Princess Kate’s Awkward Moment in Front of Jill Biden

During their time in the White House the Bidens have had a number of brushes with members of the British royal family, whether it be at Buckingham Palace receptions celebrating the coronation or meetings of the G7.

Each of these meetings has run with military (and royal) precision, apart from one notable joint engagement where Jill Biden was present during a particularly awkward interaction between Princess Kate and members of the press.

Biden and Kate took on a rare joint appearance in June 2021 while the first lady was visiting Britain with the president who was attending the G7 summit in Cornwall, England.

Prior to a reception attended by Queen Elizabeth II, King Charles III, Queen Camilla (when Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall) and Prince William and Kate, the princess and first lady visited a school to learn about early years education.

During their visit, the high-profile pair sat around with experts, teachers and pupils to discuss education. Biden has many years as a teacher of English, while Kate has worked for a number of years raising awareness of the importance of early years development in children.

After a roundtable discussion about education, a member of the press presented Kate with a potentially awkward question noting that the engagement came just a week after the birth of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s daughter, Princess Lilibet, asking if she had any comment.

Lilibet was born in California just one year after Harry and Meghan moved to the U.S. with their son Prince Archie, citing issues with the royal family, royal aides and tabloid press as motivation. The couple announced they were expecting their second child in February 2021 just weeks before their bombshell interview with Oprah Winfrey aired.

In the interview, the couple made a number of sensational claims, most notably that an unnamed member of the royal family had made racially insensitive comments about the skin color of their future children. Harry later claimed that he and Meghan had not called the royal a “racist”, but that the comments were an example of “unconscious bias.”

The interview drew a wave of anti-racist backlash against the monarchy and additional backlash toward Kate who Meghan told Winfrey had been the one to make her cry before her 2018 wedding, not the other way around as the press had reported.

William and Kate did not discuss the interview publicly, though when asked if the royal family was “racist” at a school visit soon after the interview, the prince responded: “We are very much not a racist family.”

News coverage of the deterioration of William and Kate’s relationship with Harry and Meghan dominated royal news coverage in the aftermath of the interview’s broadcast.

When Harry and Meghan announced on June 6 that they had welcomed a baby daughter named Lilibet Diana (in honor of Elizabeth and Harry’s mother Princess Diana) two days earlier, attention turned toward the British royals to see how they would react.

William and Kate issued a statement reading: “We are all delighted by the happy news of the arrival of baby Lili. Congratulations to Harry, Meghan and Archie.”

Kate was again prompted to respond to the news in front of Jill Biden.

“Your Royal highness, do you have any wishes for your new niece, Lilibet?” an American journalist asked at the education roundtable.

To this, Kate issued a short but warm response, saying: “Oh, I wish her all the very best. I can’t wait to meet her because we haven’t yet, met her yet, so hopefully that will be soon.”

The princess appeared to be finished with her response, but was quickly asked a follow-up question.

“Have you FaceTimed her yet?” the journalist asked, to which Kate responded: “No, I haven’t. No.”

At that point aides brought the questioning to a close.

After the G7 meeting, Kate and Jill Biden were photographed together marking two major historic royal events.

The first was at a Buckingham Palace reception held the day before Elizabeth’s state funeral in September 2022. And the second was at a reception held on the evening before Charles and Camilla’s coronation in May 2023.

Kate and the first lady were photographed with Olena Zelenska, the first lady of Ukraine who also attended the coronation events.

James Crawford-Smith is Newsweek‘s royal reporter, based in London. You can find him on X (formerly Twitter) at @jrcrawfordsmith and read his stories on Newsweek‘s The Royals Facebook page.

Do you have a question about Charles and Queen Camilla, William and Kate, Meghan and Harry, or their family that you would like our experienced royal correspondents to answer? Email royals@newsweek.com. We’d love to hear from you.