Last Friday, Kensington Palace released a video and a message from the Princess of Wales. The big announcement was that on September 15th – aka Prince Harry’s 42nd birthday – Kate had a tea party at Windsor Castle for a group of people who had completed the Three Peaks Challenge. Kate allegedly completed the challenge earlier this year as well, but having a tea party about it on her estranged brother-in-law’s birthday was an extremely odd choice. When I covered the video on Friday, I even mentioned that the china spread out at the tea party looked lovely, and I wished we knew more about the china pattern rather than Kate mumbling about mountains. Well, here’s a hilarious update: this whole fakakta tea party was basically a promotion for Windsor Castle’s porcelain line.
Princess Kate gave fans a glimpse at a secret tea party she recently held at Windsor Castle, sharing an Instagram Reel and some sweet photos on Friday, September 25. The Princess of Wales, who completed the National Three Peaks Challenge this summer, welcomed some fellow mountain climbers to the castle, and one touching detail of their party was steeped in royal history.
Kate climbed the three highest peaks in England, Scotland and Wales to raise money for the Royal Marsden Hospital, where she was treated for cancer in 2024, and during her castle gathering, she heard why others chose to take on the challenge. As they sipped tea and ate pastries, participants used some very special china.
The Princess of Wales used a teapot, plates, cups and saucers inspired by the Queen Mother’s botanical porcelain collection. The late royal’s original pieces were made around 1750 by Chelsea Porcelain, England’s first porcelain factory, but the ones Kate chose for the tea party are available for sale from Buckingham Palace’s online shop.
I wondered aloud on Friday if Kate had been the one who picked out which china to use for her event, so this is something, right? They don’t let her use the real, historic pieces from all of their antique collections. Instead, they used Windsor Castle’s own merchandised china, which can be purchased in person or online. Here’s the link to the full Chelsea Porcelain line on sale, a line “closely derived” from the botanical pieces acquired by the Queen Mum. Someone said this is QVC royalty and it really is!! I can just picture it, Kate being tasked with holding up various gift-shop tchotchkes on Instagram. The real “Kate Effect.”
Photos courtesy of the Waleses’ Instagram.
