The ladies in waiting were considered the unsung members of the late Queen's household and were personally chosen by the monarch.
Ladies in waiting are not paid a salary but performed their honoured role out of personal loyalty to the Queen, Hello! Reports . Traditionally ladies in waiting are noblewomen in their own right and come from wealthy aristocratic families, meaning they are able to take the unpaid role as a lifelong position.
Queen Elizabeth II maintained an establishment of at least four Women of the Bedchamber, one of whom at a time was usually in attendance, until her death in 2022.
A lady-in-waiting (also called waiting maid) is a female personal helper at a noble court. A lady in waiting would be in charge of waking, dressing and accompanying a lady in her daily activities She helps a queen, a princess, or other noblewoman.
The ladies-in-waiting have historically been chosen by the queen herself from the noblewomen of the Catholic Noble Houses of Belgium. The chief functions at court were undertaken by members of the higher nobility, involving much contact with the royal ladies.
Any noble woman performing personal service for a queen is often referred to as a lady-in-waiting, although exact titles differ depending on a woman's particular office or marital status, as well as the language being used.
In Britain, ladies-in-waiting are titled noblewomen who serve not only the queen, but also high-ranking women in the royal household. Kate Middleton has one, while the queen's sister Princess Margaret had many.
Lords-in-waiting (male) or baronesses-in-waiting (female) are peers who hold office in the Royal Household of the sovereign of the United Kingdom. In the official Court Circular they are styled "Lord in Waiting" or "Baroness in Waiting" (without hyphenation).
Many of the tasks that used to be allotted to ladies-in-waiting (helping her mistress dress, for example) have been assigned to other, paid members of the royal household. Today the ladies function more like social auxiliaries, helping the royal entertain dignitaries and manage her correspondence.
But traditionally, queens also have ladies-in-waiting, aka a group of friends whose literal job is to chill with them. Ladies-in-waiting traditionally accompany the Queen on overseas trips, help manage her correspondence, and are just generally there for companionship.
Lady Hussey served as Queen Elizabeth's lady in waiting for more than 60 years and was appointed following the birth of Prince Andrew in 1960. The 83-year-old was reportedly originally employed to deal with the Queen's correspondence, but soon became a key trusted figure within the royal household.
And as to putting one's clothes on, contrary to popular belief the Queen actually dressed alone. The monarch also did her own make-up for most events, with the exception of her annual Christmas speech, for which a make-up artist was employed.
Lady's maid are usually paid servants. Ladies - in - waiting are Titled lady friends of the Queen, they would be friends and traveling companions, they would receive expenses but nothing else.
Lady Susan Hussey, Queen's confidante and Prince William's godmother - profile - BBC News.
Kate's ties to the British monarchy go back a little further than her marriage to Prince William. She is a descendent of Mary and Anne Boleyn as well, according to The Spectator.
Interestingly, Lady Susan's daughter, Lady Katherine Brooke, has been appointed as one of Camilla's "Queen's Companions".
According to Brian Hoey, author of Not In Front of the Corgis, the queen regularly gave her old clothes to her dressers. From there, they could either keep the pieces, wear them, or sell them. Hoey notes that if pieces were sold, buyers couldn't know that the clothes came from Her Majesty.
The Hon. Mary Morrison, who served as a Woman of the Bedchamber to Queen Elizabeth II from 1960 up until the Queen's death in 2022, accompanying the Queen to the national D-Day commemoration in Southsea in 2019.
Mary Angela Kelly, LVO (born 4 November 1957, Liverpool) is a British fashion designer, dressmaker, and milliner, who served as Personal Assistant and Senior Dresser to Queen Elizabeth II from 2002 to the Queen's death in 2022.
The King has decided to keep on a number of Queen Elizabeth II's Ladies-in-Waiting, with the aides being rebranded as Ladies of the Household. Lady Susan Hussey, Mary Morrison and Dame Annabel Whitehead will continue on with their work, despite the death of their mistress in September.
Lady Susan, 83, whose husband, Marmaduke Hussey, is depicted in The Crown Season 5, joined the Royal Household following the birth of Prince Andrew in 1960, and was originally employed to help respond to a stream of letters on behalf of the late Queen.
The attendant who serves as an assistant to a queen or princess is a lady-in-waiting. Queen Elizabeth of York, the wife of King Henry VII, had an astounding 36 ladies-in-waiting. The third wife of England's King Henry VIII, Jane Seymour, served as lady-in-waiting to his first two wives before becoming Queen herself.
Apartment 1A has reportedly two master bedrooms on the ground floor but while the option is there for them to sleep separately, the two are understood to share a bedroom. During their three-day whistlestop tour of the UK in 2021, however, Kate and William slept in separate beds on the train.
Kate's daily routine: school run, food shop, gym
Regularly dropping the children at school and doing the daily food shopping on nearby Kensington High Street, the duchess also prefers to swap the indoor gym at the Palace for runs in Kensington Gardens.
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge has one nanny Maria Teresa Turrion Borrallo.