Sports journalist and former
Commonwealth Games champion Matthew Syed described his son’s surprise encounter
with Kate Middleton.
In his Tuesday column in The
Times, the former table tennis player said he overheard a conversation between
his son and a seemingly random woman while he was using the bathroom on a train
on the way to the Commonwealth Games.
He only realized who his son
was talking to right before he got off the train.
“‘Come on Ted,’ I say,
‘we have to get off!’ ‘Oh, and thanks for keeping him company…’ I say turning
to the woman waiting her turn when I am stopped in my tracks.”
“My brow furrows, my face
works. ‘Kate?’, I blurt out. There are no security guards in the vestibule; no
armed guards. But here is the Duchess of Cambridge, chatting merrily with my
son.”
After getting off the train,
Syed asked his son if he knew who he was talking to, and he replied, “No
idea, but she was really nice.”
The journalist said their
interaction took place while he was in the bathroom.
“Judging by the laughter,
they are having a whale of a time,” he wrote. “I hear my son telling
the lady that his father once won Commonwealth gold and sense that he is
brandishing the medal he has brought along for the occasion.”
He says the group continued
chatting right up until they arrived at the Birmingham New Street
station.
Syed also praised Kate for her
amicability to his son: “The Duchess had no idea she was chatting to the
son of a journalist so I take this to reflect her character and sense of duty. The
monarchy is in consummate hands.”
