During my state visit in London – as my royalty friend Bobby called it – I intended to visit a few exhibitions and meet with a few people. Unfortunately the royals themselves managed to organize their many engagements around my visit, so there wasn’t much going on. I missed the visit of Queen Letizia of Spain and the Prince of Wales to an exhibition opening on Wednesday evening 13 March, as I was only arriving the next morning. I was actually at the Queen’s Gallery nextdoor when the Prince of Wales held an investiture. And on Saturday evening 16 March I was having dinner when I read on my Twitter that the Duke of Sussex would arrive shortly at the Royal Albert Hall, just opposite of Hyde Park. It wouldn’t have made any sense anymore hurrying and I was pretty tired anyway.
With only one hour to go in London before departure to the airport on Sunday 17 March I had never thought of seeing any royals anymore during my visit. I spent my last time in London at Kensington Gardens, a logical place as my hotel was not even 10 minutes away from Kensington Palace on foot. As the shop only opened at 10am I hung around taking pictures. It was thus a bit of a shock when shortly before the palace opened I suddenly saw a lady with a stroller, and two young children on their bikes, accompanied by a few security people nearby. They passed me at really short distance. I had a second look before I could believe my eyes, as it were the royal nanny Maria Teresa Turrion Borrallo and the three children of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge: Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis.
I was totally excited seeing them for the first time in my life. I wonder how many people actually noticed they were passing, as I didn’t see many people looking at all. As I had my camera around my neck, my first reaction was to take pictures. I believe that to be a very logical reaction for lots of royalty-watchers and royalty-journalists, even when royals are probably not always happy about it. In the end I did, only after they had passed me, but as I already thought the two pictures I had were awfully bad and unsharp and to be honest I am not even unhappy about that. The royal court can be relieved as even if they had been good I would never have thought of publishing them anyway and I hope people following me will respect that decision. They’re just kids and I believe they should be left alone. As a journalist I really hate to see paparazzi photos of royal and celebrity children outside the public events. Let the kids be kids, as one of my Twitter followers put it. There will be times when they will long for times without cameras around.
I however send a tweet out shortly after it happened.
When you walk around Kensington Gardens before departure and you see the nanny with all three kids.
— NettyRoyal (@nettyroyal) March 17, 2019
I think none of my previous tweets ever attracted so much likes (426 thus far) and quite a few reactions. When I was looking for royal news this morning I noticed even the British magazine Hello picked up my simple tweet and made it into a short online story. It would have been nice tough if they had written my name without white space and I am not just a “twitter user” either.
Links to articles mentioning my tweet:
IB Times mentions: “The Twitter user also claimed to have seen Prince Louis being pushed by Borrallo in a pushchair. Prince George and Princess Charlotte also raced each other in their bicycles.”
People knowing me I know my royals and never claim anything. By the way I didn’t say they raced each other in their bicycles.
Thanks for the story. Thanks even more for allowing the royal children their privacy.
I think everybody should consider that royals and celebs have a private life that we don’t need to know about. Nothing wrong with saying you saw someone, but publishing photos all over the place, without permission is a few steps too far for me.
I also wish to thank you for not publishing the photos (whatever quality they might be). Unfortunately there are a lot of people who would have sold them to the highest bidder. This has put you on my ”must” follow list.
I saw the Queen yesterday. I don’t have any pictures, I’m respecting her privacy. 😜😕
Wat een verrassing dat je de kinderen onverwachts zag!