Kate Middleton Subtly Confirmed a Longstanding Royal Rumor Earlier This Year

During a Royal outing earlier this year, Kate Middleton divulged a surprising palace rule. While attending an event commemorating the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) Chelsea Flower Show in May, the Duchess of Cambridge greeted a group of schoolchildren, including a 7-year-old girl, Ruby, who asked to sign her autograph. However, Kate refused to sign it, The Telegraph reported, causing many fans to speculate why she would decline this small request. There is a lot to be said for royal protocol, which dictates what the Royal Family can and cannot do based on a number of factors. 

Kate told Ruby, “I’m not allowed to write my signature. It’s just one of those rules.” To get around the restriction, the Princess drew a picture for the young girl instead. “I can draw,” she explained, drawing a flower for Ruby, trees for another child, and ponds with plants for another. 

Kate is not the first royal to decline such a request. When King Charles was Prince, he told a fan who asked for an autograph, “Sorry, they don’t allow me to do that.” Regarding the reason for the rule, reports suggest that the Royal Family are not permitted to sign their autographs as part of a process designed to prevent the possibility of forgery. According to Cosmopolitan, there are countless rules when it comes to living as a royal, with protocols covering almost everything from how to take selfies to how to walk down a flight of stairs.

It was a surprise appearance by the Princess, 41, at the flower show in London, where a group of children joined her from ten London primary schools at the event’s inaugural Children’s Picnic, reported The Telegraph. The picnic is expected to become an annual event, prompted by Kate’s conversation with the RHS during her last visit in 2019 after introducing her Back to Nature Garden and saying it would be nice to involve more children in the project. 

Following the picnic, Kate took small groups of children into three show gardens. RHS Chelsea gold medal winner Tom Massey told The Telegraph of the Princess afterward: “She’s interested in the theme but I think for her, the main thing was just the interaction with the children and seeing how excited they were to come into this structure and see the insects up close. “I think she just really liked that. For her, it was obviously all about the children.”