The Princess of Wales shared a sweet moment with royal fans at yesterday’s engagements in London.
Kate, 44, enjoyed a jam-packed day in the UK’s capital yesterday alongside Prince William, 43, from pouring pints at the Bermondsey Beer Mile to whipping up cappuccinos at Borough Market.
And in one particularly heartwarming moment, just before the royal couple headed on a lifeboat down the River Thames, Kate, dressed in a life vest, shared a wave with onlookers waiting to catch a glimpse of her.
Kate and William visited the RNLI Lifeboat Station on the River Thames to mark the RNLI Lifeguards’ 25th anniversary.
The moment, after being shared on Instagram by @kingsguardtours, delighted royal fans, with one writing: ‘She’s a dream.’
A second said: ‘My favourite couple.’ While others shared love hearts beneath the clip.
Elsewhere yesterday, Kate left the beer and cider tasting to her husband, explaining that she had cut back on alcohol ‘since my diagnosis’.
Kate had chemotherapy in 2024 and last year announced she was in remission from cancer.
The Princess of Wales delighted royal fans with her sweet gesture to onlookers before heading on a lifeboat on the River Thames in London
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, Kate 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 Kate a soft drink instead, said: ‘Fair enough.’ Turning to William, Kate 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.
Kate , 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 in the day, William and Kate 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.
Pictured: The Prince and Princess of Wales onboard an E class inshore lifeboat during their visit to the RNLI Tower Station yesterday
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.’
Kate 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 yesterday, the couple served up crumble and custard to unsuspecting shoppers as they made a surprise appearance at Borough Market.
William and Kate 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 Kate 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 made several unannounced visits and finished with the 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.
