{"id":25971,"date":"2025-09-10T13:45:53","date_gmt":"2025-09-10T12:45:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.franchiselocal.co.uk\/news\/?p=25971"},"modified":"2025-09-11T08:07:11","modified_gmt":"2025-09-11T07:07:11","slug":"duchess-of-kent-dies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.franchiselocal.co.uk\/news\/duchess-of-kent-dies\/","title":{"rendered":"Duchess of Kent Dies"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading Time: <\/span> 2<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>

Duchess of Kent has died aged 92, says<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>Buckingham Palace.<\/span><\/p>\n

Palace says duchess, who was married to late queen\u2019s cousin, \u2018passed <\/span>\u00a0<\/span>away peacefully surrounded by family\u2019<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

A MESSAGE FROM OUR FOUNDER DAVID FAIRMAN<\/b>\u00a0<\/b><\/h3>\n

Today I have heard the sad news from the Palace of the death of Duchess of\u00a0 Kent. I first met the Duchess when she was the guest of honour at the premier\u00a0 of my feature film \u201cLighthouse Hill\u201d that I produced and directed at the Empire\u00a0 Cinema in Leicester Square.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As we talked after the screening of the movie, I found her a really warm and\u00a0 engaging lady. Yes she was a real pleasure to talk to. She was a refreshing\u00a0 character, full of energy and enthusiasm. She had a strong interest in film and\u00a0 the arts and especially music. Her tireless charity work and her hands on\u00a0 teaching to children in London was extraordinary.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

She was a really great asset to The Royal Family and will certainly be sadly missed\u2026 <\/span>David Fairman\u00a0\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

And here are few details about the Duchess\u00a0\u00a0<\/b><\/h3>\n

The Duchess of Kent, the first Catholic convert in the royal family for centuries\u00a0 and who was known for presenting numerous Wimbledon trophies and\u00a0 consoling runners-up, has died aged 92..The duchess was married to the late\u00a0 queen\u2019s cousin the Duke of Kent but for decades led a separate life from him.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

She will be best remembered for a moment in 1993 when she put her arm\u00a0 around a distraught Jana Novotn\u00e1 after the Czech tennis player narrowly lost\u00a0 the Wimbledon women\u2019s singles final to Steffi Graf. Novotn\u00e1 cried on the\u00a0 duchess\u2019s shoulder after blowing a 4-1 lead in the third set.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

During the exchange the duchess, whose husband was president of the All\u00a0 England Club for more than 30 years, told Novotn\u00e1: \u201cI know you can do it. Five\u00a0 years later the duchess presented her with the winning trophy.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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The duchess, who preferred to be referred to as Katharine or Mrs Kent,\u00a0 dropped her HRH title when she stepped back from public life in 2002.<\/span><\/p>\n

The duchess was married to the late queen\u2019s cousin the Duke of Kent but for\u00a0 decades led a separate life from him.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

She went on to spend more than a decade teaching music in a state primary\u00a0 school in Hull. After visiting Wansbeck primary school in the city in 1996, she\u00a0 offered to help with music teaching and gave a weekly 40-minute lesson, as\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

well as working with its choir. She also taught part-time in a school in\u00a0 Hammersmith, west London, which was attended by some of the children who\u00a0 lived in Grenfell Tower.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

After retiring as a royal she also volunteered for Samaritans, toured countries\u00a0 as a Unicef ambassador and, in 2004, founded the charity Future Talent. The\u00a0 organisation works to breadown barriers and give children from low-income\u00a0 backgrounds equal opportunities to excel in music.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

After the death of Queen Elizabeth II in 2022, Katharine was the oldest\u00a0 member of the royal family.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Born Katharine Lucy Mary Worsley on 22 February 1933, the future duchess\u00a0 had an aristocratic upbringing as the only daughter of the landowner Col Sir\u00a0 William Worsley \u2013 a baronet \u2013 and Lady Worsley of Hovingham Hall, near York.<\/span><\/p>\n

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She married King George V\u2019s grandson Edward, Duke of Kent, labelled Steady\u00a0 Eddie by the royal family for his dependable service, in a grand ceremony in\u00a0 York Minster in 1961 and became known for her elegant style.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Duchess of Kent has died aged 92, says\u00a0Buckingham Palace. Palace says duchess, who was married to late queen\u2019s cousin, \u2018passed \u00a0away peacefully surrounded by family\u2019\u00a0 A MESSAGE FROM OUR FOUNDER DAVID FAIRMAN\u00a0 Today I have heard the sad news from the Palace of the death of Duchess of\u00a0 Kent. I first met the Duchess when […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":25972,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,1617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25971","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-computer-franchises","category-website-design-partnership"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.franchiselocal.co.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/unnamed.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.franchiselocal.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25971","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.franchiselocal.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.franchiselocal.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.franchiselocal.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.franchiselocal.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25971"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.franchiselocal.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25971\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.franchiselocal.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25972"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.franchiselocal.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.franchiselocal.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.franchiselocal.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}