Queen Elizabeth makes first appearance since Harry and Meghan interview

LONDON - Britain's Queen Elizabeth has made her first appearance since a tell-all interview by grandson Prince Harry and his wife Meghan rocked the monarchy, but made no reference to the crisis it had caused her family.

During the Oprah Winfrey interview, Meghan said a member of the royal family had made a racist comment and Harry criticized his relatives for how they dealt with press treatment of his wife, with the fallout dominating the British media since it aired last Sunday.

On Thursday, Harry's elder brother Prince William told reporters "we're very much not a racist family", the day after the 94-year-old monarch herself issued a statement on behalf of the royals in which she said they were saddened by how challenging the couple had found the last few years.

The Sun newspaper, citing an unnamed source, said Harry's father, heir-to-the-throne Prince Charles, had wanted to issue a point by point rebuttal, but the royal family had decided not to get involved in a 'tit for tat' battle.

In a video call with scientists and schoolchildren to mark British Science Week, the queen did not refer to the interview at all, the royals' usual approach to what they have said was a private, family matter.

Instead she discussed the latest updates from NASA's Mars Perseverance mission, as well as the discovery of a rare meteorite which landed in Gloucestershire, western England last month, the first to be recovered in the United Kingdom for 30 years.

"I’m glad it didn't hit anyone," the queen quipped during the "virtual showcase", which took place on Wednesday although details were only released by Buckingham Palace on Friday.

When told by space scientist and broadcaster Maggie Aderin-Pocock that she had been inspired to follow her career by the exploits of Russian Yuri Gagarin, the first human in space in 1961, Elizabeth, who has reigned for 69 years, recounted that she had met him shortly afterwards at Buckingham Palace.

Asked what he was like, she replied: "Russian, he didn't speak English. He was fascinating and I suppose being the first one, it was particularly fascinating." 

(Reporting by Michael Holden; Editing by Kate Holton)

-reuters

Year of trials and tribulations for Britain's royals

LONDON, United Kingdom — It was a year of trials and tribulations for Britain's royals that Queen Elizabeth II called "quite bumpy" in her Christmas Day message.

Here are some of the scandals and misfortunes to have troubled Britain's 93-year-old monarch.

The ailing prince

The year began with the queen's husband Prince Philip overturning his Land Rover after crashing it into an oncoming car.


It ended with the 98-year-old undergoing hospital treatment for what Buckingham Palace described as a "pre-existing condition".

The January accident left a woman with a broken wrist and the prince "shocked and shaken", according to a witness.

The prince was forced to undergo a routine breath test — which he passed.

He blamed the accident on glare from the winter sun and was soon seen driving around the private grounds of one of the royal mansions, but later voluntarily surrendered his driving licence.

Yet time has taken its toll on the queen's companion of 72 years.

He retired from public life in 2017 and had a hip replacement operation the following year.

"Once you get to that age things don't work as well," his son Charles told a reporter on Monday.

The 'favourite son'

The queen's children and grandchildren have frequently been caught up in mischief, but few of their problems have approached the one now facing Prince Andrew — the man often referred to as the queen's "favourite son".

Andrew was dogged throughout the year by allegations that he had sex with one of the victims of US paedophile Jeffrey Epstein when she was a teenager.

Andrew's attempts to clear his name in a BBC interview in November could have hardly gone worse.

The prince looked stiff and unapologetic — a performance akin to "watching a man in quicksand", according to PR consultant Mark Borkowski.

Andrew's lines of defence included a bizarre claim that he never sweated — his accuser said he perspired profusely - and that he only stayed at Epstein's home because it was the "honourable" thing to do.

"There is concern in Buckingham Palace," a royal source told The Sunday Times after the interview was aired.

The prince promised to "step back from public duties" a few days later.

The bickering grandchildren

Princess Diana's sons William and Harry found comfort in each other following their mother's death in a 1997 Paris car crash.

But the two princes found themselves dragged into a tabloid scandal involving rumours of a growing rift.

Prince Harry admitted in October that the two were "certainly on different paths".

"Inevitably stuff happens," he said in an ITV interview that was treated as a sensational revelation by some of the newspapers.

Both Harry and his American actress wife Meghan Markle spoke about their struggles living in the public eye.

Harry took legal action against two newspapers over the alleged illegal interception of voicemail messages around the same time.

Meghan filed a separate lawsuit against a paper that published excerpts of letters her estranged father had sent to her.

