Princess Kate hosts special tea party at Windsor Castle as she shares new message.TA
The Princess of Wales has said that “recovery is rarely a journey we make alone”.
The Princess of Wales hosted a special tea party at Windsor Castle last week (Image: Getty)
The Princess of Wales hosted a tea party at Windsor Castle for fellow Three Peaks Challenge finishers, including a nine-year-old amputee and a runner who became the fastest person to complete the endurance challenge while running between each peak.
Catherine, who climbed the tallest peaks in Wales, Scotland and England in less than 24 hours in June, invited some of the people she met during her own climb for an intimate chat over tea and cake. A video of the special afternoon was shared by Kensington Palace, accompanied by a personal message from the princess in which she said that the challenge was a “powerful reminder that recovery is rarely a journey we make alone”.
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The 30-second video showed Catherine, who wore a maroon belted dress with her long hair in mermaid waves, chatting with the nine guests in one of the state rooms of the Berkshire royal residence.
Those invited for tea and cake included 11-year-old Ted Haslam, whom Catherine met several times during her challenge. Ted completed the Three Peaks Challenge while being pushed and carried in his wheelchair by his father, Pete, and 15 family members and friends, raising money for the children’s charity Molly Ollys.
Princess Kate posed for a photo with her guests (Image: Kensington Palace/Andrew Parsons)
The Princess of Wales hosted the tea party last week (Image: Kensington Palace)
Also invited was Shaun McCormick, whom The Princess met at the beginning of her challenge this summer. Shaun was part of a group raising money for his friend’s nephew, who had been diagnosed with cancer.
Catherine said in a message accompanying the video: “It was a pleasure to welcome other Three Peaks Challenge participants and their families to Windsor Castle. Behind every summit was a personal story of resilience, determination and hope.
“Listening to their experiences of the challenge and their reasons for taking it on was a powerful reminder that recovery is rarely a journey we make alone, and of the importance of the people who walk alongside us along the way. C.”
Other people invited to the celebratory tea party included Albie-Junior, nine, who completed the challenge this August in around 22 hours to raise money for his local football club. Albie-Junior was born without a fibula, and his foot was amputated when he was a toddler.
Trish Patterson also completed her mammoth Three Peaks Challenge just a few days after the Princess’s challenge this summer. She ran between each peak, and broke the existing record by nine hours and raised money for Mind Over Mountains, an organisation Catherine met earlier this year, in memory of her close friend.
The future Queen completed the challenge in the summer to “explore life beyond” her cancer diagnosis and to raise funds for the hospital that treated her for the disease. Catherine was diagnosed with an undisclosed form of cancer at the start of 2024, and in January 2026, she revealed she was in remission.
Earlier this month, the princess visited the Royal Marsden Cancer charity and said that completing the Three Peaks Challenge was a “small way” to give something back to the hospital which had treated her for cancer.
“This was my small way of being able to give back and say thank you,” she said while visiting the London hospital to hear how the funds she raised would be used to help the development of a new specialist Centre for Holistic Wellbeing and Recovery.
The princess added: “I had incredible care here and support from a huge team, and I’m really grateful on a personal level.”
Shocking moment migrant leaves child in the sea during horror Channel crossing
Shocking video footage showed a man carrying a child into the water, only to abandon the youngster
Migrant abandons child during Channel migrant crossing
This is the harrowing moment a migrant left an injured child and climbed onto a Channel dinghy as the stricken youngster was rescued.
Footage of the man carrying the terrified tot through the waves to a waiting taxi-boat emerged on the same day 781 people crossed. After a wave crashes into the small child near Berck, the migrant continues pushing towards the boat, which was already packed with asylum seekers.
A wave then carries the vessel into the pair, and the dazed child starts floating on top of the water. French lifeboat crews rushed through the water, lifting the shocked child onto a rescue paddleboard. But the man shockingly turns away and tries to climb onto the dinghy.
The bewildered child is then left sitting nearby, watching, as dozens of people flounder in the water, with others still trying to clamber onto the boat.
Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said: “This is a sickening and heartbreaking scene. A few weeks ago, I saw a similar embarkation myself, where the young male illegal immigrants pushed women and children off the boat.
