The moment Princess Kate received regal bows from two sports superstars has gone viral as the royal made a rare public appearance on Sunday amid her treatment for cancer.
Kate attended the Wimbledon Tennis Championships on July 14, marking only her second official public engagement of 2024, after she revealed in March that she had been diagnosed with an undisclosed form of cancer.
The princess is patron of the All England Lawn Tennis Club, which hosts Wimbledon each year, and in this capacity has regularly presented trophies to the winners.
On Sunday, the royal was accompanied by her daughter, Princess Charlotte, and sister, Pippa Matthews, as she watched the men's singles final match between Novak Djokovic and returning champion Carlos Alcaraz.
As the royal party took their seats the princess was met with a standing ovation and large cheers from the crowd.
Alcaraz took an early lead, seeing out 24-time major winner Djokovic to take his second consecutive Wimbledon championship.
After the match, Kate walked onto the famous Center Court to present the winning and second-place trophies. As she did, each of the players offered her a respectful bow.
Uploaded to TikTok by user @teamwalesfamily on July 15, footage of Alcaraz and Djokovic's regal gestures have gone viral, gaining over 235,000 views on the social media site so far.
Captioned "😌RESPECT to the Future QUEEN Catherine of UK!👑" the video has received in excess of 22,000 likes and over 170 comments, many of which have praised the royal and the tennis superstars.
"This is how it is done ❤️," wrote one TikTok user.
"She looks beautiful! She's gonna be an amazing queen 🥰♥️," posted another with a further comment reading: "The purple dress as a nod to the traditional Wimbledon colours, she always gets it right 🙂."
Royal bows and curtsies have become the subject of increased public fascination in recent years, inspiring a number of viral videos and posts when displayed out and about at royal events and engagements.
A number of Kate's curtsies to her father-in-law, King Charles, have been praised by fans. The gesture takes the form of a bow to the head and brief bend of the knee for female members of the royal family.
Curtsies are offered by female royals twice each day to the king and queen, once when first meeting them for the day and the second when saying goodbye.
During her cancer treatment, Kate has mainly stepped out of the public eye to focus on her health. However on June 14 the royal provided an update on her condition, saying that while not "out of the woods" yet, she hoped to be able to undertake some events and work from home over the summer.
Kate made her 2024 debut at the Trooping the Colour celebrations in London on June 15.
James Crawford-Smith is Newsweek's royal reporter, based in London. You can find him on X (formerly Twitter) at @jrcrawfordsmith and read his stories on Newsweek's The Royals Facebook page.
Do you have a question about King Charles III and Queen Camilla, William and Princess Kate, Meghan Markle and Prince Harry, or their family that you would like our experienced royal correspondents to answer? Email royals@newsweek.com. We'd love to hear from you.
Disclaimer: The copyright of this article belongs to the original author. Reposting this article is solely for the purpose of information dissemination and does not constitute any investment advice. If there is any infringement, please contact us immediately. We will make corrections or deletions as necessary. Thank you.
