Jill Biden is sharing her first impressions of Princess Kate, revealing in a new memoir that she found the future queen “instantly likable” and so “grounded” that she felt compelled to offer her a piece of personal advice.
In an excerpt from her upcoming memoir, “View From The East Wing,” Jill Biden, 74, looks back on a 2021 trip to the United Kingdom, when she accompanied her husband, then-President Joe Biden, now 83, to the G7 Summit.
The visit brought her face-to-face with some of Britain’s most famous figures, including Queen Elizabeth II and the Princess of Wales, and Biden recounts several of those encounters in vivid detail.
“Joe and I both looked forward to tea with Queen Elizabeth,” the former first lady started, explaining that before meeting the queen – who died in September 2022 – she and her husband received clear instructions about what topics to avoid.
“British protocol had advised us not to talk about family since her husband, Prince Philip, had died just a few months prior, at the age of 99,” she writes, according to an excerpt published by People.
“So I studiously did not ask the queen about her husband, or anything related to the royal family.”
Corgis and tea
The queen, however, quickly took the conversation in her own direction.
“As soon as we started speaking, though, she filled us in on her 11 great-grandchildren and the new one on the way,” Biden writes, adding that she was struck by how hands-on and personable the monarch seemed throughout the visit.
“I was amazed that she poured the tea herself and wanted to talk about foreign policy. She had two new Corgi puppies to help her through the hard times. One came in, and she gave him half a smoked salmon tea sandwich.”
She continued, “Her personal living room was filled with photograph after photograph of members of her family. There was nothing stiff or stuffy about the room, but it held a quiet elegance – much like the queen herself.”
Meeting with Princess Kate
While tea with the Queen made for a memorable visit, it was Biden’s interaction with Princess Kate that forms one of the most personal stories in the memoir.
Biden – a former teacher who holds a doctorate in education – met Kate during a visit to a primary school in Hayle, Cornwall, where they bonded over their shared interest in early childhood education.
“At every event we’d been at together, Kate and William were friendly,” Biden wrote of the Duchess of Cambridge, whose longstanding focus on early childhood development has shaped much of her public work.
“When Princess Kate and I cooed over rabbits at a primary school in West Cornwall, I found her instantly likable, very unassuming. She made me feel at ease. She seemed so grounded.”
Their conversation also led to a piece of advice Biden felt compelled to share.
“I encouraged her to keep a journal about her experiences,” Biden wrote. “She said she liked to draw and paint, but I said you can never have too many ways to privately express your feelings.”
Biden and Kate collaborate
The connection between the two women extended beyond that meeting in Cornwall.
Following the visit, Biden and Kate teamed up on a joint CNN opinion piece focused on the importance of early childhood development, an issue both have championed for years.
“If we care about how children perform at school, how they succeed in their careers when they are older, and about their lifelong mental and physical health, then we have to care about how we are nurturing their brains, their experiences and relationships in the early years before school,” Biden and the future queen wrote.
“The two of us believe that early childhood care and education should be seen as among the defining, strategic issues of our time. We could transform the prospects of an entire generation.”
Please let us know what you think about Jill Biden’s recollections of her meeting with Princess Kate!
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