Kate Middleton Heads To ‘Downton Abbey’: Duchess Of Cambridge Plans Season 6 Set Visit
First it was George Clooney, now it’s Kate Middleton. Reports reveal that the pregnant Duchess of Cambridge will be stopping by Downton Abbey to visit the set as it films Season 6 of the series. What’s the scoop?
Kate Middleton is eight months into her pregnancy with her second child, but that doesn’t mean she’s at home laying low. Duchess Kate is said to be a long-time fan of Downton Abbey, and People reports that she will pay the set a visit on March 12.
The Duchess of Cambridge will visit Ealing Studios in west London, where she will watch a scene being shot in the servants’ quarters. Alas, she won’t be where the exterior shots are filmed, at Highclere Castle in Hampshire, but she will be right where the true action is.
Palace sources have not revealed which actors will be involved in the scene she will be watching. Though Season 5 of the show just wrapped in the United States, the cast is already working on Season 6, which will debut in the fall in the United Kingdom and in January 2016 in the U.S.
According to E! Online, Middleton will get a tour of the set during her visit, and she will get to meet some of the cast members, including Dame Maggie Smith, Sophie McShera, Robert James-Collier, and Lesley Nicol. After the scenes are filmed, she will join the cast and crew for a photograph, and there will be a reception. It is said she will meet more cast members then including Elizabeth McGovern and Hugh Bonneville.
Not much has been disclosed about the plot of Season 6 yet, though Downton Abbey spoilers have emerged. Maggie Smith had indicated that she intended for this next season to be her last, but her rep has since clarified that Smith wasn’t definitively saying she was ready to leave. Her rep says that Smith hopes to stay with the show for however long it runs.
It seems that Kate is actually not the first in her family to visit the set. Her sister, Pippa Middleton, has known Michelle Dockery, who plays Lady Mary Crawley, for years. The two played tennis together as young girls and have stayed friends. Pippa and brother James visited the Downton Abbey set some time back.
While fans would love to see a pregnant Kate Middleton actually on the show in some way, many would say seeing her visit and meet the cast is not too shabby either. Surely many photographs and additional details of the Duchess of Cambridge’s visit to Downton Abbey will become available after the March 12 visit.
[Image by Oli Scarff/Getty Images]
