I haven’t drunk much since cancer diagnosis, says Princess of Wales as she pulls pints and rides along with the RNLI on the Thames

The Princess of Wales left the beer and cider tasting to her husband during a visit to London today, explaining that she had cut back on alcohol ‘since my diagnosis’.

Catherine, 44, who was carrying out engagements with Prince William, had chemotherapy in 2024 and last year announced she was in remission from cancer.

During a visit to Fabal Beerhall, the Prince and Princess were told about the Bermondsey Beer Mile, which is home to several craft breweries and tap rooms.

When she was invited to try some beer and cider this afternoon, Catherine told owner Hannah Rhodes: ‘Since my diagnosis I haven’t had much alcohol.’

She added: ‘It’s something I have to be a lot more conscious of now.’ Ms Rhodes, who offered Catherine a soft drink instead, said: ‘Fair enough.’ Turning to William, Catherine patted her husband’s knee and said: ‘But you like your cider, don’t you?’

The Princess was wearing a £95 blue shirt from British womenswear brand With Nothing Underneath – along with a Catherine Walker blazer, chocolate brown cigarette trousers and new pair of suede ankle boots by Jimmy Choo. 

William tried beers and ciders, some of which came from Ms Rhodes’s brand Hiver, which uses honey from bee hives as a replacement for sugar in fermentation.

Catherine, who is known to be a beekeeper with hives at her Norfolk home of Anmer Hall, tried some of the honey by dipping a stick into a jar. The Princess said: ‘If you take the honey off the hive in early summer it tastes very different.’

Speaking about harvesting honey from the hives, she added: ‘If you take the honey off when it’s wet it is a natural fermentation process anyway. William laughed and joked: ‘She knows a lot about bees. Be careful what you say, you might be corrected.’

Earlier William and Catherine tried their hand at brewing at nearby Southwark Brewing Company, a craft beer firm further down the Bermondsey Beer Mile which was founded in 2014 as one of the area’s first small-batch breweries under the railway arches.

Greeting Peter Jackson, 66, they were shown how to ascend a ladder where William wore black rubber gloves to add hops to the ‘kettle’.

After tipping the hops in, William said: ‘It smells like horse feed as you’re doing it. There’s a real mixture of smells.’ Mr Jackson joked: ‘Yes. It’s good that it changes by the time it gets to your glass.’

Catherine then went up the ladder to stir them in. They then had a competition to see who could pull the best pint, which was declared to be better than the owner. Mr Jackson told them: ‘Do you know what? You can come back on Saturday for a shift.’

He then pulled out his mobile phone to make a video call to his son, Will Jackson, an accountant who was celebrating his 34th birthday in Manchester.

After showing Mr Jackson how to start the call on his phone, the Prince said: ‘William, happy birthday. I hope you’ve got a good party tonight.’

When told he was off to a restaurant to celebrate, the Prince said: ‘Is your dad paying? We’re just in here trying not to ruin his brewery. We’ve just been given a pint-pulling contest.’

William later said: ‘Pubs are so important,’ saying that they were ‘places for people and the community to come together.’

The beer mile originated in 2009 when the Kernel Brewery established itself under the railway arches near London Bridge, sparking a craft beer revolution in the area.

On another engagement earlier today, the couple served up crumble and custard to unsuspecting shoppers as they made a surprise appearance at Borough Market.

William and Catherine were put to work chopping cheese, while the Princess made coffee for her husband, who suggested a market stall could sell it instead.

They were met by crowds of Londoners and tourists, who seemed shocked to see the future King and Queen and thronged around them taking photos on their phones.

William and Catherine made their way around the market on foot on the previously-unannounced trip, with crowds moving around them without security barriers.

It was their first stop on a day out in London as they make several unannounced visits and finish with an engagement at an RNLI tower station on the River Thames.

Kensington Palace said the programme was built around the river, designed to illustrate how it remains at the heart of London communities and trade.

At Borough Market, famous as one of the capital’s oldest food markets, William and Catherine visited Trethowan Brothers, an award‑winning family cheesemakers producing small‑batch traditional cheeses who have had a stall there since 1998.

The Prince gestured to a tall tower of cheddar, asking questions of owner Todd Trethowan and happily agreeing to a taste test.

Both the Prince and Princess tried their hand at slicing the Pitchfork Cheddar, and Catherine asked which cheese was the most popular.

Mr Trethowan said afterwards that they were ‘big cheese fans’, telling him ‘that’s lunch taken care of!’ when he gave them cheese and chutney to take away.

Asked about their cheese cutting skills, he said: ‘They were naturals’.

They were particularly interested to hear about the ‘blossoming’ success of the British cheese industry, he said, after he told them many young people are now getting into the job.

Their Borough Market stall opened in 1998, bringing cheeses such as Pitchfork Cheddar and Gorwydd Caerphilly to London.

Gorwydd Caerphilly, a raw milk cheese from Trethowan’s Dairy, has received multiple awards, including ‘super gold’ at the World Cheese Awards 2022/23.

Walking through the market, occasionally stopping to greet people and waving as they moved, the Prince and Princess then stopped at Change Please, a social enterprise supporting people experiencing homelessness through barista training and wrap‑around support.

Last year, the Prince’s Homewards programme funded Change Please to run an employability scheme in Northern Ireland.