The Brexit mess

The bitter divisions over Britain's future that have accompanied its exit from the European Union have also given the queen some grief.

She became embroiled in the saga after she approved the suspension of parliament requested by Prime Minister Boris Johnson in August, amid accusations he was trying to stop lawmakers discussing Brexit.

The Supreme Court subsequently ruled that Johnson's request was unlawful as it stopped parliament from carrying out its duties.

The queen herself holds only symbolic power — in practice she has to follow the advice of her ministers.

But the BBC's royal correspondent Jonny Dymond called it "a hideous moment for the palace".

source: philstar.com

William and Kate show off royal baby boy

LONDON - Britain's Prince William and his wife Kate gave the world its first glimpse of their newborn baby son on Tuesday, cradling the future king in their arms as they left hospital to go home.

The Duchess of Cambridge told the massed international media that it had been a "very emotional" experience, while the duke said that they were still working on a name for the third-in-line to the throne.

The baby raised a tiny hand above his white blankets but remained quiet and peaceful, despite cheers from well-wishers and shouts of hundreds of photographers outside St. Mary's Hospital in London.

The baby was born at 4:24 p.m. (1524 GMT) on Monday after at least 10 hours of labor, weighing a healthy eight pounds six ounces (3.8 kilograms), ending weeks of anticipation around the globe.

Kate, wearing a loose-fitting cornflower-blue dress, held the baby as the royal couple emerged from the front door of the hospital's private Lindo Wing, before passing him to her husband.

"He's got a good pair of lungs on him, that's for sure," 31-year-old William -- the son of Prince Charles and the late Princess Diana -- told the press.

"It's a special time," added Kate, also 31. "I think any new parent would know what this feeling feels like."

After speaking briefly to the press, William and Kate returned to the hospital before re-emerging minutes later with their son in a car seat.

William secured the seat in the back of a black Range Rover parked outside the hospital, before driving his family back to their home at Kensington Palace.

Kate's sister Pippa was reportedly waiting for them at the palace.

First visitors

The couple had earlier received their first visitors with heir to the throne Prince Charles and Kate's parents Michael and Carole Middleton -- all first-time grandparents -- turning up at the hospital.

Congratulations have poured in from around the globe for the baby, a great-grandchild of Queen Elizabeth II, who will one day reign over Britain and 15 other Commonwealth realms around the world.

The baby remains officially nameless, although bookmakers have picked George and James -- traditional names that hark back to previous kings -- as favorites.

To mark the birth, the Royal Artillery fired a 41-gun salute at London's Green Park and 62 rounds were fired at the Tower of London. Bells at the 11th century Westminster Abbey, where the couple married in April 2011, rang out for more than three hours.

By mid-afternoon, Kate was well enough for a visit from her parents, self-made millionaires who run a party supplies business. They arrived in a humble black London taxi and initially looked bewildered by the sheer scale of the international media presence.

"He's absolutely beautiful. They're both doing very well and we're so thrilled," a beaming Carole Middleton told the media when she had recovered her bearings.

Asked if she would reveal the name or had made any suggestions, Kate’s mother laughed and said: "Absolutely not."

Charles arrived around two hours later with his wife Camilla in a chauffeur-driven limousine.

"Marvelous, thank you very much, absolutely wonderful," said Charles, who earlier in the day had been on a tour of Yorkshire in northern England.

"I'm thrilled and very excited," Charles said during his official visit in Yorkshire.

His second wife, Camilla, spoke of a "wonderfully uplifting moment for the country", adding that Charles would make a "brilliant" grandfather.

Wrapped in the flag

Hordes of TV crews, photographers and royal fans wrapped in British flags had camped outside the hospital for three weeks waiting for the baby, testament to the enduring appeal of the British monarchy and particularly the glamorous William and Kate.

At Buckingham Palace, crowds straining for a glimpse of the official birth announcement on a gold easel in the forecourt were treated to a special edition of the Changing the Guard ceremony.

The Queen's Guards, resplendent in red tunics and bearskin hats, performed Cliff Richard's "Congratulations", to cheers from well-wishers and tourists outside the gates.

The baby will be titled His Royal Highness, Prince (name) of Cambridge -- the blank to be filled in when his name is announced.

William's name was not announced for a week, while the world had to wait a whole month when Charles was born in 1948.

William and Kate did not know the sex of their child until he was born, although the duchess reportedly told a soldier at a St. Patrick's Day parade in March: "I'd like to have a boy and William would like a girl."

