Shoppers and stallholders have told of their delight at meeting the Princess of Wales in Leeds' Kirkgate Market.
Kate Middleton is visiting the historic city centre market today (January 31) as part of her Shaping Us campaign, highlighting how babies and children develop in response to their earliest experiences. This runs in tandem with Leeds City Council's Child Friendly Leeds scheme.
The Princess has briefly toured the market, meeting vendors and speaking to them about their experiences of early childhood and their reflections on the Shaping Us film.
Read more: Kate Middleton's little known Leeds roots explored
Shopper John Ashley, who was visiting the market today out of sheer happenstance, couldn't believe his eyes when he saw the princess and almost dropped the pastry he was snacking on.
John said: “We just came to Leeds for the day from Norwich and I brought my son here as he’s never been.
"We just came here and it was a surprise to see Kate Middleton. It was lovely to see her I got a few pictures. I saw the Queen once and I’ve seen Charles and Phillip but never Kate. It was different!”
John Khasifraja, owner of Spice Corner in the market, said: "We were so excited to see her. We took loads of pictures. We’ve never seen any royals before and we love them! We waited for her since this morning so we were so excited. We watch her all the time on the TV.”
Butcher Nigel Gifford said: "We didn’t speak to her but she was really close. It’s good for the market. We found out an hour before she came.
"I knew something was going on yesterday though because they were really cleaning the market. The queen was my favourite royal. I think all the police around has maybe put people off a bit coming in here.”
Disappointed couple Joan and Joe, who were having lunch in the market, said: “We missed her because we didn’t know! We’re disappointed - we came in and saw everybody and didn’t know what was going on and then someone told us.
"Kate Middleton was here. She’ll be Queen one day! We don’t like Charles much but we do like William and Kate.”
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