Father Shares Sweet Story of His Son Chatting With 'a Lady' on a Train — Who Turned Out to Be Kate Middleton
Ian MacNicol/Getty Images Kate Middleton
Kate Middleton shocked a dad of a young boy when he realized his son was chatting it up with royalty on a recent train ride.
Last week on the way to the Commonwealth Games, the Duchess of Cambridge took it upon herself to check in with his son, Ted, who was alone at the time with while he was using the restroom.
"Five minutes before pulling into Birmingham International for the NEC [arena] I use the bathroom (we are traveling first class) as Ted waits outside," Matthew Syed, who happens to be a columnist for the Times of London recounted in a column via Newsweek. "As I am doing my thing, I hear him talking to a woman in the vestibule. 'Are you here alone?' she asks. 'No, my dad is in there,' he says pointing to the lavatory."
From inside the restroom, Syed could tell his son was having a friendly conversation.
"He got talking to a lady waiting her turn," Syed shared on social media. "They chatted, laughed."
In his column, per People, he added that from what he could tell, "They [were] having a whale of a time."
When Syed came out, he was focused on not missing their stop, when he had a royal realization.
"'Come on Ted,' I say, 'We have to get off! Oh, and thanks for keeping him company…' I say turning to the woman waiting her turn when I am stopped in my tracks," he recalled. "My brow furrows, my face works. 'Kate?' I blurt out. There are no security guards in the vestibule; no armed guards. But here is the Duchess of Cambridge, chatting merrily with my son."
Ted had "no idea" who he had been talking to but said she was "really nice," Syed wrote. But he was more impressed with catching Kate in such an everyday situation.
"The Duchess had no idea she was chatting to the son of a journalist so I take this to reflect her character and sense of duty," he said. "The monarchy is in consummate hands."
Middleton joined her husband Prince William and daughter Princess Charlotte, 7, at the games, who traveled separately by a helicopter William piloted — a travel method looked down upon by the queen.
