Michael Middleton and Carole Middleton have arrived at Wimbledon (Image: WireImage)
The Princess of Wales’ parents, Carole and Michael, have arrived at Wimbledon full of smiles to attend day four of the tennis championships, without their daughter Kate
The Princess of Wales’ parents, Carole and Michael Middleton, have arrived at Wimbledon for day four of the tennis championships.
The Middletons are regulars in the Royal Box at Wimbledon so it’s no surprise to see Carole, 69, and Michael, 74, turning up for the much-loved event. Carole was beaming and dressed in a floral dress, white blazer and yellow sunglasses for the occasion, with Kate’s dad Michael looking dapper in a navy suit and yellow tie.
The Princess, 42, did not arrive with them, and it is not known if she will make an appearance later today, as she continues to undergo treatment for an undisclosed form of cancer.
Certainly, royal watchers are hoping the royal does feel well enough to attend the high-profile competition. The Princess has been patron of the All England Club since 2016, and traditionally presents trophies to the Wimbledon champions. But it will reportedly be down to the decision of her team of doctors and physicians to sign off whether she will be well enough to attend the world famous tennis championship.
And the All England Club chair Debbie Jevans hasn’t ruled out an appearance entirely, confirming that organisers are “staying flexible” over who will conduct the trophy presentation if the Princess is unable to do so this year.
Debbie told Telegraph Sport: “We’re hopeful that the Princess of Wales will be able to present the trophies as the Club’s patron, but her health and recovery is the priority. We don’t know what we don’t know. All we’ve said is that we’ll work with her and give her as much flexibility as possible.”
The Royal Family are huge tennis fans and are regulars at the London event, with Kate presenting the singles trophies to winners in recent years.
Over the years we’ve seen everyone from the late Queen to Meghan Markle take their seats in the royal box, cheering along with the crowds. Princess Diana and Sarah Ferguson famously used to go together, chatting and laughing as they sat side-by-side to watch the action unfold.
More recently, Princess Kate took sister-in-law Meghan along in one of their only joint engagements. Meghan, who is good friends with Serena Williams, was a tennis fan before marrying Prince Harry.
Meanwhile, Prince George and Princess Charlotte made their Wimbledon debut last year, and were seen getting very invested as Carlos Alcaraz took on Novak Djokovic in the Men’s Final on Centre Court. So far, the competition has seen big names including Alcaraz and Emma Raducanu take to the courts once again.
It was announced on Wednesday morning that Murray would be playing with Raducanu, as well as alongside his brother Jamie in the men’s doubles. The 37-year-old was forced to pull out of the singles on Tuesday because he hadn’t had enough time to recover from surgery on a cyst close to his spine.
But he has been practising hard on the Aorangi courts at Wimbledon and reached out to Raducanu on Tuesday to see if she wanted to play mixed doubles as well as the singles. The idea of a Murray-Raducanu partnership had first been floated in 2021, but never came to fruition.
“I chatted a little bit with my team about it, saying: ‘So what is it exactly you want to try and get out of that?'” Murray told reporters after practising on Wednesday afternoon. “And firstly, I want to be competitive in the matches and then, I guess, playing with another Brit as well was going to be something that would be nice. And she’s obviously one of the top British players and she would have been top of the list.
“I texted her last night. Thankfully I got quite a quick reply. It was quite late yesterday evening when I sent the message. It would have been after 9pm, so I was a bit worried she might be in bed but, yeah, I got a quick reply. She said: ‘Yeah let’s do this!'”
