Princess Charlotte Aces the Grip-and-Grin With Proud Mom Kate Middleton at Wimbledon

Princess Charlotte was born a royal, but just like any job, there’s plenty of practical training that goes into being a professional princess and heir to the British throne. Luckily, she has mom Kate Middleton as her guide. The mother-daughter duo attended the Wimbledon Championship together Sunday at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, where Kate looked on proudly as Charlotte shook hands and chatted with players and fellow attendees.

Kate, who in March shared that she had been diagnosed with cancer and has been undergoing chemotherapy to treat it, took in the men’s finals match alongside Charlotte and her sister, Pippa Middleton Matthews. Kensington Palace confirmed Saturday that Kate would attend, making this her second public engagement of 2024, after attending King Charles III’s birthday parade at Trooping the Colour in June. While it was Kate, the club’s patron, who presented the trophies to winner Carlos Alcaraz and runner-up Novak Djokovic on the court, Charlotte was snapped shaking hands with Alcaraz as her mother looked on, smiling proudly, in a photo shared on Wimbledon’s Instagram account.

The sweet displays of admiration went both ways on Sunday: 9-year-old Charlotte was photographed looking up at her mother with a smile as the Princess of Wales received a standing ovation from the crowd as she entered the Royal Box at Wimbledon’s Centre Court to watch the match. Kate is a mainstay at the tournament, and All England Club chair Debbie Jevans (who presented the women’s final trophies Saturday in Kate’s stead) had previously told outlets that they were “hopeful” Kate would be able to make an appearance, and that the club would give her “as much flexibility as possible” to do so.

Other royals and royal-adjacent people attended throughout the tournament before Kate’s outing, including Kate’s parents Michael and Carole Middleton, Queen Camilla, and Princess Beatrice. Kate, too, sent a message to friend and Wimbledon competitor Andy Murray congratulating him on his final match in the Grand Slam tournament.

On Sunday, the Instagram account that Kate and her husband Prince William (who was on a sports-related outing himself Sunday in Germany, watching England fall to Spain in soccer’s Euro Final with Prince George) posted a video montage of Kate, Charlotte, and Pippa’s tennis outing, with a caption congratulating Alcaraz on the win and thanking Wimbledon organizers.

Kate isn’t the only one impressed by Charlotte’s poise in public settings: Travis Kelce and Jason Kelce, who met the young princess when she attended Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour with William and George in June, said on their podcast New Heights that she was “a superstar” (Travis) and “so fucking adorable” (Jason).

They praised Charlotte for speaking for herself, giving credit to her parents for raising her to be confident.

“If anybody’s doing it right, Prince William is doing it right,” Travis said.

“I cannot express how, maybe it’s because I have three girls now, she had a fire to her, she was asking questions, that was probably the most electric part of it,” Jason added.