The video, posted by user royalfancams, has been viewed over 130,000 times and received in excess of 5,000 likes, with many commenters praising the duchess for cheerfully handling the spider.
The short clip was recorded during the Cambridges’ visit to the Ulster University Magee Campus in Londonderry on September 29, 2021. During their tour of the campus, William and Kate passed representatives of a local mobile petting zoo Kidz Farm who had brought along a collection of their animals, used to help educate children about care and conservation of wildlife.
Before William went on to handle a snake, Kate is shown in the viral clip asking the animal attendant: “Please can I hold the tarantula?”
Visibly surprised, William told Kate “go on then!” before the duchess carefully held the female tarantula which walked tentatively along her hand.
Later, in response to William asking whether the spider had a name, the attendant revealed that she had a link to one of the Cambridges’ three children, Prince George, 9, Princess Charlotte, 7, and Prince Louis, 4.
“Believe it or not she’s called Charlotte,” the attendant told the royal couple to which Kate said “Oh, is it? Well, there you go!”
Princess Charlotte revealed that she was an arachnid fan in a 2020 video message to wildlife conservationist Sir David Attenborough.
The special message to Attenborough showed the Cambridge children speaking in public for the first time, and was posted to the royals’ Instagram account. In it, Charlotte is seen to ask: “Hello David Attenborough, I like spiders. Do you like spiders too?”
“I love spiders,” the broadcasting veteran responded. “I’m so glad you like them. I think they’re wonderful things. Why is it that people are so frightened of them? I think it’s because they’ve actually got eight legs—which are much more than us—and if you’ve got eight legs you can move in any direction so you can never be quite sure which way that spider could go.”
Commenters on the viral TikTok video have praised Kate for being “brave” during her interaction with the tarantula in Northern Ireland.
“The lady has guts!” said one user.
“She’s sooo brave” and “very courageous” wrote another.
Some users noted that William didn’t volunteer to hold the tarantula with one writing: “Think Kate deals w the spiders at home.”
In the video William moved on to handle a snake to which the prince said his son George would be “so upset” to have missed it.
“The children are not going to believe I’ve been holding this,” he said.
The video has gone viral as the Cambridges prepare to resume royal duties after a summer break with their children, who are due to start at a new school near Windsor Castle this month.
Reports have circulated that the family have moved into a cottage on the Windsor Great Park estate which would mean they would be closer to the children’s new school and to Queen Elizabeth II, who now resides near permanently at the castle.
Though the duchess’ uncle alluded to this in a recent interview with a British tabloid the move has not yet been confirmed by Kensington Palace.
