Reports had suggested that the Princess of Wales has been offered global covers of Vogue magazine – and its editor-in-chief Dame Anna Wintour has spoken out for the first time about the speculation after a special meeting with King Charles at Buckingham Palace
Dame Anna Wintour has spoken out for the first time about reports of the Princess of Wales gracing the cover of Vogue with a cryptic response.
The long-time editor-in-chief of the fashion bible was at Buckingham Palace today for an investiture ceremony, where she was awarded a special honour from King Charles. The 75-year-old, who has been with Vogue since 1988 was made a Companion of Honour in the 2023 King’s Birthday Honours list for her services to fashion. It means she joins the likes of Dame Judi Dench, Sir Elton John, David Hockney, and Sir Paul McCartney on the list – and to receive her honour she made the rare move of removing her sunglasses.
Kate Middleton beams as she joins giddy school kids on minibus for special outing
The Order of the Companions of Honour was founded on June 4 1917 by George V and is limited to 65 members at any one time. Appointments go to those who have made a long-standing contribution to arts, science, medicine or government. After the ceremony, Dame Anna, wearing Alexander McQueen, was asked whether it was true the Princess of Wales was offered global covers with Vogue. And she said with a smile: “Yeah, I don’t know where those (rumours) have come from, do you?”
Dame Anna, who flew in from Dubai and will be going back to New York, added: “It’s wonderful to be back at Buckingham Palace and I was completely surprised and overwhelmed to be given this great honour.
“The last time I was here the Queen gave me a medal and we both agreed that we had been doing our job a very long time, and then this morning His Majesty asked me if this meant I was going to stop working and I said firmly, no.”
Dame Anna has also been running the Met Gala since 1995. Artist Dame Tracey Emin was also honoured at Buckingham Palace today, along with other recipients. Dame Tracey, 61, was honoured with a damehood last year for her services to art.
The Vogue editors’ comments came as close to Buckingham Palace, the Princess of Wales turned up for a royal engagement at the National Portrait Gallery – on a minibus.
The future queen boarded the minibus with four and five-year-old pupils at All Souls CE Primary School in London, in Fitzrovia, making the short journey to Trafalgar Square with them to launch an interactive trail based on her early years work at the Gallery, where she walked with the kids hand-in-hand.
The Bobeam Tree Trail, which is based on work by her Royal Foundation for Early Childhood, was created using the Shaping Us Framework, which outlines 30 social and emotional skills that are crucial to living a healthy, happy life at all ages and which the Princess launched on February 1.
Bringing together two of her passions, art and early years development, the outing saw her join youngsters in activities designed around portraits to help them to use and develop these important skills.
The trail is based on a magical tree with beautiful, colourful leaves, which thrives when surrounded by stories. Children were asked to help the tree by discovering the stories of people depicted in the artworks – exploring facial expressions, listening to audio recordings and using props.
Kate joined the pupils and teachers as they explored how faces can express feelings and emotions and as they were asked to think about their own lives, feelings and thoughts while creating a self portrait, which they could choose to ‘feed’ to the tree to help it grow big and strong.