Prince William told staff he would like to get the coffee into the cafes of the royal palaces, naming Windsor Castle in particular. ‘It’s fantastic,’ he said.

The Princess was keen to learn more about coffee grinding, asking ‘can you show me how to do it’ as she darted inside the stall to try her hand.

After taking a few minutes to work the machines, froth and pour, she held a coffee cup out and said: ‘William, I made you a coffee!’

Appearing to know he would not drink it, she conceded ‘it’s not decaf’ and he suggested: ‘They [stallholders] can sell it!’

In the end, she carried it around the market herself, taking a sip.

Change Please trains homeless people to become baristas and supports them by providing a living wage job, accommodation advice, therapy, a bank account and job opportunities.

Their third and final stop was at Humble Crumble, a dessert business which grew from a single market stall into multiple locations and now has a large social media following.

The Princess greeted founder and creative director Kim Innes enthusiastically, telling her she had watched her on Masterchef last night.

Ready to work, William and Catherine put aprons on and stepped inside the market building to serve up pots of crumble and custard.

The Prince took charge of ladling the fruit and crumble, while the Princess was tasked with the embellishments: pouring custard, piping pink marshmallow fluff, and sprinkling toppings.

Gabriel Unger, the chief executive of the company who placed the first order from the royal visitors, proclaimed ‘taste test: very good’.

He joked that they would ‘pass their trial shift’ easily and be offered a job, if they wanted.

‘It’s completely surreal,’ he said, adding that Catherine in particular had done a ‘brilliant job’.

Ms Innes said the Princess’s piping skills were ‘fantastic’, adding ‘She could teach the team, she’s a natural’ while William ‘did a good job of the correct ratio of fruit to crumble.’

Humble Crumble began in 2018 when Ms Innes started selling fruit crumbles from a farmers’ market stall.

The concept was centred on a single dessert style; crumble paired with custard and toppings, and quickly built a viral following through word of mouth.

Hundreds of people, most holding up phones for photographs, thronged close to the couple but watched respectfully as they got to work.

Afterwards, the Prince and Princess stopped for selfies and shook hands with those in front of them.

Borough Market near London Bridge station is home to more than 100 traders and tenants, including artisanal producers, street food stalls, restaurants and pubs.

The market is owned by a charitable trust and run by a board of volunteer trustees, with a mission to provide a world-class food market for London and its communities.

It has community partnerships, education programmes and food redistribution initiatives, while aiming to achieve short supply chains and reduced food waste.

After the trip to the Bermondsey Beer Mile, the Prince and Princess of Wales wore RNLI overalls and baseball caps for a boat ride down the River Thames to their final engagement of the day.

The couple arrived at the RNLI Tower Lifeboat Station by E-class lifeboat, thanking the crew for steering them safely ashore.

Delivering cake and biscuits they had bought at Borough Market earlier that day, they joined staff and volunteers to learn more about their lifesaving work on the tidal river and mark the 25th anniversary of the RNLI Lifeguards.

After getting changed out of the yellow waterproofs, the Prince and Princess took seats at a table for a cup with representatives of the lifeboat station, and were brought cups of tea while they talked. ‘Oh that’s very kind,’ said the Princess.

William asked about the time commitment and training needed to work at the station, and their response times to emergencies.

Catherine asked about the type of incidents they are called to, hearing that a large proportion of them are now suicide attempts from bridges as well as accidents on the river and medical emergencies.

‘Are you getting enough volunteers coming through?’ asked the Princess, hearing that a recent recruitment drive had seen 200 applications for 30 positions.

In a second room, the royal couple met small groups representing fundraising teams and volunteers lifeguards who will shortly be working to keep people safe during the Boat Race on the Thames.

William, referring to tides, said: ‘We don’t respect it [the water] enough sometimes.’

They also spent time talking to members of Bridge Watch, a charity which patrols local bridges to intercept members of the public who appear to be contemplating suicide and take them to a local cafe to talk.

‘It’s about reaching out, is it, and building trusted relationships that they might not have elsewhere in their lives?’ asked the Princess. ‘It’s an incredible role to play.’

The Prince and Princess were given gifts including RNLI hats, a teddy and a sustainable bag.

Outside, where a small crowd had gathered to meet them after the engagement was pre-announced, there was a lone shout of ‘have you been covering for Andrew, William?’ – referring to William’s uncle Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and his friendship with the paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein.

Several dozen wellwishers, however, shook their hands and asked for photographs.

One woman shouted ‘Happy Mother’s Day, Catherine!’ and a second showed her the tattoo she has of the Princess’s handwriting on her torso.

The Princess responded: ‘Oh my goodness, my handwriting isn’t the best!’

RNLI Tower is the charity’s busiest lifeboat station, operating 24 hours a day, 365 days a year from its new premises opened in 2023.

The station’s crew of staff and volunteers respond to emergencies along the Thames and have already been called out 45 times this year.

Andrew was arrested on February 19, on suspicion of misconduct in public office.

He spent around 11 hours in custody as searches were conducted at his home on the Sandringham Estate in Norfolk and at his former home, Royal Lodge in Windsor, Berkshire, and was released pending investigation.

Andrew served as the UK’s special representative for international trade and investment from 2001 until 2011, when he stepped down amid controversy over his friendship with Epstein. He has always denied any wrongdoing.