The Princess of Wales made an unexpected and dazzling appearance today, accompanying her husband to welcome their Jordanian counterparts.

Prince William, 43, hosted Crown Prince Hussein, 31, at the royal residence before heading to RAF Benson in Oxfordshire.

Kate, also 43, chose a flawlessly tailored tan suit for the occasion, striking a pose with her husband and the Jordanian royals for a group photo. She previously showcased this camel-colored Roland Mouret outfit at a charity event in September 2023.

The Princess paired the suit with a cream blouse and let her ‘bronde’ locks fall in soft waves. Beside her, Prince William sported a navy blue suit complemented by a magenta tie.

William and Kate share a close bond with the visiting Crown Prince and Princess, having attended their wedding in 2023. Kate holds a special affection for Jordan, as she spent part of her childhood there.

Before her meeting with Kate, Rajwa – who is undertaking her first official visit to the UK as Jordan’s future queen – joined Princess Eugenie for to highlight the work of a mental health charity. 

The mother-of-one married Crown Prince Hussein in a lavish 2023 ceremony that was attended by William and Kate, as well as Eugenie’s older sister, Princess Beatrice and husband Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi. 

Like Kate, Rajwa opted for smart, formal attire and picked a white shirt, strapless black waistcoat and matching trousers for the Windsor Castle reception on Wednesday, October 15. 

William then accompanied Prince Hussein for a visit to RAF Benson near Wallingford, in South Oxfordshire, where he revealed flying is ‘my happy place’. 

The  Royal Air Force base provides rapid support for UK military operations around the world, and is home to a number of Squadrons. 

These include the No. 22 Squadron that provides operational testing, evaluation, tactics and training for all aviation in Joint Aviation Command and No. 28 (Army Cooperation) Squadron, which is the Chinook operational conversion unit.

During their time at Benson, Their Royal Highnesses were given insight into the work of the air force base through conversations with trainee staff and aircrew from the two Squadrons. 

They heard from personnel about their roles on site and experiences being deployed in operations around the world.

Among them will be Lt Col Mohammad Yousef Awad Alzu’bi, a Jordanian pilot from RAF Shawbury and Flt Lt Peter Howard, who was Prince William’s flying instructor at the same base. 

Both Prince William and Crown Prince Hussein are trained helicopter pilots, with the former training at both RAF Shawbury and then as a search and rescue pilot at RAF Valley with No. 22 Sqn that reformed at RAF Benson in 2020. 

The Crown Prince completed his pilot training with the Royal Jordanian Air Force in 2019.

Reminiscing with old air force colleagues about the ‘glory days’ of serving with the RAF Search and Rescue Force, William said flying is his ‘happy place’.

He chatted about flying Sea King helicopters on rescue missions when he visited an RAF base with the Crown Prince of Jordan, and described how their sound still goes ‘straight to my heart’.

When he met former colleagues and others in the mess at RAF Benson, he was asked if he still spent any time in the cockpit, and the Prince replied: ‘I do still fly, yeah – I keep my hours going.

‘When you learn that skill set, you just don’t want it to go. I’ve definitely lost a lot of the skills I had, but I like to keep on top of my flying, keep doing it.

‘And it’s my happy place, I love flying.’ 

The future King served a three-year tour with the Search and Rescue Force and, during his time based at RAF Valley in Anglesey, carried out 156 search and rescue operations resulting in 149 people being rescued, before he left the Armed Forces in 2013.

He later served as a helicopter pilot with the East Anglian Air Ambulance, flying missions for two years before stepping down in July 2017 to focus on his royal duties.

At the RAF base, William joked that training to become a search and rescue helicopter pilot gave him ‘PTSD’.

However, the future king admitted he missed the ‘glory days; of flying and said he still regularly takes to the skies as his ‘happy place’.

The Prince told the group: ‘I miss the Search and Rescue – glory days.

‘I miss the Sea King flying around, because when I hear it, that noise, as it flies past. We had obviously the US state visit the other day, with seven aircraft flying over.

‘Sea King comes in, I was like “there she is” – that noise went straight to my heart.’

