Kate Middleton meets mother of nine-year-old who walked on his prosthetic legs to raise £1.6m who is overcome with emotion at seeing the Princess of Wales

The Princess of Wales received a warm welcome as she opened a new Children’s Day Surgery at Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospital in London – and reunited with fundraising amputee Tony Hudgell and his adopted mother in an emotional moment.

Ignoring the rumblings of any royal drama, Kate, 41, in a fitted navy suit by Sarah Burton for Alexander McQueen and towering navy heels, officially opened the Evelina London Children’s Day Surgery Unit today.

Members of the public enthusiastically cheered as they greeted her, while others seemingly became overcome with emotion. The royal, meanwhile, offered one person a comforting hug during her tour of the building.

Kate also reunited with Tony Hudgell, nine, a young boy who lost his legs after being abused by his birth parents. He raised more than £1.6 million by walking 10km on his prosthetic legs in aid of the Evelina London Children’s Hospital which cared for him.

The young amputee, who was filmed posing with the royal, as well as his emotional adopted mother today, previously charmed Kate and Prince William at her festive carol concert in 2021. It was reported at the time that the royal couple ‘spent ages’ chatting with Tony. 

Tony was rushed to hospital with life changing injuries in 2014 when he was 41-days-old, following horrific abuse from his birth parents, Jody Simpson and Tony Smith. The pair were found guilty of child cruelty in 2018 and are both currently serving a ten-year prison sentence.  

In 2017, Tony had both legs amputated due to the injuries he sustained as an infant, and he’s currently learning to walk on prosthetic legs without crutches.  

After his incredibly difficult start in life, Tony was adopted by Paula and Mark Hudgell of West Malling, Kent, who have successfully campaigned for longer sentences for anyone who seriously harms a child, and are now calling for a register of abusers in the wake of the murder of Arthur Labinjo-Hughes.

His proud parents were by his side as the youngster met Kate Middleton and Prince William at the service, and later tweeted: ‘Tony has no idea of the impact or enormity he holds. The Duke & Duchess of Cambridge were truly incredible with him. They chatted to us both for ages. A truly magical evening.’

Meanwhile, inside, Kate met with a nine-year-old called Hannah, who showed her a pictured she had drawn. She then took Hannah and another little girl to hold a pink ribbon, which she then cut to officially open the unit.

In a sweet clip, Kate is seen asking the girls ‘shall we cut this together?’ before being met with applause. Later, she was given a bouquet of flowers by a little boy, proving she is completely in her element around children. 

During today’s outing, Kate also met Ella Moth, nine, who won a competition to design the artwork for the new unit at the Evelina Children’s Hospital.

Ella’s space-themed drawings were inspired by the death of her father, Piers, who was treated for brain cancer at Guy’s hospital before he died in 2021. She says he has now ‘gone to the stars’.

The Princess then met Chloe Morley, 10, who was the unit’s first patient when she had her tonsils removed on July 12.

The new facility, which cost £55million to build, allows children to be treated in one location on the same day, reducing the stress caused by numerous hospital visits.

It will help the hospital treat a further 2,300 children per year, on top of the 104,000 children and young people treated by Evelina London, the children’s wing of Guy’s and St Thomas’s hospital.

The unit has two new operating theatres for simple operations such as tonsil removal and bladder surgery.

The Princess walked the same route as the children visiting the centre, including rooms offering pre-surgery checks, operation theatres and recovering areas.

In the recovery area she met four-and-a-half-year-old Saya Stephenson, who was resting in bed after an operation that morning to remove excess skin for her ears.

The Princess hugged her mother, Miwa Stephenson, who said she had been anxious about the surgery despite it being a relatively minor procedure.

Kate replied: ‘It’s always a worry though for a parent. We have to keep our cool. It’s so hard.’

The Princess posed for selfies with nurses at the unit before completing the visit with a traditional ribbon-cutting.

Evelina’s Chief executive Gubby Ayida said afterwards: ‘With everything happening with the NHS at the moment, including long backlogs, the Princess’s visit has brought a feel-good factor to every room she visited and to all the staff.

‘It’s really special, the staff work so hard. The visit has lifted the whole place. It’s more than just ribbon-cutting. It’s been a privilege to welcome her here.’

On departure she was presented with flowers by Burac Abrahams, 11, who was the new unit’s second patient when he had his tonsils removed in July.

Adding glamour to the look, Kate today paired her suit with Sapphire & Diamond Oval Drop Earrings, which she has owned since 2011. 

Keeping her hair in bouncy curls, the mother-of-three opted for a glamorous make-up look as she headed into the new centre being greeted by the hospital’s chief executive Gubby Ayida.

Meeting nine-year-old Hannah,  Kate said: ‘It’s very nice to meet you,’ before asking ‘can I shake your hand?’

Kate then asked, ‘What’s this, is this your picture?’ as the nine-year-old explained it was a picture of her school, with the gym and language room showing. The Princess then said how important languages were to learn. 

