For many tennis fans, the Duchess of Kent will forever be associated with Wimbledon. For more than three decades, she was the familiar face presenting trophies to the champions on Centre Court, becoming one of the tournament’s most recognisable royal figures.
Although the Duchess of Kent – who preferred to be known simply as Katharine Kent in later life – died in 2025, her connection with Wimbledon remains one of the defining aspects of her remarkable public life. Yet despite her deep affection for the Championships, her relationship with the All England Club was not always straightforward.
Alongside her husband, the Duke of Kent, Katharine began presenting Wimbledon trophies in 1969. It was a role she continued until 2001, long after she had stepped back from official royal duties. The final champion to receive a trophy from her was Venus Williams following her victory that year.
The Duke of Kent continued the tradition until his own retirement from the role in 2021, when the responsibility passed to the Princess of Wales as Patron of the All England Lawn Tennis Club.
One of Katharine’s most memorable moments came during the 1993 Ladies’ Singles final. After Jana Novotná suffered a heartbreaking defeat to Steffi Graf, the devastated Czech player burst into tears during the trophy presentation. The Duchess instinctively embraced and comforted her, creating one of the most iconic and compassionate moments in Wimbledon’s history.
Her commitment to the Championships was equally evident on another occasion when she insisted on presenting the trophies despite wearing a plaster cast on her foot.
Away from Centre Court, the Duchess also quietly used her position to help others. After learning that Martina Navratilova’s family had been unable to leave communist Czechoslovakia to watch her daughter compete, Katharine helped secure a visa for the tennis star’s mother so she could finally attend Wimbledon.
Despite her popularity among players and spectators alike, the Duchess’s relationship with the tournament’s organisers became strained in 1999.
Katharine had hoped to invite the 12-year-old son of murdered headteacher Philip Lawrence to Wimbledon as a special treat. Lawrence had been fatally stabbed outside his London school while protecting one of his pupils from an attack, and the Duchess wanted to offer his son a day to remember.
However, the Chairman of the All England Club, John Curry, reportedly informed her that only royal children were permitted to sit in the Royal Box. Although he later apologised for the tone of his response, the club refused to make an exception.
The incident deeply upset the Duchess and prompted widespread reports that she intended to boycott Wimbledon. Friends later insisted that was never truly the case.
One friend explained: “It’s simply not her style. She goes there every year, often sitting with friends in the cheap seats where no one notices her.”
Indeed, although she largely disappeared from public life, Katharine occasionally returned to the Championships. In 2017 she made a surprise appearance in the Royal Box—the first for many years—and attended again on several subsequent occasions.
In a rare television interview with the BBC in 2018, she reflected warmly on her lifelong affection for the tournament.
“I think it is truly the best thing in the world; the atmosphere is electric,” she said.
Recalling the experience of walking onto Centre Court, she added: “I was so frightened about going onto Centre Court. Even just walking into the Royal Box is absolutely incredible. You are so close – that is amazing.”
Following her retirement from public duties, Katharine largely withdrew from royal life, preferring to be known simply as Katharine Kent rather than by her royal title. She devoted much of her later life to music and education, teaching at a state primary school in Kensington and working with children, including pupils affected by the Grenfell Tower tragedy.
While she will always be remembered for her compassion towards Jana Novotná, the Duchess of Kent’s Wimbledon story was about far more than presenting trophies. Her warmth, humility and genuine love of the Championships ensured she became one of the tournament’s most cherished royal patrons, even if her relationship with the All England Club was, at times, a complicated one.
