, sheesh.
Wow those images are filtered to the hilt
The header photo was edited so much that it almost looks like it could be a painting, lol.
This event doesn’t look as if it was designed to put people at their ease does it. Clearly set up in a hurry – mismatched chairs, too far from the table, creased tablecloth, china from the tourist tat shop, a few sad looking slices of tea bread sitting there untouched, Kate struggling to show any interest. Jeez.
It’s so bad!
Kate is so milk in first.
Wow, I haven’t heard that since Evelyn Waugh…but, yeah.
LOL, @Gilly. As the child of a tea drinker / coffee refusenik myself i had never seen milk in first till i came to the U.K. never understood it. It’s contrary to logic. I was always a coffee person. Milk goes dead last, either way. ;-D
Milk first is to protect the delicate china. If you pour hot tea the cups might break because of thermal shock. With milk first the temperature is lower.
@Moondust – I think “milk in first” is more a matter of status. “Miffy” is considered middle-class.
Thanks @Eurydice. I’ve learned something new today!
When I was a child many years ago it was milk in first, I think it was because that meant it didn’t have to be stirred. I don’t remember when I found out that it tasted better if you put the milk in last.
“Milk first is to protect the delicate china. ”
Not to be pedantic but this is exactly why it’s considered working class/lower middle class to put the milk in first, because historically it indicated that you only had access to very cheap and poorly made non-china tea cups, which would shatter if you poured boiling water straight in. Putting the milk in last was a social status signifier, since it meant that you owned proper bone china teacups which were not fragile and could tolerate boiling water without breaking. Nowadays obviously even the cheapest £1 IKEA mug is going to be boiling-water safe, but historically only fine china (bone china) was sturdy enough to take boiling water.
My thought, too. Bone china is sturdy. Not drop on the stone floor sturdy, but lukewarm British tea sturdy. (Please, y’all, it sits in the teapot forever & a day before getting poured.)
Or that it doesn’t even matter if it gets damaged because they can just buy more.
Is china the last thing Kate and Will have to sell? The derangers claimed Harry was selling his mother. Now the Wails are selling for-profit china? But, but, but . . . They are MONETIZING the monarchy? Of course. That’s what they have always done. In addition to the millions of pounds they get from the tax payers just for existing. Don’t they have ENOUGH money? Who said you can never be too thin or too rich? Kate and Will are PROFITING off of their royal positions! But of course! And I really only do see 3 people for her Three Peaks tea party. Okay, 5.
It’s not for personal profit. It goes to the trust for maintenance of the collection. I think plenty of money from all of these trusts – including both the royal trust and Harry & Meghan’s – wends it’s way into their personal accounts.
But there’s a big difference between the royal trust and charity gift shops and straight up selling products and dirt for a private business.
Doesn’t appear it’s completely sold out. Wonder why.
Don’t worry, just keep an eye out for the open box sale when Kate puts these pieces she swiped from the gift shop back, that should be a good reduction!
Overpriced and ugly!
What an extremely bad look for the RF, for the courtiers who put this together, and for Wiglet. They all should be deeply ashamed.
It’s too funny when the Derangers are accusing the successful Duchess of merching, but this is beyond the pale.
If I were a journalist in Brexitannia (do they still have those?), I’d be compelled to ask if Mumblina gets a cut for doing this kind of SponCon — so she can later say she helped raise funds for… whatever.
If it had been Meghan, all of the headlines would have been, “SPONCON!” “MERCHING!” But when the English rose does it, not a word.
Tea is a casual meal so it is never served at a dining table. The cloth should be ironed, but the table is exactly right.
Unless there was a second area out of view laid with an urn, more refreshments and extra plate this little table is not adequate for the amount of people in the group photo.
Even with armchairs placed a mile from the table?
Exactly right? With club chairs six feet back from the table? A card table (two, actually) in a castle reception room? Two plates of treats? TWO? For nine people? No savories? No little cucumber sandwiches or fish paste sandwiches (my Agatha Christie reading is showing)? A water bottle but no water glasses?
Have the napkins even come off the plates in any of the photos?
Nope. Nor in the video.
“With Love, Catherine”? Sad and touching! You should have picked up an iron from the gift shop. You always come in 3rd place in a 2-woman race. Always!
This entire comment is perfect
Did Kate even have permission to stage this event? She’s merching, definitely, but I’m wondering if she had to buy the gift shop’s china because she doesn’t have access to an “official” set. It could also explain the tablecloths, chair situation, and bringing groups in at a time. That’s at least the most charitable thing explanation for this because it looks that bad.
I wondered the same thing, did Kate ‘tea bomb’ the royals behind their back? If she did I suspect her Big Blue is not just the palace’s replica, it’s one the Middletons secured themselves so her and MaMidd’s arrangements look officially sanctioned.
