Kate Middleton Snubbed Queen’s Invitation To Represent Prince William At This Event

Kate Middleton rejected an invitation from Queen Elizabeth II over a decade ago.

The Duchess of Cambridge and Queen Elizabeth II just had their first joint engagement after seven years. Looking back, Middleton had rejected one invitation from the Queen before she married Prince William.

According to royal biographer Katie Nicholl, the Duchess of Cambridge received a personal invitation from Her Majesty to host a table at Royal Ascot in 2008. However, she politely declined because she “doesn’t want to be standing in for Prince William again and using her Royal status.”

A family friend told Nicholl that Middleton would have loved to join the Queen and host her own table, but she didn’t want to trigger the engagement rumors between her and Prince William.

“She knows that if she goes in William’s place as a guest of the Queen the engagement rumours will gather momentum and it’s not what she or William want,” the source told the royal expert.

“Kate’s also been advised to take a back seat publicity-wise, so she’ll only really step out in any sort of Royal capacity when she absolutely has to and when she’s with William.”

A month prior, Middleton represented the Duke of Cambridge at his cousin Peter Phillips’ wedding at Windsor Castle while he was in Africa attending the nuptials of his old flame Jecca Craig’s brother. The same source said that Middleton was “wary of being seen as William’s official stand-in.”

Although Prince William wasn’t able to join Middleton at his cousin’s wedding, she was with Prince Harry’s ex-girlfriend Chelsy Davy. In Nicholl’s 2017 book “Harry: Life Loss, and Love,” she said that Prince William and Prince Harry’s then girlfriends “stuck together like glue.“ They were keen to impress the monarch and it was their first time to join the royal family in such an important social occasion.

It was at that exact moment when Middleton met Her Majesty for the first time. The Duchess of Cambridge said during their engagement interview that Queen Elizabeth II was very friendly and their first encounter was “fine.”

Prince William chimed in during the interview that the monarch was very welcoming and it was very nice of her to come over and say hello to Middleton as she had wanted to meet her grandson’s girlfriend. The royal father of three said that they had a little chat and it went well, which only confused royal fans as they knew Prince William wasn’t present at the event.