Kate Middleton Chooses Timeless Pearls for Duchess of Kent’s Farewell

As the roy­al fam­i­ly gath­ered at West­min­ster Cathe­dral today to pay trib­ute to the late Katharine, Duchess of Kent, among the mourn­ers was Kate Mid­dle­ton and Prince William. The Prince and Princess of Wales were some of the last guests to arrive before the Duke of Kent and his fam­i­ly.

Our thoughts today are with The Duke of Kent and his fam­i­ly, par­tic­u­lar­ly George, Helen and Nicholas,” William and Kate wrote in a joint per­son­al state­ment fol­low­ing Katharine’s death. “The Duchess worked tire­less­ly to help oth­ers and sup­port­ed many caus­es, includ­ing through her love of music. She will be a much missed mem­ber of the fam­i­ly.”

For the funer­al, Kate chose pearl ear­rings and Queen Elizabeth’s four-strand pearl chok­er. The pearl chok­er was orig­i­nal­ly gift­ed to the Queen from Japan in the 1970s. She wore it often, and famous­ly lent it to Princess Diana for one of her first roy­al engage­ments. Kate wore the neck­lace to the funer­als of both Queen Eliz­a­beth and Prince Philip.

Dur­ing Queen Victoria’s reign, pearl jew­el­ry became linked with mourn­ing. After her hus­band Prince Albert died in 1861, Queen Vic­to­ria famous­ly only wore black and col­or­less jew­el­ry, espe­cial­ly pearls.

At the funer­al today, the first Catholic roy­al funer­al in mod­ern his­to­ry, the mass will be con­duct­ed by Car­di­nal Vin­cent Nichols, the Car­di­nal Arch­bish­op of West­min­ster, along­side Bish­op James Cur­ry, Aux­il­iary Bish­op of West­min­ster, and the Dean of Wind­sor. Fol­low­ing the ser­vice, the Duchess of Kent’s cof­fin will be tak­en by hearse to the Roy­al Bur­ial Ground at Frog­more, Wind­sor, where she will be laid to rest. Not in atten­dance were Queen Camil­la, who is sick, and Prince Edward, who is abroad rep­re­sent­ing the King.

The roy­al fam­i­ly has a busy week upcom­ing; tonight, Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump and First Lady Mela­nia Trump arrive in the Unit­ed King­dom to begin their sec­ond State Vis­it. Tomor­row morn­ing, the Prince and Princess of Wales will play a key role as they greet the Trumps at Wind­sor Cas­tle and accom­pa­ny them to meet King Charles and Queen Camil­la. On Thurs­day, Kate will join the First Lady at Frog­more Gar­dens for an engage­ment.