Kate Middleton Dazzles — And Gets a Surprise Wink from President Macron!

LUDOVIC MARIN/POOL/AFP via Get­tyFrance’s Pres­i­dent Emmanuel Macron winks at Kate Mid­dle­ton dur­ing a state ban­quet on July 8, 2025

Kate Mid­dle­ton and French Pres­i­dent Emmanuel Macron clinked glass­es dur­ing the state ban­quet at Wind­sor Cas­tle.

The star-stud­ded gala din­ner on July 8, held in hon­or of the first offi­cial French state vis­it in 17 years, saw Macron seat­ed between Princess Kate and King Charles. The 47-year-old politi­cian polite­ly helped to pull out the Princess of Wales’ chair and wait­ed for her to sit before tak­ing his own seat beside her.

Lat­er, cam­eras cap­tured Macron wink­ing at Princess Kate dur­ing a toast, a moment that was wide­ly cir­cu­lat­ed on social media in one of the most buzzed-about moments of the evening.

The warm ges­ture between Princess Kate and Pres­i­dent Macron began the moment he and his wife dis­em­barked their flight at RAF Northolt on Tues­day. The Prince and Princess of Wales greet­ed them on the tar­mac, and Macron met Kate with a kiss to her hand.

While the ges­ture may have raised some eye­brows, it is not actu­al­ly against roy­al pro­to­col. The roy­al family’s offi­cial web­site explains that there are no strict codes of con­duct for meet­ing roy­als.

There are no oblig­a­tory codes of behav­iour when meet­ing The Queen or a mem­ber of the Roy­al Fam­i­ly, but many peo­ple wish to observe the tra­di­tion­al forms. For men, this is a neck bow (from the head only) whilst women do a small curt­sy. Oth­er peo­ple pre­fer sim­ply to shake hands in the usu­al way,” the web­site states.

The state ban­quet seat­ing arrange­ments saw spous­es take their places across from each oth­er at the mas­sive table at Wind­sor Cas­tle. While King Charles, Pres­i­dent Macron and Princess Kate were seat­ed togeth­er on one side, Prince William, 43, sat next to Macron’s wife, Brigitte, 72, who was flanked on her oth­er side by Queen Camil­la, 77.

Oth­er famous faces at the din­ner includ­ed Mick Jag­ger, Elton John and his hus­band David Fur­nish, Kristin Scott-Thomas and U.K. Prime Min­is­ter Keir Starmer.

Yui Mok-Pool/Get­ty Kate Mid­dle­ton and French Pres­i­dent Emmanuel Macron toast dur­ing a state ban­quet on July 8, 2025

The King’s speech toast­ed the offi­cial vis­it, which was also the first by a Euro­pean Union polit­i­cal leader since Brex­it, with a unique detail about the night’s menu.

“This evening, we have drunk Eng­lish sparkling wine made by a French cham­pagne house. This would have been scarce­ly believ­able to at least some of our pre­de­ces­sors,” he said.

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Macron echoed the need for uni­ty between France and the U.K. in his own toast.

“On either side of the chan­nel, there is a con­stant reminder that we must nev­er low­er our guard,” he said.

Kate is star of the show in dark red silk for daz­zling state ban­quet return

The Princess of Wales made a daz­zling return to the state ban­quet cir­cuit, grac­ing Wind­sor Cas­tle’s St George’s Hall in a dark red silk cre­ponne Givenchy evening gown.

The choice of the French fash­ion house, with the gown designed by her wed­ding dress cre­ator Sarah Bur­ton, was a diplo­mat­ic nod to the King’s guests, French Pres­i­dent Emmanuel Macron and first lady Brigitte Macron

Join­ing the King, Queen Camil­la, and the Prince of Wales, Kate was among some 160 guests, includ­ing high-pro­file fig­ures such as Sir Mick Jag­ger and Sir Elton John, for the impres­sive occa­sion.

Kate, who was diag­nosed with can­cer in 2024 and con­firmed she was free from the dis­ease at the start of this year, last made an appear­ance at a grand roy­al din­ner 20 months ago in Novem­ber 2023 in hon­our of the South Kore­an pres­i­dent.

Her gath­ered evening gown fea­tured caped back detail­ing.

The princess, with her hair down, was also wear­ing her favourite Lover’s Knot tiara – a piece much loved by Diana, Princess of Wales.

