Princess Catherine’s Wimbledon Presentation Plans Still Uncertain – So The Royal Family Has THIS Backup Ready To Go! – Perez Hilton
Princess Catherine is still fighting her battle against cancer — and she’s got a wide berth to take all the recovery time she needs!
Normally, Prince William‘s beloved wife would be preparing right now to present trophies at the finals of Wimbledon. The tennis tournament is set to finish with a flourish this coming weekend at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club. As you may know, Kate first received the official role as patron of the club and its legendary tennis tournament back in 2016 from Queen Elizabeth. Since then, she’s taken the job very seriously by dressing immaculately, wearing a special bow pin in dark green and purple to represent the club’s colors, and presenting prizes to the sport’s champions every summer. But this summer might be different for obvious reasons…
Related: How Catherine & William Have Become ‘A Different Couple’ Since Cancer Diagnosis
As we covered late last week, royal sources have been in the dark about what might happen with the trophy presentations at Wimbledon this summer. Nobody really knows if Kate will feel up to it amid her cancer treatments. Will the Princess show up or not?! Tourney organizers are in limbo as the hour approaches — so what if she can’t do it? Now a solution has been reached!!
On Monday, The Telegraph reported that the royal family has a backup plan in place for the trophy presentation: Birgitte, the Duchess of Gloucester! Born in Denmark, the 78-year-old is the wife of Queen Elizabeth’s first cousin, Prince Richard, the Duke of Gloucester. Here, you can see Birgitte and Richard at 2023’s Trooping the Colour ceremony:
As the outlet notes, if Kate is unavailable this coming weekend to present Wimbledon honors, Birgitte is going to step in. The (possible) replacement actually makes perfect sense, too! See, Birgitte has her own tennis-related patronage. She has been an Honorary President of the governing body that oversees tennis in Great Britain, called the Lawn Tennis Association, for 25 years.
And she’s a big tennis fan herself! Already this year, Birgitte has been spotted twice at Wimbledon in the first week of the tournament, happily watching the matches and rooting on the competitors! So, on that end, it sure seems like she’ll be able to step in admirably and fill the void while Kate continues to fight cancer, rest, and recover. And if not, she’d probably be on hand anyway!
That may not happen, though! There is still a possibility that Princess Catherine will pop up this weekend to present the awards herself. Per Telegraph Sport, the decision on who is going to present will ultimately not be made until the morning of the finals. It’s just going to depend on how Kate feels! So let’s hope she’s up for it. We’d love to see her out there doing something she loves! But if not, well, it sure seems like the Duchess of Gloucester will be a perfectly capable replacement for this year. All in all, this seems like a perfectly sensible backup plan, right? Thoughts, y’all??
[Image via MEGA/WENN]
