The Princess of Wales has not been seen publicly since the Order of the Garter service two Mondays ago. I was surprised, at the time, that she attended the Garter service, just as I was surprised when she pulled out of attending Ascot two days later, giving no concrete reason for her withdrawal. Ever since Waity-Ascotgate (or “The Ascot Unkeening of 2025” perhaps), we’ve heard various explanations from various royal sources, everything from “she’s lucky to have survived her health problems last year and it will take years for her to recover” to “she didn’t feel like going to Ascot on a hot day.” We also heard that Kate would have zero events this week but she would almost definitely make it to Wimbledon. Lies, lies and more lies! It turns out, Kate did have an event this week – a private meeting, alongside William, with Melinda French Gates.
Kate Middleton returned to work behind closed doors after her absence at Royal Ascot last week made waves. On June 25, Princess Kate and Prince William received Melinda French Gates at Windsor Castle, according to The Court Circular, the British royal family’s official record of previous engagements.
The couple represented The Royal Foundation at the meeting. The Royal Foundation is the umbrella for Prince William and Princess Kate’s charitable endeavors and vehicle for their philanthropy in the fields of early years, mental health and more.
Melinda, 60, is an American billionaire philanthropist, the founder of Pivotal Ventures and co-founder of the Gates Foundation. Pivotal Ventures is a group of organizations working to accelerate the pace of social progress, especially for women, in the U.S. and around the world, while the Gates Foundation (which Melinda co-founded with her ex-husband, Bill Gates, and left in 2024) fights poverty, disease, and inequity globally.
Pivotal Ventures recently teamed up with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s charity the Archewell Foundation in October 2024, supporting a partnership with the Oprah Winfrey Charitable Foundation to offer digital wellness programming for young women in underserved communities across the U.S.
The Prince and Princess of Wales’ meeting with Melinda didn’t take them far from their home at Adelaide Cottage. William and Kate, both 43, live on the grounds of Windsor with their children, Prince George, 11, Princess Charlotte, 10, and Prince Louis, 7.
I still wonder why Melinda left the Gates Foundation – I know she wanted a clean slate in all ways after her divorce, but the Gates Foundation honestly does some amazing work and Melinda was a huge part of that. Bill even said that Melinda leaving the foundation was one of the worst parts of the divorce, and he seemed legitimately sad that they wouldn’t even collaborate on charitable work anymore. Melinda has used her divorce settlement to set up her own independent foundation, and I assume that this was purely about William and Kate begging for donations for their foundation. I hope Melinda saw straight through them – their foundation is a mess and they’re only giving out a tiny fraction of what they bring in. Anyway, it’s good that Kate was able to leave the house for this meeting.
Photos courtesy of Cover Images, Avalon Red.
