Kate Middleton’s Wimbledon Body Language Betrays True Feelings

This week, Kensington Palace shared a series of images of the princess on social media from her latest two Wimbledon outings (and yes, she was wearing her iconic bow brooch). The palace captioned its post, “A weekend at Wimbledon. Congratulations to all the players and staff who took part in a remarkable fortnight of tennis.”

The first image in the slideshow is a stunning one, with a glimpse of Princess Catherine’s face smiling. The other images, however, are much more revealing.

While walking with her son and daughter, she looks completely at ease. Her hands are by her sides and her smile is natural and unforced. We see this ease again in the image with Princess Charlotte as they smile at one another. She leans in towards her daughter and her smile lines and lines around her eyes reflect that she is genuinely enjoying the moment, as she smiles with her full face.

By contrast, in image number five where her family is not present, she shakes hands with Jannik Sinner, the men’s Wimbledon champion, and she appears friendly but guarded. Her left hand is placed across her waist, a closed-off sign that she is protecting herself and not quite as at-ease as she was with her family. This can be seen again in image seven where her left hand is raised and covering the middle portion of her body. While her smile is warm and real, this hand reveals that she isn’t fully prepared to let her guard down in such a public setting.

Similarly, in several of the images where she’s seen shaking hands with strangers, her shoulders are raised, a sign of slight nervousness, tension and discomfort. The princess is obviously a pro at public outings and knows how to make others feel comfortable, but perhaps this is a signal that she isn’t always truly comfortable herself. Perhaps this indicates that she much prefers time at home with the fam over such public spectacles (an understandable feeling for sure).