Did You Catch Princess Kate’s Subtle Tribute to Prince Louis at Wimbledon Today?

Kate Middleton at Wimbledon women's final 2023 in a green Self Portrait dress

(Image credit: Getty)

published 15 July 2023

It was a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it tribute to her youngest in the midst of a dramatic Wimbledon women’s final, where unseeded Marketa Vondrousova defeated Ons Jabeur to claim the grand slam title. The only part of Wimbledon more entertaining than the tennis itself is the Princess of Wales’ animated facial expressions as she takes it all in each year from the royal box at Centre Court. This year, Kate’s green Self Portrait resembled the color of a tennis ball, and, though her accessories were minimal, “they had sentimental value,” The Sun reports.

“The flower-shaped pearl earrings she could be seen wearing were the very same ones she had worn to her youngest’s christening back in 2018,” the outlet writes.

Kate Middleton holding Prince Louis at his christening in 2018

Kate donned green for both of her appearances at Wimbledon this year—today and on July 4, when she sported a green blazer reminiscent of her late mother-in-law Princess Diana. After Vondrousova’s win today, Kate was seen comforting Jabeur, People reports. Kate “is both an avid tennis player and fan, having attended Wimbledon nearly every year since she married Prince William in 2011,” the outlet reports. In 2016, her passion for tennis went to the next level when Queen Elizabeth named her patron of the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club: “The patronage is a prime position, and Queen Elizabeth had previously held the role—which comes with some perks!—since 1952,” People reports. As patron, Kate wears a special bow pin in the club’s official colors—dark green and purple—to signify her status and has the honor of awarding trophies to winners of the championships, as she did today.

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In addition to being an aficionado of the sport, Kate is also a purveyor of it; she has a tennis court on the grounds of her country home, Anmer Hall, and recently flexed her skills alongside tennis legend (and friend) Roger Federer in a promotional video released by Wimbledon before the tournament kicked off this year. In the clip, the two played a few sets before meeting some of the 250 ball boys and girls who help the tournament run smoothly.

“To see the training and the dedication and the amount of time that is put into the training and making sure this goes well on the day for the champions who are playing at Wimbledon—yeah, it’s incredible to see it behind the scenes,” Kate said in the clip.

Kate and Federer, after the clip dropped on June 24, reunited in the Royal Box at Wimbledon on July 4, where they watched Andy Murray beat Ryan Peniston in the first round of the men’s singles final. “It was amazing to have some royalty here but also some tennis royalty as well,” Murray told ESPN.

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Rachel Burchfield is a writer, editor, and podcaster whose primary interests are fashion and beauty, society and culture, and, most especially, the British Royal Family and other royal families around the world. She serves as Marie Claire’s Senior Celebrity and Royals Editor and has also contributed to publications like Allure, Cosmopolitan, Elle, Glamour, Harper’s Bazaar, InStyle, People, Vanity Fair, Vogue, and W, among others. Before taking on her current role with Marie Claire, Rachel served as its Weekend Editor and later Royals Editor. She is the cohost of Podcast Royal, a show that was named a top five royal podcast by The New York Times. A voracious reader and lover of books, Rachel also hosts I’d Rather Be Reading, which spotlights the best current nonfiction books hitting the market and interviews the authors of them. Rachel frequently appears as a media commentator, and she or her work has appeared on outlets like NBC’s Today Show, ABC’s Good Morning America, CNN, and more.