# Kate Middleton probably didn’t prepare her kids to be booed by protesters > Source: > Published: 2026-06-20 15:47:43+00:00 **Getting your** [Trinity Audio](//trinityaudio.ai)player ready...In a clip that’s [gone viral](https://x.com/ShakeLS/status/2065810061721579568) since last weekend’s annual Trooping the Color, Princess Catherine, the Princess of Wales, is seeing giving a “death stare” to anti-monarchists in the crowd, who booed her and her three children as they rode by in a horse-drawn carriage to Buckingham Palace. During the annual event to mark the official birthday of King Charles III, the anti-monarchy group Republic staged a demonstration on the streets of London as royal family members passed by, including Catherine and her children, Prince George, 12, Princess Charlotte, 10, and Prince Louis, 8, [according to the Daily Mail](https://www.dailymail.com/news/royals/article-15898651/Moment-Kate-glares-anti-monarchists-boo-children-George-Louis-Charlotte-Trooping-Colour.html). In view of the Wales children, protesters opened umbrellas that spelled out the words, “Stop The Reign,” and they reportedly chanted, “Not my king,” and “Not my queen.” Some protesters also erupted into boos, according [to a video published by The Sun.](https://www.the-sun.com/royals/16504397/princess-kate-glares-anti-monarchists-booing-royal-kids/) Those boos were clearly registered by the princess, She was seen angrily staring down protestors, while her children “looked confused,” The Sun reported. Kate Middleton looking angry and the kids looking completely uncomfortable and confused, getting booed during trooping the colour. If looks could kill. Princess Kate didn't like that. [pic.twitter.com/5Vz1ymbhf6]— Nina (@ShakeLS) [June 13, 2026] Some royal fans and pro-royal publications, notably the Daily Mail, applauded Catherine’s “stern,” “icy” “death stare,” and royal commenters expressed outrage that Republic would resort to booing children. “Now, as a journalist, you know, operating in a democracy, we would all die in a ditch for their right to demonstrate,” said the Daily Mail’s royal editor Rebecca English on the publication’s [Palace Confidential YouTube show.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=je2IddLmkKQ) “But as a mother, I thought it was disgusting to be shouting while children were going past in the carriage. You know, there must have been a better way to do it.” English added: “It seemed quite clear that the children had noticed it because, you know, you could see their expressions looking slightly confused, and that’s why she turned around like any mother would do and was like, ‘Wait a minute.'” Daily Mail columnist Richard Kay agreed that it was wrong to go after the king’s “young grandchildren.” But to that, he asked English if she knew if or how Catherine and Prince William have prepared their children for being seen in front large crowds, including when anti-monarchist activists could be present. “How are the royal children prepared for encounters such as these?” Kay asked. “I mean, how do you explain to an 8-year-old like Prince Louie what a what a Republican is?” English said the Prince and Princess of Wales “have always been very open with their children and talk things through with them.” But then English said: “I’m just not sure they would have thought to prepare them for something like that, which I think probably explains Catherine’s really horrified, and understandably so, expression.” As much as many have agreed online that it’s wrong to heckle the royal children, it’s still surprising that Catherine and William apparently didn’t prepare them to hear anti-monarchy sentiment at a big public event like Trooping the Color — even as Republic has ramped up its demonstrations in the past year. English acknowledged that Republic has been more active lately in order, she said, to seize on changes in the national “mood,” since the 2022 death of the late Queen Elizabeth II. But more than the queen’s death, protests against the king and and other royals, including William and Catherine, the future king and queen, have become increasingly common, following a barrage of disturbing revelations about the king’s younger brother, the former Prince Andrew, and his ties to the late pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. The public is outraged over Andrew’s alleged sexual involvement with one of Epstein’s trafficked teenagers, Virginia Giuffre. Moreover, emails made public as part of the U.S. Justice Department’s release of its files on Epstein prompted Andrew’s arrest in February and a U.K. police investigation into whether he shared confidential government documents with the late financier while serving as a U.K’s trade envoy from 2001 to 2011. In addition, the royal family has come under fire for its perceived lack of transparency about its finances. Earlier this month, a report from the National Audit Office, the U.K.’s independent public spending watchdog, revealed that Andrew’s daughters, Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie, have lived rent-free for two decades in St. James and Kensington palaces. So protests against the royal family have become increasingly common and they are likely to continue. In March, Charles, William and Catherine had to walk past Republic protesters while arriving for the annual Commonwealth Day service at Westminster Abbey,[ People reported.](https://people.com/kate-middleton-prince-william-king-charles-heckled-protesters-commonwealth-day-11915331) “What did you know?” asked a series of bright yellow posters, held up by protesters. The signs appeared to reference questions about what the king knew about his brother’s dealings with Epstein. On Saturday, Australia’s Sky News [addressed Republic’s protests, the public’s “right to be angry”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHUfdxjJ2sA) and the boos directed at George, Charlotte and Louis. “If you’re a Republican, it’s been a pretty target-rich environment,” said Sky News contributor Louise Roberts. The protesters’ demand for answers “are legitimate,” she said. However, booing the king’s grandchildren, who have “done absolutely nothing wrong,” and their mother, who is recovering from cancer, “was catastrophically wrong,” Roberts said. “Republic calls it holding power to account. Most people would call it something else. Princess Charlotte is 11 years old. What exactly was she supposed to answer for?” While Roberts said “accountability matters,” she also said that Republic “handed the crown its best public relations moment in years” by targeting the children. The Princess of Wales, now the most popular member of the royal family, [with a 75% approval rating](https://yougov.com/en-gb/topics/public_figure/Catherine_Princess_of_Wales), probably gained even more sympathy from Republic’s attack on her children, Roberts said. “That look of absolute contempt she fired back at the protesters? Bravo, Kate,” Roberts said. “Booing the mother of the future king at a public parade doesn’t make you courageous. It makes you look like a bully.”