Kate Middleton Slides Away From the Royal Drama With a Day of Fun in Denmark

It’s been a wild 24 hours for Buckingham Palace. In the aftermath of Queen Elizabeth II testing positive for the coronavirus, the questionably accurate blog Hollywood Unlocked reported and then doubled down on its report that the 95-year-old monarch had passed. And while royals such as Prince Charles and Duchess Camilla—who also recently contracted Covid-19—have no doubt been going through it, Kate Middleton seems to have been spared. Tuesday also happened to be the day she kicked off her first solo royal tour abroad in years, meaning that she was nearly 800 miles away from all the drama what she doing does best: having a ball. Something she’d almost assuredly would not be doing if her grandmother-in-law has just secretly died.

Middleton began her tour by meeting with Danish parents and babies enrolled in an infant mental health program at the University of Copenhagen. In other words, she was in her happy place. The mother of three can’t get enough of being around youngins, which is why she’s put early childhood development at the center of her royal platform. “It makes me very broody,” she said. “William always worries about me meeting under one-year-olds. I come home saying, ‘Let’s have another one.’” The pair has been known to publicly tease each other about Middleton’s desire for baby no. 4.

It wouldn’t be a day of royal duties for Middleton if the agenda wasn’t action-packed with activities. The 40-year-old duchess then led a brood of tots into the Stenurten Forest, where she gleefully picked up an ax and demonstrated how to chop wood. The fun was only just beginning: Middleton looks most in her element when returning to her athletic roots, but she seemed to have nearly as delightful of a time going down a slide at the Lego Foundation PlayLab as she recently did playing rugby, and that’s saying something.