Because the Duchess of Kent, who died on September 5 at the age of 92, spent the last few decades of her life in private life, she was the matriarch to a wing of the royal family that doesn’t always attend public events. Her funeral mass on Tuesday included her husband, the Duke of Kent, as well as King Charles III, Prince William, Kate Middleton, and Princess Anne. (Queen Camilla bowed out Tuesday morning due to sinusitis.) But those familiar working royals were also joined by members of the extended Windsor clan, including a few who have made a name for themselves as influencers.
Two of the Duchess’s granddaughters, Lady Amelia and Lady Marina Windsor, entered the church with their father, George Windsor, the Earl of St. Andrews. Amelia, a model and freelance writer with a sizable Instagram following, wore a black shift dress and a hat rimmed with ostrich feathers. Marina, who announced her engagement over the summer, arrived without her fiancé, Nico Macauley. They were joined by their older brother, Edward, Lord Downpatrick, who is the heir to the Dukedom of Kent and currently owns a travel company.
During Tuesday’s Requiem Mass, William and Kate also reunited with one of the bridesmaids at their April 2011 wedding: Margarita Armstrong-Jones, the granddaughter of Princess Margaret. She arrived with her father, the Earl of Snowdon, who currently serves as the president of the King’s Foundation, the charitable organization that Charles founded to help support young people in the early stages of their careers.
Though these wings of the family are further away from official royal work, they have all attended major royal events in the past, and their royal connections have helped them launch their careers. Margarita, Amelia, and Marina have all modeled for Tatler and share glimpses of their lives online. In her May 2023 cover story for the outlet, Margarita revealed that she is studying at Paris’s Haute École de Joaillerie, and that she has taken after her late grandfather, Antony Armstrong-Jones, as a photographer and jewelry maker. On her Instagram account, she shares photos of her handmade bracelets and necklaces.
The Earl of St. Andrews’s younger sister, Lady Helen Taylor, was joined by her husband, Timothy Taylor, and their four children, Columbus, Cassius, Eloise, and Estella. The Duke and Duchess of Kent’s youngest son Lord Nicholas Windsor, who is known for writing essays about the Catholic faith he shared with his mother, also attended the funeral with his sons, 18-year-old Albert and 16-year-old Leopold.
Because the Duke of Kent and his siblings lost their father at a young age, they were close to the late Queen Elizabeth II until the end of her life. Another one of their royal first cousins, Prince Richard, Duke of Gloucester, attended Tuesday’s funeral along with his wife, Birgitte, Duchess of Gloucester, and their daughter, Lady Rose Gilman.
Perhaps befitting the Duchess’s red-carpet appearances in the 1970s, the funeral mass was also attended by celebrities from a different era, including race car driver Jackie Stewart, actresses Rula Lenska and Dame Maureen Lipman from the long-running soap opera Coronation Street, and novelist and politician Jeffrey Archer, as well as his wife, Mary.
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