It is the first time since 1894 that three direct heirs to the throne have been alive at the same time, and the 87-year-old queen said she was "delighted" at the birth of her third great-grandchild.

William and Kate are hugely popular and have been widely credited with revitalizing the British royals following decades of scandal and the death of William's mother Diana in a car crash in 1997.

Support for the royal family dipped after Diana's death, a year after her divorce from Charles, as the royal family's handling of the aftermath prompted accusations that they were out of touch.

But last year's celebrations of Queen Elizabeth's 60th year on the throne showed support for the monarchy was running at a record high.

Witnessing history

Apart from the media, the event attracted hundreds of well-wishers from the public.

"We're here to witness history, where a future monarch has been born. I just can't wait to see them today," said Maria Scott, a housewife from Newcastle in northern England who had camped outside the hospital since Saturday.

More than 25,300 tweets a minute were sent immediately after news of the birth broke on Monday night, Twitter said, while the hashtag #RoyalBaby was used 900,000 times in the first 24 hours after Kate went into labour.

US President Barack Obama led the international messages of congratulations, which also poured in from Australia, New Zealand, Canada, France, Israel, Japan and Singapore.

The British mass-circulation newspaper the Sun temporarily renamed itself "The Son", and most newspapers issued special supplements.

William and Kate, who met when they were students at university in Scotland about 10 years ago, have officially been known as the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge since their wedding.

The couple, who have been living in a cottage in north Wales where William is based as a Royal Air Force helicopter pilot, will eventually take up residence with their baby at Apartment 1A in London's Kensington Palace, William's childhood home, when a 1 million pound ($1.5 million) refurbishment is completed later this year.

Royal experts said the new prince would now be taken out of the public glare.

"Having a baby is a very private moment, and they are a private couple, so the next time we see the baby will be the official photo, and that could be weeks," said Joe Little, managing editor of Majesty magazine. (Additional Reuters reports from Belinda Goldsmith, Peter Griffiths, Li-Mei Hoang, Stephen Addison and Dasha Afanasieva)

source: interaksyon.com

Filipino nurses assisted Kate Middleton in giving birth to the future king of Britain

LONDON--Filipino nurses were among those who assisted Kate Middleton in giving birth to a future king of the United Kingdom, Filipinos working at St. Mary's Hospital told InterAksyon.com on Tuesday morning in London.



A Filipina nurse who requested anonymity said that several Filipino "theatre nurses"--equivalent to nurses assigned to a hospital's operating room--had assisted in Middleton's childbirth on Monday at room 301 of the exclusive Lindo Wing of St. Mary's Hospital.


However, these nurses have been ordered to keep other details of the childbirth to themselves in light of keeping the privacy and security of the royal family.


About 300 Filipino nurses work at St. Mary's Hospital, according to the Filipina nurse interviewed by InterAksyon, adding that Filipinos are "dominant" in terms of number in the said hospital. She herself has been employed at St. Mary's Hospital's admission ward (akin to an accident emergency room) for 13 years now.


"Masaya kaming lahat na dito nanganak si Kate," the Filipina nurse said. (We're all so happy that Kate gave birth in this hospital.)



Besides nurses, the hospital also employs Filipino cleaners, porters, logistics personnel, ambulance service trainers, administrative staff, among others.

At least five other Filipinos working at St. Mary's Hospital said Filipino nurses were indeed assigned at Lindo Wing.




For Jonard Cartagena, an ambulance service trainer in St. Mary's Hospital, the publicity and worldwide attention brought by the royal baby's will definitely help boost sales of retailers of memorabilia and souvenirs that will ride on the event, as well as lure in more tourists.

"London is back in the map," said Cartagena, who has been working in the UK the past 26 years.

More than 200,000 Filipinos live and work in the UK and most of them is in and around London, the capital.

source: interaksyon.com

It's a baby boy for Prince William and wife Kate

LONDON - Prince William's wife Kate gave birth to a baby boy on Monday, providing Britain's royal family with a future king in an event that had been anticipated around the world, Kensington palace said.

Crowds cheered and rushed towards the gates of Buckingham Palace as it was announced that the Duchess of Cambridge had produced a male heir weighing 8 lbs 6 oz (3.8 kilos).

The baby will be third in line to the throne and in the direct line of succession after head of state Queen Elizabeth II's eldest son and heir Prince Charles, and then his eldest son William.

"Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Cambridge was safely delivered of a son at 4:24 p.m. (1524 GMT)," Kensington Palace said in a statement just over four hours afterwards.

"The baby weighs 8lbs 6oz. The Duke of Cambridge was present for the birth."

"Her Royal Highness and her child are both doing well and will remain in hospital overnight," said the statement from the Royal Household, which sidestepped tradition to announce the birth with a press release.

"The Queen, The Duke of Edinburgh, The Prince of Wales, The Duchess of Cornwall, Prince Harry and members of both families have been informed and are delighted with the news," it read.

The boy's name was not revealed, but he will be known as Prince of Cambridge.

The former Kate Middleton was admitted to the private Lindo Wing of St. Mary's Hospital, Paddington, central London, at around 6:00 a.m. in the midst of a summer thunderstorm.

The birth was later officially announced to great cheers on a golden easel placed in the forecourt of Buckingham Palace.

US President Barack Obama's spokesman had earlier said that he and the first family were "waiting with anticipation" for the birth and "wish the family and all of Great Britain well on this pending momentous occasion."

William, at his wife's bedside, has been on annual leave and will take two weeks' paternity leave from his military job as a Royal Air Force search and rescue pilot.

Both mother and son were "doing well" and will remain in hospital overnight while the queen was "delighted with the news", according to the palace.

The birth came later than widely expected, adding to the sense of anticipation that has built up ever since William, whose mother Diana died in a Paris car crash in 1997, and the former Kate Middleton married with huge fanfare in April 2011.

Bookmakers had largely backed a girl baby, after Kate had said they did not know its sex.

The fact that it is a boy relieves the need to rush through new succession laws across the 16 Commonwealth realms, which would mean that a girl could no longer be overtaken by any future younger brothers.

The royal couple used a back entrance to the hospital when they arrived at 6:00 a.m. (0500 GMT), missing the ranks of international media who have camped outside the hospital for three weeks.

The prince was born in the same hospital wing and media from across the globe are hoping for a repeat of the scene in 1982 when Charles and his first wife Diana brought out the baby to show him off to the world.

Royal fanatics gathering outside the hospital also took their excitement to a new level.

"I'm so excited. Like in a washing machine. Never been so high!" said John Loughrey, who has slept outside the hospital for seven nights, wrapped in a British flag.

The new arrival is Queen Elizabeth's third great-grandchild, and a first grandchild for Charles.

It ensures that there are three generations of heirs to the crown of the United Kingdom of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland -- a nuclear-armed UN Security Council permanent member and the world's sixth biggest economy.

The queen was seen arriving back at Buckingham Palace from Windsor Castle, just outside the capital, in mid-afternoon but other royals went about their usual business.

Charles, the current heir, was visiting York in northern England, where members of the public shouted "Congratulations!".

Smiling, he replied: "Do you know something I don't?"

Charles, who turns 65 in November, joked: "I'm very grateful indeed for the kind wishes for my rather slowly-approaching grandfatherhood."

Prime Minister David Cameron sent his best wishes to the couple and the "whole country is excited."

The pregnancy was announced in December when Kate was admitted to hospital with severe morning sickness.

At the Lindo Wing, a standard room and normal delivery -- which Kate is hoping for -- costs £4,965 ($7,600, 5,800 euros) for the first 24 hours, plus consultants' fees which can reach around £6,000.

The duchess is being tended by a top medical team led by the queen's gynecologist Alan Farthing and his predecessor Marcus Setchell, obstetrician Guy Thorpe-Beeston, and consultant neonatologist Sunit Godambe

On the pavement opposite the hospital entrance, around 30 presenters lined up in a row delivering live broadcasts and clips, with photographers and journalists filling out the scene.

There has been a betting frenzy on the name of the royal newborn with bookmakers favouring a George and James for the top boys' names. With a report from Belinda Goldsmith, Reuters

source: interaksyon.com

Last-minute bets pour in for British royal baby

LONDON - A flood of last-minute bets on Britain's royal baby poured in on Monday even as Prince William's wife Catherine was in hospital in labor.

Most of the money was going on the name of the third-in-line to the throne, with one bookie suspending betting on the subject.

"The money really is pouring in. We have taken about £30,000 ($45,000, 35,000 euros) in the last three hours. It's unbelievable," Rory Scott, a spokesman for Irish bookmakers Paddy Power, told AFP.

"The majority of that is on the name. We have suspended betting on the date."

