Princess Kate attends hidden royal engagement after pulling out of Royal Ascot
It was over a week ago that the Princess of Wales pulled out of attending Royal Ascot - but now it has emerged that she has quietly returned to work
The Princess of Wales has quietly returned to work after pulling out of Royal Ascot. Confusion was sparked last week when it was announced that Kate, who is in remission from cancer, would not be attending the second day of the horse racing festival.
It came after her name originally appeared on the official list of those taking part in a carriage procession alongside her husband Prince William as well as the King and Queen. When it was confirmed that she would not be attending, sources said she is still trying to find the right balance following her cancer diagnosis and subsequent chemotherapy treatment.
And although she has not appeared in public since then, it has emerged that she has carried out an engagement behind closed doors. According to the Court Circular, the record of official royal engagements, she and William met with philanthropist Melinda French Gates, the former wife of Microsoft billionaire Bill Gates, at Windsor Castle yesterday.
Ms French Gates is the owner of Pivotal Ventures, a company that aims to promote female power and influence and also is the co-founder of the Gates Foundation. No photos from the meeting have been released.
The meeting came after William had held an investiture ceremony yesterday where among those receiving their awards were the former England manager Sir Gareth Southgate, who picked up his knighthood.
It comes after a royal source reiterated that Kensington Palace has consistently stressed the need for 'flexibility' around the Princess of Wales ' public engagements.
They added that the princess completed three engagements in the week leading up to Royal Ascot, attending the new V&A East Storeroom exhibition space in London, the King's official birthday celebrations at Trooping the Colour and Garter Day in Windsor.
It is not clear when the princess took the decision not to join the royals at the races, but fans had been hoping to see Kate as William was one of the figures awarding prizes during the second day of the meeting.
She was named among the guests joining King Charles and Queen Camilla in the traditional carriage procession, but a revised list was quickly issued after Kensington Palace confirmed she would not be attending.
Kate announced in January she was now in remission and focussed on healing, while the King is still undergoing weekly treatment for the disease. Before she made her first public appearance after her diagnosis at Trooping the Colour last year, she revealed how she was "taking each day as it comes".
Speaking at the time, she said: "As anyone going through chemotherapy will know, there are good days and bad days. I am learning how to be patient, especially with uncertainty."
In September when her chemotherapy treatment ended, Kate described in an emotional video message how the previous nine months had been "incredibly tough for us as a family" and "doing what I can to stay cancer-free is now my focus". William later said in a separate interview that 2024 had been a 'brutal' year.
The princess' measured return to royal duties was welcomed by Queen Elizabeth II's former communications secretary Ailsa Anderson. Speaking before Kate's withdrawal from Royal Ascot, she told People magazine: "She's being sensible, listening to what her body is telling her and easing back into public life."
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Guardian
4 hours ago
- The Guardian
Group of high-profile authors sue Microsoft over use of their books in AI training
A group of authors has accused Microsoft of using nearly 200,000 pirated books to create an artificial intelligence model, the latest allegation in the long legal fight over copyrighted works between creative professionals and technology companies. Kai Bird, Jia Tolentino, Daniel Okrent and several others alleged that Microsoft used pirated digital versions of their books to teach its Megatron AI to respond to human prompts. Their lawsuit, filed in New York federal court on Tuesday, is one of several high-stakes cases brought by authors, news outlets and other copyright holders against tech companies including Meta Platforms, Anthropic and Microsoft-backed OpenAI over alleged misuse of their material in AI training. The authors requested a court order blocking Microsoft's infringement and statutory damages of up to $150,000 for each work that Microsoft allegedly misused. Generative artificial intelligence products like Megatron produce text, music, images and videos in response to users' prompts. To create these models, software engineers amass enormous databases of media to program the AI to produce similar output. The writers alleged in the complaint that Microsoft used a collection of nearly 200,000 pirated books to train Megatron, an AI product that gives text responses to user prompts. The complaint said Microsoft used the pirated dataset to create a 'computer model that is not only built on the work of thousands of creators and authors, but also built to generate a wide range of expression that mimics the syntax, voice, and themes of the copyrighted works on which it was trained'. Spokespeople for Microsoft did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the lawsuit. An attorney for the authors declined to comment. The complaint against Microsoft came a day after a California federal judge ruled that Anthropic made fair use under US copyright law of authors' material to train its AI systems but may still be liable for pirating their books. It was the first US decision on the legality of using copyrighted materials without permission for generative AI training. The day the complaint against Microsoft was filed, a California judge ruled in favor of Meta in a similar dispute over the use of copyrighted books used to train its AI models, though he attributed his ruling more to the plaintiffs' poor arguments than the strength of the tech giant's defense. Tech companies have argued that they make fair use of copyrighted material to create new, transformative content, and that being forced to pay copyright holders for their work could hamstring the burgeoning AI industry. Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, said that the creation of ChatGPT would have been 'impossible' without the use of copyrighted works.
