Kate Middleton & Princess Anne’s joint appearance was ‘a waste’ as royals work differently
Kate Middleton joined Princess Anne on their first royal engagement to visit maternity healthcare organisations yesterday. The Duchess of Cambridge and the Princess Royal arrived together, before heading inside to speak to charities and organisation employees before watching a demonstration. Express.co.uk spoke to body language expert Judi James about Kate and Anne’s appearance.
Judi claimed: “This rather mood-lifting outing looks fun but nevertheless rather odd, with a ‘buy-one-get-one-free’ look to two royal women who are neither a necessary not a complementary double-act.
“Anne’s pace and her body language style on royal visits is speedy and impatient and she often looks keen to skip the long chats and bouts of listening and to get on with the job at hand.
“Kate tends to enjoy waving to the crows and employing a more empathetic style of body language with her hosts, which means a lack of synchronicity in the two women’s styles.
“When we see the two women arrive at the event to be greeted outside the building.
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Judi claimed: “This rather mood-lifting outing looks fun but nevertheless rather odd, with a ‘buy-one-get-one-free’ look to two royal women who are neither a necessary not a complementary double-act.
“Anne’s pace and her body language style on royal visits is speedy and impatient and she often looks keen to skip the long chats and bouts of listening and to get on with the job at hand.
“Kate tends to enjoy waving to the crows and employing a more empathetic style of body language with her hosts, which means a lack of synchronicity in the two women’s styles.
“When we see the two women arrive at the event to be greeted outside the building.
“When both women watch the demonstration of delivery techniques Kate again uses eye contact and nodding while Anne steps back with that same look of quizzical humour that her father was famous for, meaning you have one royal signalling engaged listening while the other is saying she wants to make a point or ask a question that might be funny.
“When they stop to greet some of the medics Anne performs a bounce on her heels and a repeat of her thumb-twiddle to act a metronomic gestures to encourage the pace to keep up.
“Kate has adapted status-wise and dropped back here to allow Anne to appear as the senior royal, with Anne walking ahead and Kate adopting some low-status signals like clasping her bag in front of her barrier and responding to Anne rather than prompting or instigating,” Judi suggested.
“Her frequent hair-stroking or touching does suggest some awkwardness but her shared laughter suggests the intention is to illustrate good bonds and even friendship.
Royal fans commented on Kate and Anne’s appearance.
One tweeted: “Wonderful to see Prince Anne and the Duchess of Cambridge to work together. All blessings.”
Another said: “I love this outing together.”
A third wrote: “Hope more joint engagements to come. Love both ladies.”