Speculation that the baby is a girl, based on a misheard comment by Kate in March, means girls' names are most popular with the punters.

"There is a clear view that the baby will be a girl so there is lots of activity around girls' names," a spokeswoman for British betting firm William Hill told AFP.

"Alexandra and Charlotte are the most popular."

Other favored names are Diana, William's mother's name; Elizabeth, after the current queen; and Victoria, after Britain's longest reigning monarch.

Those who think the baby will be a boy have plumped for George and James.

James is the name of Kate's brother but George has been the favorite "from day one", say the bookies.

Bookies say they have taken more than £1 million in total on what they have called the biggest novelty (non-sporting) market of all time.

Bets have come in from around the world with one Austrian man placing £1,000 on a male baby.

Scott said the amount of money is "quite staggering" and compared to what would be placed on English football's FA Cup final.

"We have taken about £10,000 a day over the weekend," he said.

The most bets by volume have been on the name Diana but they have been smaller amounts of money and it has drifted out of the odds, he said.

The date itself seems nearly certain with firms suspending the betting on Monday now that the Duchess of Cambridge is in labor.

In the run-up it was an unpopular choice of day, though.

"The 17th was the most popular. Only five percent of the bets were placed on today -- today was an outsider," said the William Hill spokeswoman.

"Everyone seemed to think that the baby would come last week."

Even after the birth there will be no rest for the betting firms, with people now betting on Kate's sister putting in an appearance.

"We are running bets now on the colour of the dress Pippa will be wearing on her first visit to the hospital and how many times Pippa will run the media gauntlet, how many times she will enter in the hospital and who will be holding the baby on the steps. The current favourite is William," Scott said.

There are also bets on the godparents with "the usual suspects -- David Beckham, Prince Harry, and Pippa" among the favorites, said the William Hill spokeswoman.

And the betting bonanza could go on for years -- firms are already taking wagers on baby number two.

source: interaksyon.com

Britain's royal baby: a world obsession or media hype?

LONDON - As the world's media whips itself into a frenzy over Prince William and his wife Kate's baby, some bemused spectators are wondering if Britain's royal family really is that fascinating or just hype.

From breathless reports about the baby's due date to endless speculation about the name and manner of delivery, TV crews from around the world have been delivering almost hourly updates outside the London hospital where Kate is due to give birth.

But do audiences really share their enthusiasm about the birth of a child who will be third in line to the British throne, or are they, like Queen Elizabeth's cousin Margaret Rhodes, struggling to see what all the fuss is about.

"You know everybody has babies, and it's lovely, but I don't get wildly excited about it," Rhodes, 88, told CNN.

Recent opinion polls suggest she is not the only one who has not been transfixed by the daily press barrage or glued to some British newspapers' live web shots of the as-yet unbreached entrance to St Mary's Hospital in west London.

According to the Pew Research Center, only 25 percent of Americans surveyed last December when Kate's pregnancy was announced were very or fairly closely following the news.

Previous studies of interest in eight British royal stories dating back to 1986 - including William and Kate's sumptuous wedding in April 2011 - found 60 percent did not follow or were not closely following these events.

There was one exception. The 1997 death of William's mother Princess Diana in a car crash in Paris grabbed the attention of 85 percent of US respondents.

British cynicism

Even in Britain a YouGov poll this week found only 46 percent were very or fairly interested in the birth, which was less than in India, where 57 percent of those surveyed expressed an interest in the arrival of the new royal.

"In Britain there seems to be more cynicism to the royal family, whereas abroad, particularly in America, there is a more romantic imagining of what royal life is like," said Arianne Chernock, an expert on the history of monarchy at Boston University.

"It helps having a few very charismatic figures, but it has to do with the legacy of Britain and the power it had in the world in the 18th and 19th centuries."

Wei Zhang from Hong Kong Phoenix TV, camped outside St Mary's hospital, said there was huge interest in Hong Kong, a British colony until 1997, and in mainland China.

People back home, he told Reuters, wanted to see pictures and videos of "the royal family, everything about the royal family. The princes, the queen, everything".

Chernock said the media fuelled the fascination.

"We are seeing an amplification because of social media, the 24/7 news cycle and the fact there are so many media outlets now," she told Reuters.

Genuine affection

For citizens in countries such as Canada and Australia, two of the 16 realms of which the baby is destined to be the future king or queen, even those who want to get rid of the monarchy admit there is genuine affection and interest.

