{"id":265293,"date":"2026-02-03T09:41:15","date_gmt":"2026-02-03T09:41:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/265293\/"},"modified":"2026-02-03T09:41:15","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T09:41:15","slug":"duke-of-kent-and-the-duchess-of-edinburgh-greet-each-other-with-a-kiss-as-they-take-part-in-a-rare-joint-engagement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/265293\/","title":{"rendered":"Duke of Kent and the Duchess of Edinburgh greet each other with a kiss as they take part in a rare joint engagement"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Duke of Kent, who lost his wife, the Duchess of Kent, in September last year, is famous for his steadfast support of his first cousin Queen Elizabeth II. In a similar vein, the Duchess of Edinburgh has stepped up to take on an increasing number of royal duties to support <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tatler.com\/topic\/king-charles-iii\" isautogenerated=\"true\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">King Charles III<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tatler.com\/topic\/queen-camilla\" isautogenerated=\"true\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Queen Camilla<\/a>, particularly following the disgrace of Andrew Mountbatten-<a href=\"https:\/\/www.tatler.com\/topic\/windsor\" isautogenerated=\"true\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Windsor<\/a> (formerly <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tatler.com\/topic\/Prince-Andrew\" isautogenerated=\"true\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Prince Andrew<\/a>) and the departure of the Duke and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tatler.com\/topic\/duchess-of-sussex\" isautogenerated=\"true\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Duchess of Sussex<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Any family scandal was far from the minds of Sophie and Edward as they learned more about the work being done at the Surrey Space Centre, part of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tatler.com\/topic\/university\" isautogenerated=\"true\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">University<\/a> of Surrey, and recognised the University\u2019s multidisciplinary teaching and research across medicine and engineering.<\/p>\n<p>At the Space Centre, Their Royal Highnesses toured laboratories, met researchers, and viewed a student-designed pod which will be used to launch satellites into space. The Duchess also met medical students training together in collaborative teaching wards, before joining a virtual-reality anatomy session. The engagement was also a celebratory occasion as the Duke of Kent marks 50 years as Chancellor of the University.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Image may contain Prince Edward Duke of Kent Hugging Person Adult Face and Head\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"ResponsiveImageContainer-eNxvmU cfBbTk responsive-image__image\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/2258065457.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>The Duke of Kent and The Duchess of Edinburg greeted each other with a kiss at the Surrey Space Centre<\/p>\n<p>Jordan Pettitt &#8211; PA Images\/Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>The Duke of Kent and the Duchess of Edinburgh greeted each other with a warm kiss on the cheek and were spotted chatting happily and sharing jokes. Social media users were struck by how comfortable they looked in each other&#8217;s company. \u2018Two wonderful people working together,\u2019 one posted in response to a Royal Family video recapping the visit. Another added, \u2018It\u2019s lovely how naturally Sophie fits into the Royal Family and supports the relatives of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tatler.com\/topic\/various\" isautogenerated=\"true\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">various<\/a> ages.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps taking inspiration from his late cousin, the Duke of Kent has continued to work into his tenth decade of life. Indeed, he carried out dozens of engagements last year alone. This unwavering devotion to the monarchy has led to the Duke being affectionately known as \u2018Steady Eddie\u2019 \u2013 a trusted confidant to generations of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tatler.com\/topic\/royals\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">royals<\/a> who maintains a position at the very heart of The Firm.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Duke of Kent, who lost his wife, the Duchess of Kent, in September last year, is famous&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":265294,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[3163,151376,156,111,139,69,16196],"class_list":["post-265293","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-duchess-of-edinburgh","tag-duke-of-kent","tag-entertainment","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-royals"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265293","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=265293"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265293\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/265294"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=265293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=265293"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=265293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}