Duchess of Kent dies at 92: Royal who chose teaching over titles

Loved by the late Queen and the public, the Duchess of Kent gave up her royal duties to teach singing at a state school in Hull. Photo / Getty Images

When the Duke and Duchess of Sussex decided to step back from royal life in 2020, they would have done well to cast their minds back a couple of decades to a woman who had already trodden that difficult path.

In 1996, the Duchess of Kent – who died yesterday at the age of 92 – gave up her HRH title and royal duties after a long period of ill-health so that she could teach singing at a state school in Hull. The split came with the blessing of the Queen and the full support of the British public, proving break-ups can be amicable if they are handled well.

“There was no scandal at all when she stepped back – people thought it was a bit of a shame, but because she was such a gentle character they just accepted it,” says Ingrid Seward, a royal biographer and the editor-in-chief of Majesty Magazine. “The Queen was relaxed because she saw Kate Kent as being a truly good person who had gone through some well publicised problems; if this was going to make her happier, then it was the right thing.”

Equally, giving up royal duties to become a music teacher called Mrs Kent, is not all that similar to signing an array of multimillion-dollar entertainment deals in California and then going on the Oprah Winfrey Show to talk about how badly you have been treated.

Meghan Markle, the Duchess of Sussex, went on the Oprah Winfrey show to complain about her treatment by the royal family. Photo / Getty Images

“It’s chalk and cheese,” says Seward. “Kate just quietly faded into the background and I think that suited her very well. In fact, I couldn’t even begin to think of two more opposite people: Meghan is all about Meghan and Kate Kent was all about people other than herself.”

Telegraph associate editor Camilla Tominey, who interviewed the Duchess of Kent for the publication, adds that she had a post-royal career the family could be proud of, rather than one that caused them immeasurable distress.

“The Queen really admired her sense of duty,” says Tominey. “The trouble with Meghan is that she would want a Netflix show following her around a school in Hull, whereas the Duchess of Kent was very discreet.”

From Camilla Tominey’s 2022 interview with the Duchess of Kent

Over the years, Katharine has been much misunderstood, amid false suggestions that she relinquished her royal duties in 2002 because she was a recluse, suffering from agoraphobia. The reality could not be further from the truth, as she explains the real story behind her dispensing with plaque unveilings and tree plantings, to spend 13 years teaching music at Wansbeck Primary School in Hull instead.

“I was just known as Mrs Kent,” she says, having clearly relished the anonymity of it all.

“Only the head knew who I was. The parents didn’t know and the pupils didn’t know. No one ever noticed. There was no publicity about it at all – it just seemed to work.

“Why I don’t know, but it just did. I taught children from the youngest possible age right until the end of primary school.

“I took them out into the town of Hull. I had a little choir and they sang in the hospital. A lot of the children came from single-parent families and very deprived areas. It was very, very rewarding because even children from really tough backgrounds – the music did such wonderful things. It really did. They would get up and sing solos. I don’t remember a child ever saying they didn’t want to do their music.”

Not unlike Meghan, the Duchess of Kent was, at the time of her marriage, seen as a beautiful, stylish addition to the family, and a novelty within the institution. To modern ears, the Duchess of Kent – an upper-class girl from a well-off family in Yorkshire – sounds eminently suitable, but in the 1960s, there was a bit of a kerfuffle about the fact she was the first non-titled royal bride since the Tudors – and allegedly not her future mother-in-law’s first choice.

She was, however, adored by her husband and went on to have a large, glamorous wedding in York Minster in 1961. It was the first royal wedding to be held in the cathedral since 1328 and was televised and viewed by eight million people.

The Duke and Duchess of Kent moved to Hong Kong soon after the birth of their first baby – a posting she apparently adored. While there, they lived an ordinary army officer’s life in a three-bedroom flat on the Peak. Later, they played a vital supporting role to the Queen (the Duke of Kent was her first cousin) by attending independence ceremonies across Africa and the Caribbean.

Harry and Meghan, similarly, went on a royal tour to Australia and New Zealand months after their marriage – it was the height of Meghan Mania and the New York Times described the couple as “young, diverse and exuding cool, the new faces of royalty”.

The Duchess of Kent at Witkoppen School in South Africa. Photo / PA Images

But according to biographer Tina Brown, Meghan didn’t enjoy any of it. “So Meghan must have been thrilled with it all ... right? No,” she wrote in her book Palace Papers. “She apparently hated every second of it. She found the itinerary of engagements “pointless”.

On the other hand, the Duchess of Kent radiated warmth – even if her apparent ease in public did not come naturally.

“I think in her heart she was still a country girl and it didn’t come naturally going on royal tours,” says Seward. “I think she would rather have been back in Yorkshire – but she did it all with a smile and never made any fuss.”

The Duchess admitted as much in an interview with the Telegraph in 1997, saying: “I can’t tell you what a lot of nerve it takes sometimes to walk into a room. I don’t think I have ever felt extremely confident. It would probably be awful if I did, because I might do what I was required to do extremely badly.”

The Duchess dedicated her life to charity work, notably as a patron of the Not Forgotten Association, where she supported veterans. Photo / Popperfoto

The Duchess of Kent was no stranger to mental health issues and understood all too well the difficulties that being in the limelight can cause. In 1975, she caught measles and was advised to terminate her fourth pregnancy (at this point she already had three healthy children) for medical reasons. Two years after that, she became pregnant again but tragically had a stillbirth at 36 weeks. Later, she intimated that both events haunted and changed her as a person – and were part of the reason for her ultimate conversion to Catholicism.

“The miscarriages and the depression and the lost baby must have really taken a toll,” says Seward. “I don’t know if she enjoyed being a royal – she was very close to her father and she wanted him to be proud of her, but when she’d had enough she’d had enough and was brave enough to follow her own path.”

One could say the same for Meghan, who lost a pregnancy of her own in 2020, between the births of Archie and Lilibet – but where the Duchess of Sussex turned her pain into fury at the Queen, William and Kate, the courtiers and the whole British public, the Duchess of Kent appeared to look outwards and discovered that helping others brought her the peace and meaning she had been searching for.

Her kindness was even apparent at Wimbledon, when she famously flouted decorum to offer Jana Novotná a shoulder to cry on after she lost to Steffi Graf in 1993. Later, in a bold move that Meghan would no doubt approve of, but which caused some consternation at the time, she brought the 12-year-old son of the murdered headmaster Philip Lawrence into the royal box with her.

Czech tennis player Jana Novotna (1968-2017) is consoled by British Royal Katharine, Duchess of Kent after losing the women's singles final at the 1993 Wimbledon Championships. Photo / Getty Images

“I always remember Diana saying she thought the Duchess of Kent was one of the members of the royal family who truly cared about others – not because of duty or for appearances’ sake, but because she really wanted to help,” says Seward.

And while the Duchess of Sussex would argue that she too has helped in her way (anyone who yearns to know more about crudités platters and edible flowers must have found her work invaluable), most of her projects have ended up being more about Meghan than anything or anyone else.

"She blended in with the Duke and never stood out for her own sake," royal biographer Ingrid Seward says about the Duchess of Kent. Photo / Tim Graham Photo Library

The crux of it, perhaps, was that for all her glamour and beauty, and for all the riches and sadnesses that sat side by side in her life, the Duchess of Kent remained unpretentious and unassuming to the end.

“Kate was very good looking and beautifully dressed but she never showed off,” says Seward, “There was nothing showy about her – later additions to the Royal family all made mistakes, but because she really, really cared about the projects she undertook, and because she blended in with the Duke and never stood out for her own sake, she never really put a foot wrong.”

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