As Wimbledon is in full swing, many famous faces have flocked to Centre Court's royal box. Kate Middleton, who is a huge tennis fan as well as being patron of the All England Lawn Tennis Club, is a regular in the box.
However, one year she was stopped from attending the tournament - despite her pleas to be allowed to go - and missed a huge British win, writes The Mirror.
The Duchess of Cambridge missed Andy Murray making it to the men's final in 2013 and was gunning to become the first British man to win the Grand Slam since Fred Perry in 1936. Kate it seems was eager to be at Wimbledon to cheer him on but was heavily pregnant with Prince George at the time, so was advised to watch the match from home.
She told sports host Sue Barker on the BBC documentary Our Wimbledon: "I was very heavily pregnant with George so I wasn't able to turn up." Sue replied: "But you had a great excuse!"
"I know but even still," Kate said. "I was sort of 'Maybe I could go' but the doctors were like 'no.' I wrote to [Andy Murray] afterwards saying sorry for not being there, but huge congratulations."
However, luckily three years later when Murray made the final again, Kate was able to be there to see him lift his second Wimbledon title.
She attended the final with husband Prince William and couldn't contain her emotions when he served up a win.
Meeting Murray after his match, Kate said: "Many congratulations, it was a great game." While William said: "So pleased for you, well done", and Kate added: "You can relax with your family now."
Meanwhile two years ago, Kate referred to Murray as one of her sporting heroes during a call to schoolchildren.
As the championship was cancelled due to the pandemic, the duchess dropped in with a video call to school children, quizzing them on their sports training before revealing she had her pal waiting on the line.
Cheekily giving a handful of clues to leave children in no doubt as to who was coming, she told them: “I've got a very important person here that's going to come and join us, that would love to meet you guys and might be able to share some tennis tips as well with you" before introducing the Wimbledon winner.
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