Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge visits the East Anglia's Children's Hospices (EACH) on January 24, 2017. Photo / Getty Images
Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge visits the East Anglia's Children's Hospices (EACH) on January 24, 2017. Photo / Getty Images
A woman who has worked closely with the Duchess of Cambridge has revealed what she is like behind closed doors.
Tracy Rennie, deputy chief executive and director of care at East Anglia Children Hospices, has been working with Kate since she became a patron of the hospices in 2012.
Speaking to the Daily Mirror's podcast "Pod Save the Queen", Rennie revealed what the duchess is truly like when the cameras are not rolling.
"It's been interesting because privately, she always came across extremely confident and caring, and she was able to talk to you really easily. You felt really comfortable with her," Rennie said.
"But seeing her grow publicly, so thinking back to that first speech, in front of the world, it was just phenomenal.
"She did brilliantly.
"Just recently she opened our Nook hospice, last November. The confidence publicly now just shines, but the private confidence and the way she is with people has been amazing since day one."
Tracy Rennie and the Duchess of Cambridge. Photo / East Anglia's Children's Hospices
The duchess visited the charity in November 2011, not long after she joined the royal family. She then called to say she wanted to be their patron.
"I had a phone call when I was having my lunch from a colleague who works at St James Palace just to say that the Duchess of Cambridge would like to come and visit the hospice, and would that be possible," Rennie recalled.
"After I had stopped choking on my lunch, I went 'oh blimey, yes, that would be brilliant'.
"At that point it was really exciting.
"That excitement has continued because right from those early contacts with her we've just had a really great experience of her being our royal patron for all sorts of different reasons.
"It's exciting and it's wonderful for the families as well," she added.
Rennie said the duchess "just connected really well with the staff, the volunteers and the families that she met".
She spoke highly of how much time the duchess puts into really getting to know the families in the hospices' care.
"We never underestimate the impact that she has when she speaks to family, and also when she speaks to staff and volunteers," she said.
"She really recognises how hard people work, and the stresses and strains on emotions of volunteers working with the charity as well."
The Duchess planted a tree during one of her visits. Photo / Getty Images
She revealed Kate conducts a number of private events to liaise with everyone at the charity, on top of the public visits everyone gets to see.
"It gives them more of an opportunity to have a more relaxed time, less pressured, to really understand what we do," she said.
"It's always more challenging when we have the media involved. We have to make sure we get everything completely right and it's always very strictly timed.
"It's okay on a private visit if things overrun a little bit more. But to fair, even in the public visits she absolutely will not cut short her time with the family if she's in the middle of a conversation.
"She's got a really good balance about it."
The woman who has worked with the duchess for a number of years said she takes particular delight in her time spent with children.
"What struck me is it wasn't just the children who are fully able. The children with some really profound disabilities of communication, she was equally confident."
She also says Kate has the ability to remember the names of the people she's only met once.
"Then when she came to open the Treehouse, the same chef had come down to Ipswich to help the team out that day," Rennie said.
"She recognised her from the previous visit, and went over and hello. She remembered.
"Then the same chef was working at the Nook for the opening in November. She saw her and she recognised her again.
"There was something for me in that, that's really special, and for that person being remembered. She meets thousands and thousands of people doesn't she, so just to remember that. That was amazing."
According to the hospice chief, Kate has offered her support to the charity during the coronavirus pandemic.