Kate and her hus­band William were pic­tured smil­ing and gaz­ing at each oth­er as they arrived togeth­er, walk­ing side by side before the ban­quet at the cas­tle.

She car­ried a lily of the val­ley embroi­dered evening clutch and wore the Rosette of Grand Offici­er l’ordre nationale du merite, the Roy­al Fam­i­ly Orders of Charles III and Eliz­a­beth II, the Grand Cross of the Roy­al Vic­to­ri­an Order and GCVO sash and star.

Kate was ear­li­er shown smil­ing in the gar­dens of Wind­sor with William before the event, with Kens­ing­ton Palace’s social media declar­ing: “Ready for what promis­es to be a won­der­ful State Ban­quet this evening in Wind­sor.”

The prince was dressed in white tie, with the Most Noble Order of the Garter Sash with the Less­er George, minia­ture medals and a series of chest orders.

Last week, the princess opened up about her “roller­coast­er” can­cer recov­ery, its life-chang­ing impact and putting on a “brave face” dur­ing a vis­it to Colch­ester Hos­pi­tal

She was seat­ed next to Pres­i­dent Macron and the pair chat­ted ahead of the start of the King’s toast, while on her oth­er side was art his­to­ri­an Christophe Lerib­ault, chair­man of the Musee D’Orsay.

Kate stud­ied his­to­ry of art at uni­ver­si­ty.

Camil­la, mean­while, was dressed in an ivory silk and crepe embroi­dered evening gown by Fiona Clare, and a sap­phire and dia­mond tiara, neck­lace, ear­rings and bracelet, all part of Queen Eliz­a­beth II’s sap­phire suite.

The Queen was also wear­ing the Legion d’Honneur French sash, Garter Star and the King’s fam­i­ly order.

Mrs Macron wore a vivid blue caped evening gown with gold epaulettes-style detail on the shoul­der.

It was both William and Kate’s first time at a Wind­sor Cas­tle ban­quet, with the last one being staged there 11 years ago for the Irish Pres­i­dent Michael D Hig­gins in 2014

Ear­li­er, Kate car­ried out roy­al duties as the first French state vis­it to the UK for 17 years began, accom­pa­ny­ing the Macrons to Wind­sor with William, tak­ing part in the car­riage ride, the cer­e­mo­ni­al wel­come, the roy­al lun­cheon and Roy­al Col­lec­tion exhi­bi­tion.

The princess had already embraced French fash­ion, choos­ing Chris­t­ian Dior for her day­time engage­ments.

Her blush pink Dior jack­et was the 30 Mon­taigne Rose Des Vents Bar Jack­et and a piece from the 2024 col­lec­tion, and Kate paired it with a tulle skirt.

It was reimag­ined by Maria Grazia Chi­uri, who was inspired by the orig­i­nal first cre­at­ed in 1947 by Dior him­self.

Kate’s sleek hat was by Jess Col­lett.

The princess was charmed with a kiss to the hand by Mr Macron as she and William met the French leader as he dis­em­barked from his plane at RAF Northolt.

Mr Macron took the princess’s hand and leaned for­ward to deliv­er an air kiss towards

King and Macron toast ‘ever clos­er’ UK-France ties at state ban­quet

The King said rela­tions between the UK and France are grow­ing “ever clos­er” as he host­ed Emmanuel Macron at a lav­ish state ban­quet at Wind­sor Cas­tle.

The French pres­i­dent spoke of his con­fi­dence in ties between the coun­tries as the pair dined along­side mem­bers of the Roy­al Fam­i­ly and some 160 guests, includ­ing Sir Mick Jag­ger and Sir Elton John

Macron and wife Brigitte were ear­li­er greet­ed at RAF Northolt by the Prince and Princess of Wales to kick off their state vis­it, before meet­ing the King and Queen in Wind­sor, while Macron also gave a speech in Par­lia­ment.

The three-day vis­it is the first by a French pres­i­dent since 2008, and the first by a Euro­pean Union polit­i­cal leader since Brex­it.

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Start­ing his state ban­quet speech in French, the King wel­comed Macron before remark­ing that much has hap­pened since his own roy­al tour of France in 2023.

The UK and France “have stood ever clos­er since then”, he said.

King Charles spoke of the deep cul­tur­al, polit­i­cal and his­toric ties between the two nations before turn­ing to joint coop­er­a­tion in fac­ing cross-bor­der threats in an uncer­tain world of “ter­ror­ism, organ­ised crime and cyber­at­tacks”.