'GEORGE FINDS IT FASCINATING'

Celebrating St Patrick’s Day with the Irish Guards, the Princess of Wales reveals her desire to travel with her children

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With a smile that said she was glad to be back, the Princess of Wales was in the mood to celebrate as she joined the Irish Guards for their annual St Patrick’s Day Parade.

Taking part for the first time since 2023, their royal colonel cheerfully handed out shamrocks to guardsmen and officers, also putting money behind the bar for them to enjoy a drink afterwards. “It’s the least I could do,” she said.

The Princess, who wore a bottle-green Alexander McQueen coat and matching hat by Lock & Co, with a gold shamrock brooch of the Irish Guards pinned above her own sprig of shamrock, later sipped from a half-pint of Guinness as Guardsman Barry Loughlin raised a toast to her, leading the room in three cheers.

She then spent time chatting to soldiers and their loved ones in the dining hall at Wellington Barracks, a stone’s throw from Buckingham Palace.

Barry said of the Princess: “She wanted to find out how everything’s going. She’s really nice in that respect; she doesn’t just disappear. She’s warm and you feel welcomed by her.”

FAMILY TRAVEL PLANS

In the Sergeants’ Mess, Kate opened up about family life in Windsor and her wish to travel more with her children, Prince George, 11, Princess Charlotte, nine, and six-year-old Prince Louis.

She told Corporal Adam Hamilton, an Australian reservist: “George finds it fascinating that he has been to Australia and New Zealand [he accompanied his parents on a royal tour when he was nine months old, in 2014].