Royal news: Prince William initiated victory hug with Lionesses captain

In this week's royal update, Princess Charlotte makes her first public appearance without her brother and Prince William goes in for a hug.


In this week’s royal update, Princess Charlotte makes her first public appearance without her brother at the Commonwealth Games with the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.

Prince William gives Lionesses captain a hug for their victory win against Germany in the European Woman’s Football Championship 2022, and the police have charged a US man over a crossbow threat to the Queen.

Princess Charlotte attends Commonwealth Games

The 7-year-old daughter of Prince William and Kate Middleton joined her parents this past weekend, at the Sandwell Aquatics center in Birmingham to watch some of the swimming events of the Commonwealth Games.

This event marked the first time that the daughter of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge made a public appearance with her parents, without her two brothers Prince George and Prince Louis.

The little princess wore a navy dress with white stripes and a white collar, and paired her dress with adorable white strap sandals.

After the swimming events, the Windsor’s headed to the SportAid house where Charlotte got the chance to meet some athletes who she told her favourite sport is gymnastics.

Kate backed up her daughter’s revelation by saying that she spends most of her time doing handstands and cartwheels.

“Charlotte spends most of her time upside-down doing handstands and cartwheels,” said the Duchess.

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Lionesses captain Leah Williamson reveals Prince William initiated victory hug after Euro 2022 final

England’s women football team, the Lionesses walked away with the European Women’s Football Championship 2022 trophy on Monday evening, after beating Germany 2-1 in the final.

Prince William, who is the president of the football association, was so excited about the Lionesses victory that he leaned in to hug the captain of the football team Leah Williamson, before telling her how proud he was of her and the entire team.

When Leah was later interviewed, she revealed that Prince William initiated the hug.

“I think I went to shake his hand and he said ‘Leah, bring it in’ and I said, ‘thank you sir’. He was like ‘I’m very proud of you all’,” said Williamson.

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Taking to social media earlier this week, before the game, William shared a video on his and his wife’s shared official Instagram page where himself and his 7-year-old daughter, Princess Charlotte, wished the Lionesses good luck on their Euro 2022 final match.

“We both wanna wish the Lionesses the best of luck tonight. You have done amazingly well in the competition and we are rooting for you all the way,” said the Duke.

“Good luck. I hope you win. Bye,” said Princess Charlotte.

Police charge US man over crossbow threat to Queen Elizabeth II

Police on Tuesday charged a 20-year-old man with an offence under Britain’s 1842 Treason Act after arresting him armed with a crossbow at Windsor Castle as Queen Elizabeth II spent Christmas Day there.

Jaswant Singh Chail, from Southampton in southern England, has also been charged with making threats to kill and possession of an offensive weapon following the incident at the castle, southwest of London, last year.

He is currently in custody and will appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court in the British capital on August 17, London’s Metropolitan Police said.

“The CPS (Crown Prosecution Service) has authorised the Metropolitan Police to charge Jaswant Singh Chail with offences after he was arrested in the grounds of Windsor Castle on 25 December 2021, carrying a crossbow,” Nick Price of the CPS, which oversees prosecutions in England and Wales, said.

“This decision has been made following an investigation carried out by the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command,” he added.

Chail has been charged under a section of the Treason Act, which makes it an offence to assault the Queen, or have a firearm or offensive weapon in her presence with intent to injure or alarm her, or to cause a breach of peace.

It is extremely rare for charges to be brought under this particular 180-year-old treason law.
In the last case, Briton Marcus Sarjeant was sentenced to five years’ imprisonment in 1981 after pleading guilty to firing blank shots at the monarch when she was on parade.

However, William Joyce – also known as Lord Haw Haw, who collaborated with Germany during World War II – was the last person to be convicted under the separate and more serious 1351 Treason Act.

Following the Windsor Castle incident, the Met said that security processes were triggered within moments of the breach and that the individual did not enter any buildings.

It happened as the Queen spent a low-key Christmas Day at the castle with her eldest son and heir to the throne, Prince Charles, and his wife Camilla.

The Queen usually celebrates Christmas at her Sandringham estate in eastern England, but she remained in Windsor, last year, as a precautionary measure amid resurgent Covid-19 cases.

Although the intruder was intercepted quickly, it recalled an earlier, more serious intrusion in 1982.

On that occasion, a man in his 30s entered Queen Elizabeth’s private chambers at Buckingham Palace while she was in bed before police apprehended him.

Last summer, a man was arrested after scaling the gates of the Palace.

In 2020, a homeless man scaled its walls and bedded down for the night in its grounds before being caught.

*Additional reporting from AFP

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