What you need to know
Duchess Kate made a rare arrival behind the wheel at a recent royal engagement.
On January 15, the Princess of Wales, patron of England’s women’s rugby team, hosted a reception at Windsor Castle to celebrate the team’s September 2025 World Cup victory, and drove herself to the venue.
Fan footage shared with X showed Kate, 44, exiting the black car from the driver’s side. In the UK it’s on the right. She closed the door behind her, took an umbrella from her waiting assistant, and entered the castle with them into the rainy afternoon.
Duchess Kate’s solo arrival was unusual, as the senior royal is usually accompanied by a chauffeur to official events. But there could have been a simple explanation. She lives nearby.
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The Princess of Wales and her family live at Forest Lodge in Windsor Great Park, approximately 3.6 miles from Windsor Castle. Duchess Kate, Prince William and their children (Prince George, 12, Princess Charlotte, 10, and Prince Louis, 7) moved from Adelaide Cottage to Adelaide Cottage in October 2025, upgrading to a larger home.
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Adelaide Cottage was the backdrop for a difficult few years for the family, including the death of Queen Elizabeth II in 2022, the confusion surrounding Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s Netflix documentary series and Prince Harry’s 2023 memoir Spare, and the announcement in 2024 that King Charles and Duchess Kate had both been diagnosed with cancer. (While the King continues treatment, the Princess of Wales is in remission.)
“Adelaide Cottage has been a place of pain, suffering and sadness, and it’s understandable that they would want a new place after such a difficult time,” royal biographer Sally Bedell-Smith recently told PEOPLE.
People understand that Forest Lodge is the family’s forever home and that they intend to stay there even after William becomes king one day.
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Duchess Kate’s reception with the England women’s rugby team on Thursday marked her first solo royal engagement of 2026.
The team known as the Red Roses and patron Kate wore red Alexander McQueen pantsuits to the festive event, interpreted as an homage to their nickname.
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The Princess of Wales attended the Red Roses’ game in September during their World Cup run and told the team how much she hated being tackled by her son George while playing rugby at home.
As reported by Rebecca English in the Daily Mail, the Duchess of Cambridge spoke about how contact sports could be made co-educational for children, saying: “It’s a really great game and in fact we don’t necessarily need to pigeonhole boys and girls into particular sports too early.”
“Obviously, as they get stronger physically…George, now if I play at home, I don’t want George to get tackled! But no, up to a certain age it’s great,” she said.
