Kate Middleton meets man she had secret calls with in lockdown

• Kate Middleton has met up with a pensioner that she had secret calls with during lockdown.
• The Duchess of Cambridge finally came face to face with Len Gardner after gifting him a pasta maker so he could fulfil his cooking passion.
• In other royal news Prince Charles’ heartbreaking regret over Prince Harry and baby Archie (opens in new tab)

During Kate and Prince William's whistle-stop Royal Rail Tour of Britain which kicked-off on Sunday, the Duchess has met up with the pensioner she secretly called in lockdown.

Back in May, the Duchess of Cambridge, who is mum to Prince George, Charlotte and Louis, took some time out of her busy schedule at Anmer Hall (opens in new tab) to give a surprise phone call to full-time carer Len Gardner, 85, who was looking after his wife Shirley, 84.

At the time, the pair enjoyed a 30 minute conversation at a time when Len was shielding, so hadn't had much interaction.

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At the time, Len revealed Kate told him to just call her Catherine, he added, "After the first two sentences I didn’t feel like I was talking to someone so important. She told me Prince George and Princess Charlotte were playing in the garden and she was keeping an eye on them through the window.”

But it wasn't just a phone call which Kate surprised him with. The former textile-industry worker said he told her how much he loved Italian food but couldn’t make his own pasta because he didn’t have a machine or the right flour.

And just days later, a parcel arrived for Mr Gardner.

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“About three days after our conversation, a brand new pasta machine arrived from the duchess. Two days later I got two kilos of ‘00’ (the Italian grading system) flour from Buckingham Palace (opens in new tab),” Mr Gardner said.

“I can tell you, this lady you see on television that goes into the crowds and talks to people — what you see is what you get. She is a very, very nice person.”

Mr Gardiner wrote a letter of thanks to Kate and framed her response on his wall above a letter he received from the Queen for his 60th anniversary with his wife in 2018. 

But Kate's call wasn't a one-off - a month later, she called him again and told him how she has taken Princess Charlotte and Prince George to the sheds in Sandringham to see how wool is made from sheep. 

He said his chats with the royal helped him cope through the quarantine and are something he would treasure “for the rest of his life”.

“Never in my wildest imagination did I think I would be talking on the phone to the future Queen of England,” added Mr Gardner.

“I will treasure our conversations for the rest of my life. Those calls helped me because they gave me something to look forward to," he added.