06/09/2025
The royal family has announced that the Duchess of Kent has passed away, aged 92, Buckingham Palace has confirmed.
Katharine, Duchess of Kent, the wife of Prince Edward, Duke of Kent, was the oldest living member of the royal family since Queen Elizabeth II’s death in 2022.
“It is with deep sorrow that Buckingham Palace announces the death of Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Kent,” a royal spokesman said in a statement.
“Her Royal Highness passed away peacefully last night at Kensington Palace, surrounded by her family.
“The King and Queen and all Members of The Royal Family join The Duke of Kent, his children and grandchildren in mourning their loss and remembering fondly The Duchess’s life-long devotion to all the organisations with which she was associated, her passion for music and her empathy for young people.”
Born as Katharine Worsley, from an aristocratic land-owning family in Yorkshire, the duchess became part of the Royal Family in 1961 when she married the Duke of Kent, a grandson of King George V.
In later years, she stepped back from using her royal HRH title and spent more time working to improve music education for young people.
As Katharine Kent, or Mrs Kent, she lived something of a double life, working from the mid-1990s as a part-time music teacher at Wansbeck Primary School in Kingston upon Hull, without parents or pupils knowing about her royal background.