The Guardian
13 hours ago
- The Guardian
Group of high-profile authors sue Microsoft over use of their books in AI training
A group of authors has accused Microsoft of using nearly 200,000 pirated books to create an artificial intelligence model, the latest allegation in the long legal fight over copyrighted works between creative professionals and technology companies. Kai Bird, Jia Tolentino, Daniel Okrent and several others alleged that Microsoft used pirated digital versions of their books to teach its Megatron AI to respond to human prompts. Their lawsuit, filed in New York federal court on Tuesday, is one of several high-stakes cases brought by authors, news outlets and other copyright holders against tech companies including Meta Platforms, Anthropic and Microsoft-backed OpenAI over alleged misuse of their material in AI training. The authors requested a court order blocking Microsoft's infringement and statutory damages of up to $150,000 for each work that Microsoft allegedly misused. Generative artificial intelligence products like Megatron produce text, music, images and videos in response to users' prompts. To create these models, software engineers amass enormous databases of media to program the AI to produce similar output. The writers alleged in the complaint that Microsoft used a collection of nearly 200,000 pirated books to train Megatron, an AI product that gives text responses to user prompts. The complaint said Microsoft used the pirated dataset to create a 'computer model that is not only built on the work of thousands of creators and authors, but also built to generate a wide range of expression that mimics the syntax, voice, and themes of the copyrighted works on which it was trained'. Spokespeople for Microsoft did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the lawsuit. An attorney for the authors declined to comment. The complaint against Microsoft came a day after a California federal judge ruled that Anthropic made fair use under US copyright law of authors' material to train its AI systems but may still be liable for pirating their books. It was the first US decision on the legality of using copyrighted materials without permission for generative AI training. The day the complaint against Microsoft was filed, a California judge ruled in favor of Meta in a similar dispute over the use of copyrighted books used to train its AI models, though he attributed his ruling more to the plaintiffs' poor arguments than the strength of the tech giant's defense. Tech companies have argued that they make fair use of copyrighted material to create new, transformative content, and that being forced to pay copyright holders for their work could hamstring the burgeoning AI industry. Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, said that the creation of ChatGPT would have been 'impossible' without the use of copyrighted works.
Daily Mirror
14 hours ago
- Daily Mirror
Princess Kate attends hidden royal engagement after pulling out of Royal Ascot
It was over a week ago that the Princess of Wales pulled out of attending Royal Ascot - but now it has emerged that she has quietly returned to work The Princess of Wales has quietly returned to work after pulling out of Royal Ascot. Confusion was sparked last week when it was announced that Kate, who is in remission from cancer, would not be attending the second day of the horse racing festival. It came after her name originally appeared on the official list of those taking part in a carriage procession alongside her husband Prince William as well as the King and Queen. When it was confirmed that she would not be attending, sources said she is still trying to find the right balance following her cancer diagnosis and subsequent chemotherapy treatment. And although she has not appeared in public since then, it has emerged that she has carried out an engagement behind closed doors. According to the Court Circular, the record of official royal engagements, she and William met with philanthropist Melinda French Gates, the former wife of Microsoft billionaire Bill Gates, at Windsor Castle yesterday. Ms French Gates is the owner of Pivotal Ventures, a company that aims to promote female power and influence and also is the co-founder of the Gates Foundation. No photos from the meeting have been released. The meeting came after William had held an investiture ceremony yesterday where among those receiving their awards were the former England manager Sir Gareth Southgate, who picked up his knighthood. It comes after a royal source reiterated that Kensington Palace has consistently stressed the need for 'flexibility' around the Princess of Wales ' public engagements. They added that the princess completed three engagements in the week leading up to Royal Ascot, attending the new V&A East Storeroom exhibition space in London, the King's official birthday celebrations at Trooping the Colour and Garter Day in Windsor. It is not clear when the princess took the decision not to join the royals at the races, but fans had been hoping to see Kate as William was one of the figures awarding prizes during the second day of the meeting. She was named among the guests joining King Charles and Queen Camilla in the traditional carriage procession, but a revised list was quickly issued after Kensington Palace confirmed she would not be attending. Kate announced in January she was now in remission and focussed on healing, while the King is still undergoing weekly treatment for the disease. Before she made her first public appearance after her diagnosis at Trooping the Colour last year, she revealed how she was "taking each day as it comes". Speaking at the time, she said: "As anyone going through chemotherapy will know, there are good days and bad days. I am learning how to be patient, especially with uncertainty." In September when her chemotherapy treatment ended, Kate described in an emotional video message how the previous nine months had been "incredibly tough for us as a family" and "doing what I can to stay cancer-free is now my focus". William later said in a separate interview that 2024 had been a 'brutal' year. The princess' measured return to royal duties was welcomed by Queen Elizabeth II's former communications secretary Ailsa Anderson. Speaking before Kate's withdrawal from Royal Ascot, she told People magazine: "She's being sensible, listening to what her body is telling her and easing back into public life."
