It’s been in the 40s in London as of late, and Duchess Kate is making the most of it! The royal stepped out to a Heads Together engagement at the Institute of Contemporary Arts on Tuesday, January 17, clad in a pretty floral dress — and she didn’t even bother with a coat.
The Duchess of Cambridge, 35, stunned in Erdem’s Evita dress with yellow, blue and purple flowers ($813, sold out at net-a-porter.com), highlighting the latter shade with oxblood Tod’s pumps and a burgundy Mulberry clutch.
The mom of Prince George, 3, and Princess Charlotte, 20 months, was on the scene with her husband, Prince William, and brother-in-law, Prince Harry, to discuss their plan for their joint mental health awareness charity Heads Together in 2017, beginning with the Virgin Money London Marathon. All three royals gave impassioned speeches on the importance of talking about mental health. They then met with those who will be running the marathon on behalf of various mental health charities this April.
“I chatted to Prince William, and he has promised that he will run a marathon in Kenya sometime,” Good Morning Britain presenter Sean Fletcher, who will be running the 26.2-mile course for charity Young Minds, on behalf of his 13-year-old son, who was recently diagnosed with OCD, told Us Weekly. “Then I spoke to Kate, and she said, ‘I’ll believe it when I see it.'”
Fletcher continued, “This is all very new to me, [but] I’m learning very fast because of my son’s situation. William’s understanding was incredible, but also his sympathy and empathy with me. He asked me lots of questions. I’ve never met him before, but he’s such a warm man. Like two dads talking together.”
Channel 5 presenter Sian Williams added, “Obviously they can’t run themselves because there would be 26 miles of royal protection officers, so I think [it’s better] having us run it for them as part of a team. They’ll be there to cheer us on. For me and for them, there is no greater cause at the moment than addressing mental health and having a parity between mental and physical health.”
But, as the duchess explained, Heads Together plans to get the conversation flowing long before the marathon is run. “What Heads Together is proposing is that in the weeks leading up to the marathon, our campaign will showcase people from all walks of life talking about the life-changing conversations that have helped them with their mental health challenges,” she said. “We hope that these real-life examples will serve as encouragement to others to do the same.”
She added, “If we succeed with this, we will have taken a powerful step in normalizing mental health as an issue in our society, thinking about it as we do our own physical health.”
