Royals at Wimbledon 2008 - 2024


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An Ard Ri said:
I'd love to see fellow sporting enthusiasts such as Albert and Charlene in attendance or Infanta Elena of Spain ,in the past we'd see numerous foreign royals at Wimbledon
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Prince Albert was present on Monday with his cousin Melanie De Massy.
If Alcaraz reaches the final again some Spanish royals might attend as well (probably not King Felipe, as the final of Euro 2024 will be on the same day and he'll certainly attend)
 
Linda_26 said:
Prince Albert was present on Monday with his cousin Melanie De Massy.
If Alcaraz reaches the final again some Spanish royals might attend as well (probably not King Felipe, as the final of Euro 2024 will be on the same day and he'll certainly attend)
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Yes I saw Albert and his cousin,would liked to have seen Princess Charlene there too.
 
An Ard Ri said:
I'd love to see fellow sporting enthusiasts such as Albert and Charlene in attendance or Infanta Elena of Spain ,in the past we'd see numerous foreign royals at Wimbledon
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I think Albert was already there with his cousin Mélanie? (Edit: oops I see that was already mentioned.) Maybe Charlene doesn't like tennis?

Linda_26 said:
Prince Albert was present on Monday with his cousin Melanie De Massy.
If Alcaraz reaches the final again some Spanish royals might attend as well (probably not King Felipe, as the final of Euro 2024 will be on the same day and he'll certainly attend)
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If Alcaraz reaches the final, maybe Felipe and Sofia (since she loves football) could go to the Euro final and Letizia & Leonor to Wimbledon? That would be fun to see!
 
Charlene often attends the Monte Carlo Masters, but I suppose it's easier when it's only down the road :) .

Not quite a royal, but Pippa and James Matthews attended today. I'm not quite getting the floral onesie look, but the paper thinks it's "stylish"!

www.dailymail.co.uk

Pippa Middleton makes first public appearance since Kate's diagnosis

Dressed in an elegant jumpsuit, Kate's younger sibling, 40, attended day 12 of Wimbledon today in London.
www.dailymail.co.uk www.dailymail.co.uk
 
The Duchess of Gloucester, Prince and Princess Michael, the Earl of Snowdon and Lady Helen Taylor with daughter Estelle in the Royal Box today.
 
Nice to see Lady Helen and her daughter, although the media have it wrong. This is Eloise, Lady Helen’s older daughter.
 
I'm so pleased to hear that she'll be able to attend tomorrow. Hoping to see that photo repeated - I've got my fingers crossed that Spain will be celebrating a Wimbledon title but England will be celebrating victory over Spain in the Euros :) .

I wonder if any of the children will accompany either her to Wimbledon or William to Berlin?
 

[.....]



To return to the subject of Wimbledon, it was expected that the Duchess of Gloucester would present the trophies if Catherine was unable to attend. However, I understand that Debbie Jevans, the chairwoman of the All England Club, will present the ladies' singles trophy to either Jasmine Paolini or Barbora Krejcikova. That's a bit of a shame, IMHO. No offence to Debbie Jevans, but it's not quite the same as having the trophy presented by royalty. Or, even if no royals were able to go, a lot of former top players are there as commentators, and maybe they could have asked one of them instead.
 
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Unfortunately, for me, Catherine's decision to opt for the men's final rather than the women's looks harsher than it otherwise would as comes in the wake of William putting on a very animated display of support for the England men's team at the 2024 Euros, attending no less than three games – after not even having bothered to attend the England women's World Cup 2023 final last year.

In my opinion, especially when they serve as patrons or presidents of sports associations, it's extremely detrimental for royals to further inequality in sports. Unfortunately, William and Catherine are not the only royals whose attendance records indicate a preference towards men's sports (my own royals, the DRF, do the same thing) – it's equally disappointing every time it happens regardless of the royal. Frankly, I think it puts into question the appropriateness of royals holding sports association patronages – it is simply not viable to have a patron actively display preferential treatment.
 
The media had all been saying that the Duchess of Gloucester would go, but maybe she had something else on. But, in the absence of royalty, they could have asked Chris Evert or Martina Navratilova or Billie Jean King, all of whom are there.
 
sophie25 said:
So would I, the PR has been awful, both Willlam and Kate have missed a lot of things due to her illness but he hasn't missed one England game and now she's going to the tennis.
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Like others here I am extremely disappointed about the lack of royalty at the woman’s finals and agree a previous champions such as Billie Jean would have been a better option in the absence of a royal.

I agree that Kate attending the men’s is a slap in the face for women’s tennis. Sadly, I think it probably would be better if she had made the decision not to attend Wimbledon at all this year.
I don’t have any issue with William going to the various football matches ( I don’t think he attended every match). He is the patron of the FA not Wimbledon. England getting through to the European final is a huge achievement and it would be extremely bad PR if he didn’t attend.
 
Things are difficult at the moment as we know. It would have been a nice guesture to the Ladies to send someone from the family as also last year a club rep presented to the Ladies and not a Royal but we don't know what happened this year and last. Usually a child /grandchild of one of the monarchs or one of their spouses and someone with a positive personal and immediate family image to not distract from the players with drama background stories.

Princess Margaret's children are well liked and we mentioned them here at home. They have been there this week. The Gloucesters had an engagement in the diary today. It was nice to see the Duchess of Gloucester as one of the key attendees this year, she has been a deputy patron of the LTA a long time before she was able to be a representative. I was suprised at this. Could be the Royals want to share it with the club but you could swap between Men's and Womens for each prize giving. At times like this Harry could be useful. Outside of this as a stand-in I would say Lady Helen Taylor from the wider family as she is the only other minor Royal who is well known and she's also relevant as her parents worked with the LTA or Wimbledon in some way for decades.
 
