Dame Kelly Holmes got 'carried away' when she met Kate Middleton

2023-05-22

Dame Kelly Holmes reveals she got ‘carried away’ when she met ‘lovely and passionate’ Princess of Wales last week and couldn’t let go of her hand

Dame Kelly Holmes opened up about meeting Kate Middleton in Bath last week
READ MORE: Dame Kelly Holmes tells how Princess of Wales told young fans it’s taken her time to know she’s ‘accepted and fits in’

Dame Kelly Holmes admitted she was rather star-struck when she met the Princess of Wales last week.

Kate Middleton, 41, visited the former athlete’s trust in Bath, where she met with pupils and played a names of Noughts and Crosses with Zara McDermott.

And according to Dame Kelly, who opened up about the visit on today’s Loose Women, the royal made quite an impression.

Dame Kelly revealed the charity was given two days’ notice before Kate’s visit, and how the ‘lovely’ royal was ‘very graceful, really interested about the young people, and was also ‘really passionate.’

The presenter admitted she got ‘carried away’ and struggled to let go of the royal’s hand after they shook hands, but couldn’t hide her competitive side when she and Kate played on opposite teams.

Dame Kelly Holmes opened up about meeting the Princess of Wales during her visit to her Trust in Bath last week

‘My charity, Dame Kelly Holmes Trust has been going 15 years, and you know when you do something cause you’re so passionate and you never get the recognition and then one moment changes it all?’ Dame Kelly said on the show.

‘We were up in Bath doing a young girls’ project for mental health, and we got told two days before that the Princess of Wales “might” be visiting us, so we were all like’, Dame Kelly said, mouthing a gasp.

‘And the day before, I got told. Can you imagine? It was just the best, best thing,’ she added.

The former athlete then talked more about Kate’s visit, saying: ‘ Anyways, she gets out of the car, looking gorgeous.

‘She looks casually elegant,’ Ruth Langsford, who was chairing today’s panel said.

Dame Kelly then joked: ‘I said “come cas'”, she didn’t “come cas'”, adding that Kate ‘smelled lovely,’

The campaigner also admitted that she got ‘carried away’ while shaking the royal’s hand.

‘I was shaking her hands and I literally didn’t let go. You know when you get carried away?’ she said.

The Princess of Wales, 41, showed off her competitive side as she played a game of noughts and crosses during the visit

The Princess chatted to Love Island’s Zara McDermott who is one of the Shaping Us campaign champions – Kate’s initiative to promote the importance of early years development

She couldn’t resist paying Kate a compliment on her style, and admitted she whispered ‘I love your jacket,’ as she went to take her seat next to the mother-of-three.

Ruth also poked fun at the fact that Kelly didn’t let Kate win a friendly game of noughts and crosses ‘in typical Kelly style.’

‘I’m so competitive, I can’t help it,’ Kelly said sheepishly.

‘I said to my team, and they’re only girls of 13, 14 years, “we’re not going to lose this, you know that”,’ Kelly added, admitting that some of the girls’ on the team were frightened by how determined she was to win.

Kate commented on Kelly’s thirst to win, saying: ‘you’re rather competitive, aren’t you?’

She also spoke with Dame Kelly, who is the charity’s president having set up the organisation in 2008 to help young people

Kate was beaming as she arrived at the organisation this lunchtime to meet with young people the charity supports

Spilling more detail about her day with the Princess, Dame Kelly added: ‘It was really lovely, she was very graceful, really interested about the young people, really passionate and asked a lot of questions,’ she said.

During the visit, Kate Middleton spoke about the struggle of learning to be a royal – and the challenge of bringing up children with different personalities.

Kate also talked to girls, from a school in Bristol, about her own vulnerabilities.

Away from the cameras the Princess, wearing a £359 bright yellow LK Bennett jacket with white trousers and trainers, answered questions from pupils from St Katherine’s School in Bristol about her life, telling them she had never thought about becoming a royal until she fell in love with William, according to one person present.

Dame Kelly said shortly after the visit: ‘They were just asking her about being a royal. Was it something that she wanted to do? And she said she had to learn. It’s a struggle to know that you can be accepted and fit in and you are still learning every day.

‘Doing public speaking isn’t a natural thing for lots of people is it? And she was saying she is still working that out but has to project. So you know again, she humanised everything. Not everyone is perfect.’

The Princess, 41, went to the Percy Community Centre in Bath to see the work the Dame Kelly Holmes Trust, a charity set up by the athlete in 2008, does using sports stars as mentors to support young people to find the skills and confidence they need to succeed in education, work and life.

It is an issue close to Kate’s heart and she spoke to the girls about her own path to becoming a Princess and helping her own children develop amid a nationwide mental health crisis among young people, a wave of anxiety and depression that has coincided with the rise of social media and ubiquitous smart phones.

Dame Kelly said she hoped the visit, marking Mental Health Awareness Week, would lead to the Princess’s philanthropic Royal Foundation working closely with her trust around the country.

The two women got on like a house on fire. ‘She was lovely,’ said Dame Kelly. ‘She said: “ask me questions as well.”

‘I asked her, I said you’ve got three children and do you see different traits in them? She said: “Oh yes,” and she said that’s the thing. It’s like learning how to handle the different traits and different needs and abilities even with three young children shows her the need to do it with masses of children.’

Dame Kelly founded her national youth development organisation on the belief every young person needs a champion.

It pairs world class athletes with youngsters, who may lack confidence or have other issues, so the sportsmen or women can pass on their winning mindset and help the schoolchildren develop the skills and confidence they need to succeed in life.

The princess later sat down to chat to the pupils, all girls aged from 11-13, who spoke about their experiences at school, home life and the benefits of being mentored by a sports star.

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