Kate Middleton Warmly Says Goodbye to King Charles with a Kiss on the Cheek and a Curtsy After Royal Funeral

The King has previously referred to the Princess of Wales as “my beloved daughter-in-law”

Following the historic Catholic mass for the Duchess of Kent on Tuesday, Sept. 16, the royal family members gathered on the steps outside Westminster Cathedral as her coffin was moved into a hearse. Just before the King went to his car to depart, Princess Kate said goodbye to him with a kiss on each cheek before dipping into a quick curtsy while keeping her arm on his shoulder.

The interaction was the latest display of the sweet relationship between the King, 76, and the Princess of Wales, 43. He referred to Kate as “my beloved daughter-in-law” while speaking at a state banquet in Kenya in October 2023, recounting how Prince William proposed to Kate in the country in 2010.

Their bond has been made stronger in recent years as they both received cancer diagnoses in 2024.

I don’t think it is presumptuous to say that she is like the daughter he never had,” she continued. “He shares with William an impulse to protect her. They are in this together, Kate and the King.”

Apart from being King and future queen, they are also “two patients going through a common health experience,” said a royal source, noting they “are bound to have a close connection… I imagine there was some comfort [for Kate] in seeing… that it was possible to balance some private information without there being an imperative to share all.”

Members of the royal family mourned the Duchess of Kent at her funeral after her death on Sept. 4. Katharine married into the royal family with her wedding to Queen Elizabeth’s cousin the Duke of Kent, and she is survived by her husband, their three children and 10 grandchildren.

Many other members of the royal family were among the funeral attendees, including Princess Anne and her husband Sir Timothy Laurence, Sophie the Duchess of Edinburgh, Prince Andrew and his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson, Prince and Princess Michael of Kent and the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester.