A journalist shared his son’s heartwarming interaction with the Duchess of Cambridge, who he unexpectedly bumped into whilst travelling on a train to the Commonwealth Games.
The Times writer Matthew Syed detailed his son’s conversation with Kate Middleton in his sports column published on Wednesday. According to Syed, the duchess was travelling first class on the train – without security and armed guards – to the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham. Meanwhile, Princess Charlotte travelled to the games in style as she flew by helicopter with her dad, Prince William.
Syed and his eight-year-old son Ted were on their way to watch the table tennis tournament, the same sporting event where Syed had previously won gold decades before. As the father went to use the bathroom on the train, his son Ted waited outside the vestibule for him and got to talking with a woman.
Syed heard the woman ask his son, “Are you here alone?”
Ted replied, “No, my dad is in there” and pointed to the bathroom.
He described hearing the lady and his son having a “whale of a time” and laughing together. As Syed exited the bathroom, he turned to the woman to thank her for keeping his son company, but he “stopped in his tracks” when he realised it was Kate Middleton.
“Here is the Duchess of Cambridge, chatting merrily with my son,” he wrote.
As they said goodbye to the duchess, Syed asked his son: “Did you realise who that was, son?”
“No idea but she was really nice,” he responded.
Syed later tweeted about the event to his 111,000 followers. “I was using the loo on train to Comm Games yesterday while my young son waited outside,” he wrote. “He got talking to a lady waiting her turn. They chatted, laughed. I came out to thank her - then almost fell over. It was Kate! Thank you @KensingtonRoyal”.
It was a family affair at the Commonwealth Games on Tuesday as the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge brought their middle child Princess Charlotte to watch the swimming. The seven-year-old princess wore pigtails and a striped dress with a Peter Pan collar, while her mom was dressed in a crisp white blazer and trousers by Alexander McQueen. The young royal was seen clapping and pulling faces in the crowd as she sat between her parents.
