Kate Middleton has a big thing in common with this royal

(Image credit: 2022 Samir Hussein)

Kate Middleton is having a busy week. She is on a rare solo trip to Denmark for two days. Yesterday, she visited the Copenhagen Infant Mental Health Project at the University of Copenhagen - wearing a gorgeous sustainable pearl necklace - and this morning she attended an event at the Stenurten Forest Kindergarten.

Next up, a visit with the Danish royals. The Duchess of Cambridge met with the country's Queen Margrethe and Crown Princess Mary at Christian IX’s Palace in Copenhagen, where they had a private lunch.

Catherine and Mary then headed over to the Danner Crisis Centre, a shelter that helps women who have been exposed to domestic violence. It's supported by the Mary Foundation, which was founded by the Crown Princess in 2007.

On their way there, the two royals had a laugh and were photographed deep in conversation. It's thought the two have grown quite close since they first met in 2011, and they attended Royal Ascot together in 2016 with their husbands, Prince William and Prince Frederik.

One of the reasons the women may be so close is their similar backgrounds, since neither of them came from a royal or noble family.

Kate met William at the University of St. Andrews in 2001 while Mary, who is Australian, met Frederik at the 2000 Olympics. She had a career in advertising before moving to Denmark to become a royal.

So you can imagine both women have a lot of similar experiences to share, having joined royal families from different backgrounds.

Penny Goldstone

Penny Goldstone is the Digital Fashion Editor at Marie Claire, covering everything from catwalk trends to royal fashion and the latest high street and Instagram must-haves.

Penny grew up in France and studied languages and law at the Sorbonne Nouvelle University in Paris before moving to the UK for her MA in multimedia journalism at Bournemouth University. She moved to the UK permanently and has never looked back (though she does go back regularly to stock up on cheese and wine).

Although she's always loved fashion - she used to create scrapbooks of her favourite trends and looks, including Sienna Miller and Kate Moss' boho phase - her first job was at MoneySavingExpert.com, sourcing the best deals for everything from restaurants to designer sales.

However she quit after two years to follow her true passion, fashion journalism, and after many years of internships and freelance stints at magazines including Red, Cosmopolitan, Stylist and Good Housekeeping, landed her dream job as the Digital Fashion Editor at Marie Claire UK.

Her favourite part of the job is discovering new brands and meeting designers, and travelling the world to attend events and fashion shows. Seeing her first Chanel runway IRL at Paris Fashion Week was a true pinch-me moment.