It comes as Kate has kept a brave face as Scobie’s new book has reignited a race row within the royal family.

The Dutch version of his book named The Princess of Wales and her father-in-law King Charles as the ‘racists’ who allegedly discussed concern over the colour of Prince Archie’s skin before he was born.

Scobie, who has been seen as the unofficial spokesman Meghan and Harry, is still struggling to deal with the fallout from his new book.

An initial draft of the book, given to Dutch translators, named the two senior members of the royal family – King Charles and The Princess of Wales- who Meghan said told of their ‘concerns’ about the colour of her son Archie’s skin, while she was pregnant.

Meghan first made her allegations about the conversation in her televised interview with Oprah Winfrey, in March 2021.

Harry and Meghan issued a statement saying it was not the late Queen or her husband Prince Philip, but have refused to name the members of the royal family who made the comments.

The Sussexes have declined to publicly defend their relatives, and the publisher of Scobie’s book has not provided any explanation for how the names ended up in print.

Royal experts and politicians have rallied round Kate Middleton as she and Prince William, with the pair recently greeted by raucous applause at the Royal Variety Performance. 

The Prince and Princess of Wales, who were joined by Princess Victoria and Prince Daniel of Sweden, got a standing ovation as they headed into the Royal Albert Hall last week. 

 

Even Meghan appears to be offering an olive branch to the royals, as she was today pictured wearing a bracelet her father-in-law King Charles gave her.  

The Duchess of Sussex, 42, stepped out in Montecito on Monday wearing an array of casual luxury including Princess Diana’s Cartier bracelet and watch,  and a Bentley & Skinner diamond tennis bracelet – a gift from the King and worth at least £4,900.

The piece, which was first worn on the eve of her royal wedding, was first created by royal warrant holders Bentley & Skinner, features ninety-two round brilliant-cut diamonds.

It may be a sign of peace between the warring Windsors.

Harry and Meghan are said to be ‘desperate to get back into the royal fold’ and recently reached out to Charles for his 75th birthday. 

It comes as Scobie claims he ‘never submitted a book that had those names in it’, which his Dutch translator denies.

A source told The Times that United Talent Agency had earlier sent a draft version of the book to publisher Xander Uitgevers, which contained the names.

However, a final proof of the 400-page tome was later sent, but it’s understood the translator had been working from an earlier draft.

It comes after as the book has already dropped out of Amazon’s top 100 current bestsellers list despite a blitz of publicity in the first week of its release.

The title currently sits 139th in the UK bestseller book charts based on Amazon sales, which are updated hourly to reflect recent and historical sales of every item.

Endgame has fallen more than 100 places in three days having been at 14th as recently as last Friday. On the day of its release last Tuesday it was ranked 77th. 

The book is now in the table behind children’s titles such as the Beano annual, Diary of a Wimpy Kid and Stick Man; biographies from Britney Spears, Matthew Perry and Chris Kamara; and cookbooks from Mary Berry, Rick Stein and Tom Kerridge.

In the same Amazon list in the US, Endgame was at 235th today – below The Very Hungry Caterpillar; the Jeopardy! 2024 calendar; and a Paw Patrol sound book.

Amazon says its lists are a ‘good indicator of how well a product is selling overall’ but ‘doesn’t always indicate how well an item is selling in relation to similar items’.

The book’s falling performance comes despite a huge amount of media coverage as well as TV interviews conducted by Scobie for the BBC and ITV in the UK and ABC in the US.

The author has also given interviews to publications including The Times, Evening Standard, Independent, Tatler, People, Elle.com and Paris March.

Meanwhile the book was not on prominent display at London’s oldest bookshop, Hatchards on Piccadilly – with only one copy put aside on order, reported The Guardian. 

The newspaper added that about 14 copies were stacked on a table near the entrance of the nearby Waterstones, but there was ‘limited interest there too’. 

The Sussexes have not commented publicly on the race row but a source close to Meghan said ‘it was not leaked to Scobie by anyone in her camp’.

It also emerged yesterday that the Dutch edition of Endgame quoted a source close to the Sussexes who branded William ‘heartless’ – another inflammatory passage that is not in the UK version.

Referring to claims that the Prince of Wales secured a flight to Balmoral without Harry when the Queen was dying, the translation cited the source as saying: ‘It was heartless to deny him the chance to go to Scotland to say goodbye to his grandmother. This was not the time to be petty.’

A ‘family source’ also claims that William ‘purposely ignored’ Harry when the Queen died and ‘didn’t want to help’ him, according to the Dutch edition.

It said: ‘He was, and is, still angry because Harry revealed private issues… He thinks that is unforgivable.’

The Dutch version also refers to the King’s ‘cash for honours’ scandal last year, with a ‘source’ saying ‘people inside the institution are concerned that ‘more stories will follow’.’

None of these claims appeared in the English version, The Sun on Sunday reported.

It comes after Meghan admitted under oath that she authorised a senior aide to brief Scobie for his earlier book about the Sussexes, called Finding Freedom.