Carole Middleton's Wimbledon Look Proves She's Kate's Biggest Style Inspo (Charlotte Too!)

There have been some signs that Catherine, Princess of Wales will attend Wimbledon 2024 in spite of her cancer treatments. But even if Kate Middleton does not end up at the tennis tournament this year, members of her family have enjoyed the festivities. Her parents, Carole Middleton and Michael Middleton, attended on July 4, 2024 for the fourth day of the event, and they were even seated in the Royal Box that Kate and her family usually sit in.

Carole wore a floral Cefinn dress complemented by a cream blazer. A key accessory in her Wimbledon outfit was her sunglasses with yellow-orange frames. It's possible that Carole is a trendsetter amongst her family, since Kate has also been photographed in shades at Wimbledon. In fact, Kate and her daughter, Princess Charlotte of Wales, were twins for Charlotte's Wimbledon debut in 2023. They both wore sunglasses and watched the game intently.

Another tennis-related connection for Carole and Kate is tennis pro Roger Federer. Kate and Federer filmed a video together for Wimbledon 2023, where the princess wowed in Wimbledon white. The famous player reportedly even gave Prince George of Wales a tennis lesson, per the Daily Star. As for Carole, it's unclear if she and Federer have met — but in the "Our Wimbledon" documentary, Kate joked that Federer was her mother's crush.

Attending Wimbledon is something the Middletons have done since Catherine, Princess of Wales was younger. On one of the days of Wimbledon 2023, Kate Middleton described arriving at Wimbledon with her sister Pippa Middleton and her father Michael Middleton and said, "We would be there at the crack of dawn, maybe not overnight but at the crack of dawn" (via Hello!).

It seems that Michael and Carole Middleton are the ones who encouraged Kate to pursue playing the sport when she was a kid. Ingrid Seward, author and royal expert, spoke about Carole encouraging Kate to work hard and listed examples: "She learnt the piano, her father taught her to play tennis to a high standard. All these skills came because her ambitious mother encouraged her to learn them. There's nothing she can't turn her hand to" (via Express). 

In the "Our Wimbledon" documentary, Kate also talked about how watching Wimbledon with her family as a kid got her interested in playing. "Every time Wimbledon's on I'm there thinking, 'Yes, I could do the same!' Get out the racquet, sadly never the, never the same results," Kate added with a laugh. She may not be playing on the Wimbledon courts, but she seems to have good memories from the event.