Kate Middleton once publicly left the royal box at Wimbledon for a very sweet reason

Wimbledon is officially back, and the second week of the historic tournament is well underway.

What can we expect? Shock knock outs, Andy Murray shutting down sexist questions, plenty of Pimm's and of course a lot of royal appearances.

The royal family are known to be Wimbledon fans, with the Princess of Wales, patron of All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, often watching from the Royal Box. And she's rarely alone, regularly joined by husband Prince William, sister Pippa Middleton and on a couple of occasions, sister-in-law Meghan Markle.

This week was no exception, seeing the Princess of Wales make her first Wimbledon appearance of the year alongside good friend Roger Federer.

But it's not the Princess' presence that's making headlines this year but rather sweet anecdotes of her past visits, with one in particular that saw Kate publicly leave the royal box going viral.

While Kate was expected to watch from the Royal Box during her appearance at the tournament back in 2019, which she did for a lot of the day, the then Duchess dashed out with pals Katie Boulter and Anne Keothavong to catch a match on court 14, surprising fans.

Kate’s surprise visit to the small court was to support Harriet Dart, a Brit player, then 24, who was competing against USA’s Christina McHale.

The three women were all smiles as they cheered on Harriet, who won the match, beating Christina 4-6, 6-4, 6-4, to get through to the second round of Wimbledon.

Harriet was reportedly only told that she was in the presence of royalty at the coin toss, when the chair umpire gave her a heads up.

And her thoughts on the matter? "I mean, it’s pretty surreal. Any of you had the Duchess watch you guys play?"

This is lovely.

We’re sure having the Princess of Wales’ support was a big help!