Kate Middleton once went shoeless during a visit to speak with Roman Kemp at his parents’ home.
In a new interview with the Times published Thursday, the radio host recalled how the Princess of Wales reached out to him after the airing of his BBC documentary, “Roman Kemp: Our Silent Emergency,” which discusses how the mental health crisis affects young men.
“It was an honor but it was one of the weirdest things,” he said. “We had a Zoom call, just her and me.”
During their conversation, Middleton, 41, and Kemp, 30, decided to make a short online film discussing men and suicide.
“And she was like, ‘Oh, you know, I can come over to your place and do it there,'” he recalled. “And I just said, ‘No, let’s go to my parents.’ It’s a bigger house. I don’t want to bring royalty to a flat in Vauxhall.”
Roman said he and the future queen were sitting at the kitchen counter with his parents — pop stars Martin Kemp and Shirlie Holliman — his sister and their dogs.
“The funniest thing was she didn’t have any shoes on because she was respectful enough to take her shoes off at the door,” he added. “That really stuck in my head because you never see royalty with no shoes.”
While the gesture is certainly rare for a royal, it isn’t the first time Middleton has been seen barefoot.
During a visit to India back in 2016, the mom of three and her husband, Prince William, removed their shoes so they could walk across the grass at the Gandhi Smriti Museum to pay their respects.
And in 2019, Middleton went sans shoes during her royal tour in Pakistan.
At the time, she dressed in green shalwar kameez and a matching dupatta headscarf, which she used to cover her head, for a visit to the Badshahi Mosque.
If you or someone you know is in emotional distress or considering suicide, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).