"The fact is most Australians have nothing but goodwill for the royal family in Britain," Australian Republican Movement national director David Morris told Reuters. "But that does not mean that we see them as ruling over us."

So why do people still care about the British royals, who wield no real power and whose position is largely ceremonial?

Part of the fascination stems from the triumph of a highly rated public relations team that over the last decade has rebranded a staid institution, aided by the emergence of media-savvy royals such as William and his younger brother Harry.

Interest was also boosted by the travails of the royal family in the 1990s, with the marriage breakdowns of three of the queen's children, most notably that of Prince Charles and Diana, which turned them into a celebrity soap opera.

"Twenty-one years ago, everyone talked about the soap opera of the British royal family in tragic and disastrous terms, and fair enough, it's all come good," royal historian Robert Lacey told Reuters.

"So if it was a soap opera then, all the more so now."

Carolyn Harris, a Canadian historian who specializes in European monarchies, said the constant attention creates a familiarity that in turn fans the appeal.

"Audiences worldwide feel as though they watched William and Harry grow up and mourned with them when Princess Diana died in 1997," she told Reuters.

Author Claudia Joseph, who has penned a biography of Kate, said the huge popularity of Diana and now Kate also helped.

"Everybody's been waiting for a royal princess to step into Diana's footsteps. William is immensely popular around the world because of being Diana's son as well as the way he carries himself," she told Reuters.

"People like a fairytale, and the idea you can come from nowhere and marry a prince." (Additional reporting by Belinda Goldsmith and Amritha John in London, and James Grubel in Canberra)

source: interaksyon.com

Italian magazine says Kate pics a 'scoop' they have to run

ROME - The editor of an Italian gossip magazine planning to print topless photographs of Prince William's wife Catherine said Saturday the pictures were "a scoop" he could not let pass.

"First of all, if I wasn't capable of recognizing the true value of a scoop I would do better to go and sell artichokes at the market," Alfonso Signorini, editor of the weekly magazine Chi, told the ANSA news agency.

"Secondly, and regarding the law, the photos do not harm the dignity of a person, they are not morbid or exciting -- unlike the ones of Prince Harry published by the English papers," he added.

Britain's top-selling daily The Sun broke ranks with the rest of the British press last month and defied royal orders by running photos of Prince Harry, William's younger brother, frolicking naked in a Las Vegas hotel suite.

A spokesman for William and Catherine on Saturday denounced the "greed" of an Irish Daily Star newspaper, which printed the papers on Saturday.

And the family has also warned Chi magazine that "unjustifiable upset" would be heaped upon Catherine if it went ahead with its plans to print the photos.

But Signorini argued that the paparazzi photos were taken on a terrace, in a public place, in conformity with the laws regarding private life.

The photos of Catherine, who was sunbathing at a private chateau in the south of France wearing just her bikini bottoms, appear to have been taken from a road some distance away using a long lens.

Chi magazine has already said it will devote 26 pages to the pictures in an edition coming out on Monday.

Both Chi and the French magazine Closer belong to the Mondadori Group which is owned by former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi -- himself no stranger to scandals involving revealing photos taken by paparazzi.

source: interaksyon.com

Prince William Kisses Lupo at Polo Match with Kate

Little Lupo went to a royal polo game in the Gloucestershire countryside Sunday – and got a cuddle and more from Prince William.

It was Kate who'd brought the couple's black cocker spaniel to the outing, just hours after she'd spent time with inner-city kids on a camping trip in Kent.

"In true spaniel fashion he was very playful," an observer tells PEOPLE.

And while he got some exercise by dashing around the sidelines with Kate, Lupo also got to rest his legs when he was embraced in the arms of William, – who planted a princely kiss on the pooch, to boot.

William and brother Prince Harry played on opposing sides at the Beaufort Polo Club, about 100 miles west of London, all to raise money for some of their charities.





Lupo wasn't the only one getting attention. Kate used the occasion to catch up with royal cousins-in-law and play with the Queen's great granddaughter, Savannah Phillips, the 18-month-old daughter of Peter Phillips and his wife Autumn.

"Kate was really getting into playing with Savannah," said the observer. "She seemed to be trying to get Savannah to stroke Lupo."

William and Harry's first cousin, Zara Phillips, and her husband, Mike Tindall, were also among the throng of royals who enjoyed a weekend of festivities to mark the Queen's official birthday celebration.

At the end of the match, William carried Lupo off the field and into a tent.

source: people.com