It was March 19, 2012 when a nervous Kate Middleton—known as the Duchess of Cambridge at the time—took the podium for her first-ever public speech. While she had been married to Prince William for nearly a year, the duchess hadn't made an official royal speech until she visited one of her first patronages, East Anglia's Children's Hospices. Looking back on the speech 13 years later, one royal expert has praised the now-Princess of Wales for how much she's achieved since that historic moment.
The Duchess of Cambridge—dressed in a royal blue Reiss dress she'd borrowed from her mother, Carole Middleton—praised the hospice's efforts to raise money for its new Treehouse facility during the speech, saying how she "felt hugely honored" to be there. Afterward, the duchess was reportedly overheard telling an attendee, "I find doing speeches nerve-racking."