The future monarchs helped tighten a nut on an oil reserve for a rotorhead – the large assembly a Chinook’s rotor blades are connected to on top of the aircraft – using a torque wrench.

After the wrench made a satisfying click, William joked: ‘You will check before it goes back (into service), I don’t want to be responsible.’

Following their chat in the crew room and hands-on work in the hangar, the Princes retired for a private meeting with RAF personnel.

Flight Lieutenant Steve Wilders, a Chinook instructor, served alongside the prince in search and rescue at RAF Valley and later once piloted a royal helicopter carrying William.

After speaking to William in the mess, he said: ‘It was really nice to hear that he has carried on flying – he’s still a pilot.

‘He made it sound as though he still enjoys it and it’s a nice break from the everyday pressures I suppose, getting up and flying away from everything.’

Today’s reunion between ‘dear friends’ William and Hussein comes nearly 10 months after their meeting at Windsor Castle in January. 

A video posted on the Prince and Princess of Wales’s official Instagram account on January 27 showed William and Hussein warmly shake hands before heading into Windsor Castle. 

The caption read: ‘Welcoming The Crown Prince of Jordan, Al Hussein bin Abdullah II, to Windsor this morning.’

In a more personal message, the dashing prince of Jordan, who will succeed his father King Abdullah II, celebrated his relationship with ‘my dear friend’ William in a post on his social media accounts. 

This friendship dates back to 2018 at least, when William – then the Duke of Cambridge – travelled to the Middle Eastern nation to meet his Jordanian counterpart and a fellow graduate of the Royal Sandhurst Military Academy. 

Memorable, the pair were photographed watching the 2018 World Cup in then-23-year-old Hussein’s ‘man cave’ at Beit Al Urdun Palace – and sending royal fans around the world into meltdown. 

The country also holds special memories for the Princess; the Middleton family spent three years there during the early 80s, when Kate was just two years old, after her father Michael, a British Airways manager, was relocated to Amman for work. 

Kate went to an English language nursery while her parents were in the country for almost three years, before they returned to Berkshire in 1986. 

Speaking of Kate’s childhood with the chief executive of Save the Children, Rania Malki, during a tour of the Middle East in 2018, Prince William said: ‘She loved it here, she really did. She is very upset that I am coming here without her.’

William visited the ruins of a Roman settlement at Jerash – where Kate was pictured as a child – with Jordan’s Crown Prince Hussein, before posing for a picture at the same spot.

The Prince of Wales told photographers at the time: ‘We’ll have to bring the kids next time.’

Staying true to his word, in 2021, Kensington Palace revealed William and Kate had taken Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis on holiday to Jordan when they released their Christmas card.

In 2021, Kensington Palace revealed William and Kate had taken Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis on holiday to Jordan when they released their Christmas card.

The Palace revealed the photograph shared for the festive period was taken in Jordan earlier that year when the royal family-of-five visited the ancient city of Petra.

The Prince and Princess of Wales also attended Hussein and his architect wife’s  wedding in June 2023, continuing a long history of attendance at royal events. 

King Abdullah and Queen Rania were among those included on the ‘slimmed-down’ guest list of 2,300 at Westminster Abbey on 6 May for King Charles and Queen Camilla’s Coronation.

The pair were also in attendance at Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral in September last year.

Queen Rania has previously praised Kate for her sense of duty, saying she ‘gives from the heart’.  

She also said there was a ‘sense of sincerity’ and ‘love’ in everything that Kate does in a clip of her interview.

‘Princess Catherine, when she talks about her work, her face lights up,’ Rania said. ‘She does it out of a sense of duty but more importantly, she does it because she absolutely cares.’

Her praise didn’t stop there, as she said the Princess of Wales ‘gives from the heart.’

‘When she talks about her work, she’d say: “I’m just lucky to be doing this, I have the privilege of doing that”.’ she said. ‘So she gives from her heart. And again, there is a sense of sincerity and a sense of love in everything that she does.’

Queen Rania is also a council member for the Earthshot Prize, which was launched by Prince William in 2020.