Exactly my thoughts. The Windsors don’t like Kate so she had to do this herself–well, I think her mother set it up. It’s very Party Pieces. Surprised we don’t see paper banners hanging from the corners.
I actually rather like the china pattern used, it’s pretty! But I am the type that likes to break out the fancy china set and the seasonal loose-leaf for book club lol. Pretty funny that they wouldn’t let Kate have any of the *really* good stuff for her photo-op though.
Sparkling Water, Kate BOUGHT the china? Not even with the tax money she’s paid. It had to have been a freebie. The royals never pay.
She probably weedled enough pieces to lay the table with merchandiser floor samples and then returned them.
I refuse to believe the palace assisted her with this event, it doesn’t look properly organized at all.
Again with amateur hour. WandK seem to think that showing their faces is the key to outgunning their one sided war with the Sussexes. Everything else is just phoned in. Their outfits. Their travel arrangements. This cheap a** folding table with a sheet, unironed tablecloth. They probably should have kept doing what they were doing – only coming out when they felt like it and spending the rest of their time on vacation. You taxpayers really need to question what value these people provide.
You nailed it. W&K absolutely think that their presence is enough for the peasants, no effort what required.
A tea party. Without any tea. Or any cake, barring a few pieces of what looks like banana bread.
But cups, and a jug of something, sure — maybe a green smoothie for KatieKeen’s delicate digestion? Oh, wait, I don’t know Can’t well enough to talk about her stomach!
Looks delightful. 🙄
Come on Kate, you don’t work at Party Pieces anymore…
It is like she was brought in to be the stock model.
Maybe this set up is leftover merch from party pieces? 😂
This looked a bit awkward. A couple of people seem to be sitting in front of the table, possibly to accommodate the fellow in the wheel chair, but the table is too high and one lady is out in Siberia. Did Kate pour the tea, or did they have a maid come in to serve everyone? The courtesy of a princess is to put everyone at ease, and I wonder how good Kate is at doing that. It just strikes me that Kate and her staff doesn’t know how to set up this sort of thing. Possibly consulting Camilla’s staff might have been a good idea, lol!
She used this to remind the public ‘she’s royal’ using gift shop china to ‘prove’ it was the palace. That’s very insecure behaviour. The Midds are rattled again, for some reason.
She has the ultra long hair wigs at the table
HuffnPuff, Love your suggestion that the china is leftover from Party Pieces. Brilliant. Ma had it stashed in the basement anyway, right? Interested Gawker, like your suggestion too. Borrowed them and then returned them. She pays for nothing!
One more thing. Is this the room that Trump is modeling the Oval Office after? Just noticing all the gold detailing.
There’s a crapload of gold in that room, isn’t there?
HuffnPuff, it could be that or the Palace of Versailles.
So she had tea with just four people? On a card table with creased tablecloth?
If you look at Friday’s post you’ll see they had nine people total. Nine. Some party! So I’m guessing there was a second table set up. I wondered about this last Friday–why so few people? Are these the only one who’d sign away the rights to their stories to her? The ones who agreed to be filmed during the challenge? Because some photos showed lots of people crowding the peaks (craziness encouraging folks to climb slippery slopes in the dark).
I also don’t get why the chairs are set so far back from the table, that doesn’t look comfortable. Are you supposed to pick up your tea cup & settle back, increasing the chances of getting something on the upholstery? And then lean forward again to get your plate of cake & settle back again, now getting crumbs on the upholstery?
I dunno, this first sentence really got to me: ‘Princess Kate gave fans a glimpse at a secret tea party she recently held at Windsor Castle….’
Isn’t this any way for a ‘princess of the realm’ to behave? Throwing ‘secret’ tea parties? That castle is hers to faff about in because of the British people, there should be nothing done in secret. Also, ‘fans’? Aren’t their stenographers always telling us Kate, William, et al., aren’t celebrities but rather royals & therefore a cut above?
They are a cut above Nobody.
“Amateur hour” doesn’t even cover it. Given the resources the BRF has, this is offensive.
Probably set up by Comms people v. House staff (beyond moving furniture) — who are trained to do handle such events with almost-invisible, smooth expertise. LIke Paddington and the Queen’s Tea. LOL. Maybe wanted to keep it lowkey, when folks would love the full fancy, Well Kate’s trying, mildly active and doing more .
Only saw the still photo and thought Kate’s smile & smize was warm & lovely. The attendees did not look relaxed but who knows, it was just one shot, Wonder if there were served tiny round sandwich – cucumber, tapenade, ham – Just not a proper tea without them presented on those cool tiered serving plates.