{"id":2025493,"date":"2025-09-16T06:32:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-16T06:32:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2025493"},"modified":"2025-09-16T06:32:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-16T06:32:09","slug":"duchess-of-kents-surprising-response-from-queen-after-quitting-royal-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/duchess-of-kents-surprising-response-from-queen-after-quitting-royal-life\/","title":{"rendered":"Duchess of Kent’s surprising response from Queen after quitting royal life"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The Duchess of Kent previously spoke candidly about stepping back from public duties in 2002, and the Queen\u2019s unexpected but supportive response<\/h2>\n
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06:00, 16 Sep 2025<\/span>Updated 07:21, 16 Sep 2025<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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<\/g><\/clippath><\/defs><\/svg><\/span>The Duchess of Kent<\/span>(Image: Steve Meddle\/Shutterstock)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n

Katharine, Duchess of Kent<\/a>, once revealed the truth behind her decision to step back from royal duties in 2002. The 92-year-old died earlier this month<\/a>, with her funeral set to take place at Westminster Cathedral today<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Her royal life panned out differently to many within the Firm, as she devoted 13 years to teaching music at a primary school in Hull, a role she carried out quietly and with the Queen\u2019s full support.<\/p>\n

Katharine, the wife of the late Queen\u2019s<\/a> cousin the Duke of Kent, previously explained to The Telegraph her decision to step back from public life and dispense with her HRH title. The Duchess opened up on her years teaching music at Wansbeck Primary School in Hull instead and said that, despite her previous royal life, “I was just known as Mrs Kent,” to her pupils.<\/p>\n

Reflecting on the anonymity she cherished, she said: “\u201cOnly the head knew who I was. The parents didn\u2019t know and the pupils didn\u2019t know. No one ever noticed. There was no publicity about it at all – it just seemed to work.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy I don\u2019t know, but it just did. I taught children from the youngest possible age right until the end of primary school.<\/p>\n

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\"Duchess<\/figure>
<\/g><\/clippath><\/defs><\/svg><\/span>Duchess of Kent <\/span>(Image: PA)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cI took them out into the town of Hull. I had a little choir and they sang in the hospital. A lot of the children came from single parent families and very deprived areas.<\/p>\n

“It was very, very rewarding because even children from really tough backgrounds – the music did such wonderful things. It really did. They would get up and sing solos. I don’t remember a child ever saying they didn’t want to do their music.\u201d<\/p>\n

Katharine emphasised that the Queen fully supported her decision. \u201cThere was nothing that I felt I wanted to hide away from,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was just something that happened in my life. I was always – I wouldn\u2019t say proud of it, but I was glad I did it. I was supported through it as well. The Queen said: \u2018Yes, go and do it,\u2019 so I did.\u201d<\/p>\n

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<\/g><\/clippath><\/defs><\/svg><\/span>The Duke of Kent watches as the Duchess’s coffin is carried into the Cathedral <\/span>(Image: Ian Vogler \/ Daily Mirror)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Katharine died peacefully at home, surrounded by her family, on the evening of September 4 aged 92. Her coffin was received on Monday during a solemn ceremony at Westminster Cathedral on the eve of her funeral service later today, September 16.<\/p>\n

A devout follower of the Roman Catholic faith, the duchess became the first member of the royal family<\/a> to convert to Catholicism for more than 300 years, doing so in 1994, and it was her wish to have her funeral at Westminster Cathedral.<\/p>\n

Hers will be the first royal funeral at the cathedral, in Victoria, central London, since its construction in 1903. The King and Queen, along with other members of the royal family, will attend the requiem mass.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.mirror.co.uk \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Duchess of Kent previously spoke candidly about stepping back from public duties in 2002, and the Queen\u2019s unexpected but supportive response 06:00, 16 Sep 2025Updated 07:21, 16 Sep 2025 The Duchess of Kent(Image: Steve Meddle\/Shutterstock) Katharine, Duchess of Kent, once revealed the truth behind her decision to step back from royal duties in 2002. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2025494,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[362911,348011,362969,22769,24472],"class_list":["post-2025493","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-royalty","tag-duchess-of-kent","tag-hospitals","tag-katharine","tag-royal-family","tag-the-queen"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Duchess-of-Kents-surprising-response-from-Queen-after-quitting-royal.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2025493","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2025493"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2025493\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2025494"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2025493"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2025493"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2025493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}