“The needy are abandoned and young, often-violent men push their way to the front and enter the UK. Women have recently died during crossings on these boats in unexplained circumstances. This illegal immigration route must be completely ended.
“The French government is morally culpable for letting it happen on their beaches when they could easily stop it, as the Belgians have done. The charities supporting this wave of illegal immigration are equally guilty for what is happening, including for the deaths that have occurred.”
The man carries the child towards the dinghy (Image: NowherePhotographer)
The child, apparently unmoving, falls into the water (Image: NowherePhotographer)
Rescuers approach the child (Image: NowherePhotographer)
The child is taken away (Image: NowherePhotographer)
France’s Maritime Prefect for the Channel and the North Sea said the child had been taken into care after the incident on Monday afternoon.
The organisation said: “The gendarmerie and the fire service subsequently took charge of the child, and the prefecture’s land-based services then took over. The child was taken into care following a medical incident.”
The astonishing moment came as 781 people crossed the Channel – a record number for this year.
It will heap pressure on ministers as they desperately try to convince people the borders are secure.
Some 18,565 people have crossed the Channel this year, down 42% on the equivalent point last year.
New analysis has revealed the number of migrants to have crossed the Channel under Labour is greater than the number of full-time soldiers in the British Army.
Some 83,279 people have arrived in small boats, overtaking the 83,000 in the Army.
An average of 103 people per day have crossed the Channel in the 809 days since Labour won the keys to Downing Street.
Mr Philp said: “Labour has let an entire Army-sized population cross the Channel illegally.
“More people have arrived in small boats than we have soldiers defending Britain. That is completely bonkers. Labour has lost control of our borders and seems utterly incapable of getting it back.
“The Conservative plan is to end hotels and benefits for illegal immigrants and instead deport them.”
The dinghy packed with migrants (Image: NowherePhotographer)
But Labour’s Lucy Powell, the Education Secretary, sensationally claimed that Border Force cannot intercept every single migrant crossing.
The Home Secretary, Shabana Mahmood, launched an “urgent review” as officials confirmed at least 21 asylum seekers arrived in Samphire Hoe on Tuesday.
Others are feared to be on the run, with the Home Office carrying out a “thorough investigation”.
And at least five migrants were detected at The Warren, a rocky stretch of coast near Folkestone, on Monday. The crossings were the first unauthorised landings in a year
Zia Yusuf, Reform’s Home Affairs spokesman, said: “This is an abject surrender of our borders by Lucy Powell and Labour. Every migrant boat can and should be intercepted, but this government is too gutless to deploy the Royal Navy and protect the British public from this invasion of undocumented fighting-age men.”
Mr Yusuf added: “It’s abundantly clear that this government will not stop the invasion of unvetted fighting-age males into our country.
“Instead, they are incentivising them with lavish police motorcades to their taxpayer-funded hotels, all while the British public struggles to afford to live in our own country.
“Labour’s promise to smash the gangs is in complete tatters. Without withdrawing from the ECHR and deploying the Royal Navy, the boats will keep on coming, and Brits will continue being forced to foot the bill for these invaders.”
Ms Powell echoed that language on Thursday but suggested not all crossings could be prevented.
Asked on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme if the situation was embarrassing for the Government, she responded: “(You) can’t stop everything all of the time.
“Of course, it’s a concern. That’s why the Home Secretary has demanded and ordered this urgent review, because this is not what we want to see. This is not acceptable.
“But the overall picture is an improving picture. It is hard, difficult work that requires constant, constant effort by our border forces, our security services, police, our partnerships with France and other countries.
“This is a mammoth and huge task, which is now starting to reap some dividends. But of course, you know where there are still issues arising, we must absolutely tackle them.”
Pressed on Good Morning Britain whether she stood by her statement, Ms Powell said: “I think you’re just taking that completely out of context.
“We are clamping down on small boat crossings every single day… we are sucking the oxygen out of it, we are taking steps, and there are many, many steps.
“It’s not an easy thing to do to just turn on a switch, turn off a switch overnight. We have to constantly evolve.”
A Government spokesperson said: “Our progress this year in tackling small boats is indisputable – with crossings down by 42% and the lowest recorded over the summer months since 2020.
“But this week’s events show that while the peaks we are seeing are far below those of previous years, we need to push further and harder in order to eradicate this vile trade.”