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I think that if a royal that is connected to the sport in some capacity exists, then that would be the most logical person to present trophies.
If such a royal does not exist or is unavailable as it is the case with Catherine this year, then an accomplished tennis player would be the next best option for trophy presentation.
But if the two first options are impossible for what ever reason, then a club rep is the best solution.
I do not belive that a minor royal, with no affiliation to the sport should ever present trophies.
 
Royalty Observer said:
I think that if a royal that is connected to the sport in some capacity exists, then that would be the most logical person to present trophies.
If such a royal does not exist or is unavailable as it is the case with Catherine this year, then an accomplished tennis player would be the next best option for trophy presentation.
But if the two first options are impossible for what ever reason, then a club rep is the best solution.
I do not belive that a minor royal, with no affiliation to the sport should ever present trophies.
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I think a number of family members may currently or formerly have played tennis but it's up to them really of course. Maybe next year someone will be there for the Ladies. It is nice to have someone from the club presenting but well known Royals also help with the press side internationally for coverage.
 
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It doesn’t sit well with me- especially as it will be on the same day her husband flies to Germany to see the mens football team play in a final, having not flown to see the womens team in the World Cup final. There are perfectly good reasons for both being missed (women's final at Wimbledon and women's world cup game) but it looks bad that both are missed but a mens one attended IMO.

I’ve said for years how impactful it would be if Catherine decided to attend the wheelchair final game, for example. But that seems to get missed yet both she and William have often attended the mens final.

I thought the Duchess of Gloucester would have presented as was widely speculated- she is President of the Lawn Tennis Association so has a connection, but seems not.
I wonder if that was Wimbledon’s decision or from the Royal Household, I mean it would be unfair to expect he Duchess to be on standby just in case Catherine couldn’t attend, diaries are planned months in advance as well or she may well not want to be seen as Catherine’s stand in, which is fair enough as well IMO.
 
The Gloucesters had an event at the Cenotaph it looks like for Rememberance which is always a core Royal duty. I'm not going to go down the road of speculation about intra Windsor relations but Catherine or the Duchess G could have been presenting at Wimbledon a few years earlier.

I also sadly don't understand how their press people (not sure they really have pr much) can't see a male bias in some of the Headline sports engagements W and C have done, it could be bad timing. Hard to say why this is (some women just like men playing tennis ;-) joking , I just see the matches, points and scores), but it looks like people have noticed. Harry did do engagements with disability charities and maybe W has in the past too but I don't know their charity events history.

This is probably a temporary situation.
 
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To be fair, the women's World Cup final was in Australia. London to Berlin is a 2 hour flight. London to Sydney is a 23 hour flight. It's a bit of a difference. I appreciate that Letizia went, but it's not usual for royals to travel such long distances to attend sporting events. No member of the royal family was at Flushing Meadows when Andy Murray won the 2012 US Open or when Emma Raducanu won the 2021 US Open, nor at Melbourne Park for either of the Australian Open finals which Andy reached. The Spanish and Belgian royals have watched players from their countries in the finals of Wimbledon and the French Open, but not at the Australian or US Open.

William attended last year's women's FA Cup final, and Catherine usually attends both singles finals at Wimbledon - she just isn't well enough this year. I'm very surprised that none of the other royals were there today, but maybe they just had other things on.
 
Yes the Duchess along with her husband were at the Cenotaph with the Belgian King & Queen for a remembrance event today so seems likely she was never going to be available to attend.

Alison H said:
To be fair, the women's World Cup final was in Australia. London to Berlin is a 2 hour flight. London to Sydney is a 23 hour flight. It's a bit of a difference. I appreciate that Letizia went, but it's not usual for royals to travel such long distances to attend sporting events. No member of the royal family was at Flushing Meadows when Andy Murray won the 2012 US Open or when Emma Raducanu won the 2021 US Open, nor at Melbourne Park for either of the Australian Open finals which Andy reached. The Spanish and Belgian royals have watched players from their countries in the finals of Wimbledon and the French Open, but not at the Australian or US Open.

William attended last year's women's FA Cup final, and Catherine usually attends both singles finals at Wimbledon - she just isn't well enough this year. I'm very surprised that none of the other royals were there today, but maybe they just had other things on.
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100% agree - there are good reasons indeed why William didn't attend the world cup final and why Catherine isn't attending the women's final - but still its been noticed there is (likely unintentional) a male bias in the sporting events they attend - its actually more a William issue than Catherine IMO but still, fair to comment on.

In terms of. Wimbledon I do wonder how much comes from the organisers themselves - I'd love if Catherine used her considerable profile and media interest to shine a spot light on, say the wheelchair games, the wheelchair final for example. But the mens final is Wimbledon's set piece game that they place much importance on - I suspect they quite like Catherine turning up to their set piece, jewel in the crown, game and feel its where they'd prefer Catherine to be seen over other finals and other games. Its like Catherine bringing George and Charlotte into the royal box with her - no other children are allowed, even as guests of royals, but Wimbledon wasn't going to say no to George and Charlotte coming and gaining alot of media attention with them.

The tournament has had to pay out hundreds of thousands of pounds in compensation to ticket holders who have, due to rain, been able to view less than 2 hours of play in a day, so I'm sure they are happy their royal patron will be there on the final day so but a royal gloss over it all. I do wonder sometimes if the needs and desires of the organisation doesn't sometimes trump over what the royals might like to actually do, or certainly doesn't push them to go beyond the "norm".
 
Considering that women's matches are usually shorter that men's matches, I think it would have actually been better to attend today. It would have been less exposure to heat. But of course we do not know what makes a difference in her case, regarding the days, from a medical point of view.
 
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