Kate Middleton Makes Solo Debut With Queen, Camilla
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Samir Hussein/WireImage(LONDON) — Kate Middleton continued her coming-out tour in a historic way Thursday, stepping out with the queen and Camilla for tea at luxury London department store Fortnum & Mason.
The three generations of royals arrived at the 305-year-old store together in the queen’s Bentley to celebrate London’s Piccadilly shopping district, including the reopening of Fortnum & Mason’s restaurant, renamed The Diamond Jubilee Tea Station in honor of the queen’s 60 years on the throne.
The visit made history as it was the first time Middleton, 30, joined the queen for an engagement without her husband, Prince William, who is away on a six-week tour of duty in the Falkland Islands.
The Duchess of Cambridge, her mother-in-law and grandmother-in-law joined 150 of the store’s staff members at a tea party and were presented with Fortnum’s famous “hampers,” or baskets, stocked full of treats for them and their mutual affection, dogs.
The tea stop is the first of four visits the 85-year-old queen has personally invited Middleton to attend as she embarks on her Diamond Jubilee Tour celebrating her 60 year anniversary.
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