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The Princess of Wales is currently taking a break from royal duties while recovering from surgery, but she is no stranger to visiting our city. In 2023, Birmingham had two visits in six months from the The Prince and Princess of Wales, as well as a trip to Nuneaton in nearby Warwickshire in June of last year.
Fevered speculation over the Princess of Wales’ health ran rampant last week amidst reports of a digitally altered picture with her three children. The Mother’s Day picture, released to quell conspiracies, was killed by a number of media agencies, which only fuelled rumours.
The Princess has since apologised for “any confusion” she might have caused, but that has left Royal watchers, commentators and what feels like the rest of the world poring over every single recent interaction and picture of Kate and Will. BirminghamLive closely followed the senior royals on both of their visits in 2023, and one thing struck us as we spent the morning watching and reporting on their time in the city.
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It was that the pair were willing to answer questions from those they visited and were even game for some banter. On both of their visits we learnt about their favourite meals, emojis and ways to de-stress.
While they are symbolic of complete privilege, they do share some similarities with regular people. We wouldn’t go as far as saying they are relatable, but we got front-row seats to watch how they navigate life as a married couple and interact in the public eye.
In April 2023 we watched as the Prince and Princess of Wales visited popular Birmingham restaurant Indian Streatery to celebrate the diversity and culture of the city. Royal spotters in the city were left delighted as they saw William take a phone order and the pair trying their hand in the kitchen and even taking part in a ‘roti-off.’
(Image: BirminghamLive)
Arriving in a convoy of four Range Rovers, their visit to Birmingham was shrouded in secrecy, with restaurant boss Dhiraj Sharma thinking a call from the Palace was a “prank.” Fast-forward to October 2023, when the senior royals returned to the city, this time in Digbeth. In their second visit to Birmingham in six months, the Prince and Princess of Wales were in town to mark World Mental Health day.
Similar to their last visit, the pair pulled up to the Custard Factory in a blacked out car, entering through the back door at around 1:45pm to a rousing welcome from around 100 young delegates.
As with their visit earlier that year, we followed the Royal couple closely for more than an hour. In the case of their Digbeth visit, it was for a good few hours.
There were touching and revealing moments, from Kate keeping her promise to a grieving mother with her choice of earrings, to William sharing how he protected his own mental health. The pair even had time to chat about what their curry order was, revealing they would likely be eating it for dinner that night.
(Image: PA)
Prince William also spoke of how he relied on family support at difficult times : “Big family networks and support networks around people are really important, but a lot of people don’t realise what they need until it actually comes along. You can be living one life one minute and something massively changes and you realise you don’t necessarily have the tools or the experience to be able to tackle that.”
Back in April, diner Vinay Aggarwal with wife Ankita Guladi were left stunned upon realising William had taken their phone reservation. Hungry customer Vinay told BirminghamLive he had no idea he was speaking to the Royal: “I didn’t know at all, that’s a surprise, I thought I made a booking. I didn’t know at all it was Prince William! I was thinking twice about coming here, it is pretty surprising and hard to digest as well.
“I didn’t recognise him from [just speaking] on the phone. I genuinely thought that someone was actually taking the booking for me.”
