AAA<\/p>\n
Glasgow: They arrived at Australia\u2019s netball semi-final against Jamaica with little fanfare.<\/p>\n
But the Prince and Princess of Wales, along with their three children George, Charlotte and Louis ended Saturday, local time, having squeezed more Commonwealth Games action \u2013 and at more venues \u2013 in a single day than probably any spectator over the past 10 days.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
In fact, so much did they pack in to such a small amount of time that it would not surprise to discover they\u2019d used the same Tardis that King Charles and Queen Camilla<\/a> stepped out of at the Games\u2019 opening ceremony.<\/p>\n Though probably not by design, there was a distinct Australian flavour to the royals\u2019 whirlwind visit to Glasgow.<\/p>\n Arriving midway through the first quarter of the second netball semi-final of the day, they were there to see Australia make unwanted history by failing to reach a gold medal match for the first time at a Commonwealth Games.<\/p>\n The five royals sat among members of Team Scotland as they watched the netball, as well as representatives from other countries \u2013 including Commonwealth Games Australia board members and chef de mission Petria Thomas.<\/p>\n But there was no time to waste; Prince William, Princess Catherine (who use the titles of the Duke and Duchess of Rothesay while in Scotland) and the three children quickly headed over to the velodrome to watch some cycling.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n There are four venues at these Games: Glasgow International Arena (which holds the Chris Hoy velodrome and also staged gymnastics), the Tollcross International Swimming Centre, Scotstoun Stadium (where athletics are held) and the SEC, which includes the Hydro and is staging all the other events. While they aren\u2019t exactly far away from each other, they are certainly more than a hop, skip and a jump apart.<\/p>\n There was just as little fanfare when the royals arrived at the cycling. There, they watched more Aussies \u2013 much to the athletes\u2019 surprise.<\/p>\n Para cyclist Jessica Gallagher and pilot Jacqueline Mengler-Mohr picked up a silver medal in the tandem B 1000m time trial, their second of the week after they also won silver in the tandem B sprint, while the royals watched on \u2013 eschewing a corporate box to sit among the crowd.<\/p>\n \u201cOne of the downsides of being visually impaired is that I can\u2019t see in the stands, so I wouldn\u2019t have a clue who\u2019s down there,\u201d Gallagher said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe had Princess Anne in for our sprint day, so we just assumed they love tandem racing.\u201d<\/p>\n Prince Louis in particular seemed to enjoy the visit to the velodrome, where he was given a Team Wales hat.<\/p>\n Also up during the royal visit were Australia\u2019s bronze medallists in the men\u2019s tandem sprint, Kane Perris and pilot Luke Zaccaria, and the semi-finals of the men\u2019s sprint.<\/p>\n \u201cI had absolutely no idea,\u201d Perris said of the royal onlookers.<\/p>\n \u201cI heard on Thursday there was a royal in the audience as well, but I might have been a little bit more nervous, so I\u2019m almost glad that I didn\u2019t know. But hopefully, we put on a bit of a show with the tandem sprinting.\u201d<\/p>\n But their teammate Leigh Hoffman was less interested.<\/p>\n Related Article \u201cI\u2019ll be honest. I think, my girlfriend and her family, her mum is from Liverpool and loves her royal family a bit, so it would probably mean something to her,\u201d he said. \u201cBut to myself, we\u2019re a family of steelworkers, so, not really [meaningful].\u201d<\/p>\n Next up on the schedule was a trip back to the SEC to watch some judo. Again, there was an Australian connection as Saya Middleton took silver \u2013 and Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis got some Australian keepsakes.<\/p>\n Australia\u2019s Commonwealth Games chef de mission Thomas and her deputy, who were also in the crowd, gave each of the children Australian team pin.<\/p>\n \u201cI presented Princess Charlotte with a pin that featured Borobi, our team mascot,\u201d the Australian swimming great Thomas said.<\/p>\n \u201cThey all indicated they were enjoying their day at the Games, which was great to hear.\u201d<\/p>\n Australian judoka Middleton, on Games debut, didn\u2019t know the royals were there until afterwards.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd I was like, \u2018oh, that\u2019s crazy\u2019,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cHopefully, they\u2019re still hanging around and I\u2019ll be able to see them. But yeah, that was really cool to know that they were in the crowd.\u201d<\/p>\n Related Article There was no such luck for Middleton.<\/p>\n Also squeezed into the day was a visit with Welsh athletes at Wales House in the city centre, and a meeting with volunteers outside the Hydro.<\/p>\n There was one venue still in action that the family did not attend \u2013 Scotstoun Stadium for the final night of the athletics program. The Duke of Edinburgh, who had also been at the velodrome, was in the stands.<\/p>\n with AAP<\/p>\n Get around our Commonwealth Games coverage<\/p>\n Follow our coverage of the Commonwealth Games with live blogs covering every moment of the action from 6pm AEST daily.<\/p>\n News, results and expert analysis from the weekend of sport sent every Monday. Sign up for our Sport newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n Save<\/p>\n You have reached your maximum number of saved items.<\/p>\n Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n![\"Australian](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/31b9005215889faf6280438add83a18b146183dd.jpeg\")
Australian chef de mission gives Princess Charlotte a pin.Alamy Stock Photo<\/p>\n![\"Prince](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/3c600a67d58878d080ad15459eb9593dc59357a0.jpeg\")
Prince Louis and his new hat at the velodrome.PA via AP<\/p>\n![\"Calab](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/fcf0e2fe81acac618b24bdca3e9e7a0c51f04f97.jpeg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"There](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/ae9817243ece54b1ba9685f05be0a18129c8f9a8.jpeg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Billie](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1785519555_783_771df3bbae20b8426017cdcf34f4ff4b37abc633edbf1ceba0d895f6da94446a.png\")
Billie Eder<\/a> is a sports reporter at The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via X<\/a> or email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Updated August 2, 2026 \u2014 10:40am,first published August 2, 2026 \u2014 6:50am Save You have reached your maximum…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":839112,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[64,63,447,134],"class_list":["post-839111","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/839111","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=839111"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/839111\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/839112"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=839111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=839111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=839111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}