The Duchess of Kent has revealed her fondness for rap music, with Eminem and Ice Cube among her favourite artists in the genre.
In an interview with The Sunday Telegraph, the 89-year-old, who is married to the Queen’s cousin Prince Edward, the Duke of Kent, said she has an open mind when it comes to music.
‘I’ll listen to anything,’ she told the paper. ‘I just love music. Something that catches my ear on the radio – I don’t really listen to records. If it makes my feet tap then I’m happy.’
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The Duchess of Kent (pictured right) has revealed she is a fan of rap music and listens to Eminem and Ice Cube
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Eminem performs onstage during Super Bowl LVI Halftime Show at SoFi Stadium on February 13 in Inglewood, California
Although the duchess admitted she does not ‘know all [the] names’ of rappers, she had a fondness for the Lose Yourself singer as well as the former N.W.A member.
‘I even like beat boxing,’ the duchess added.
When she retired from the royal circuit, many thought the Duchess had become something of a recluse – but the truth was very different.
It later emerged she had been teaching music at a state primary school in Hull – most of the time in anonymity, for 13 years.
Speaking on The Alan Titchmarsh Show in 2011, she described how she was known to her pupils at Wansbeck Primary School as plain ‘Mrs Kent’.
As a schoolgirl she was taught to play the piano, the violin and the organ, narrowly missing out on a place at the Royal Academy of Music.
She pursued her passion for music through finishing school in Oxford and grew up dreaming of playing Carnegie Hall.
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Ice Cube performs during the BIG3 Playoffs on August 14, at Amalie Arena in Tampa, Florida
She said: ‘When I was teaching the first thing I began to notice was the power of music as a stimulant to these children to give them confidence and self-belief. I began to see that happen all the time.
‘Some of the children I taught haven’t necessarily become musicians, but the confidence it has given them, some have joined the Army, some to university, which they might not have done otherwise.
‘I have always loved talent, I love that tickle up the neck when you see talent and I began to realise I was teaching some very, very gifted children.’
In 1993, overhearing the head speaking about the desperate need for a music teacher, the duchess volunteered.
Following teaching, the Duchess set up music charity Future Talent in 2004 to ‘break down barriers, create opportunities and harness the power of music to transform lives across the UK.’
The duchess has three children with her husband, the Duke of Kent – George Windsor, Earl of St Andrews, Lady Helen Taylor and Lord Nicholas Windsor.
However, following the stillbirth of her fourth child in 1977, she suffered recurrent health problems.
Her withdrawal from the royal circuit later led to claims that she had become a recluse. Public appearances became even rarer following her decision to convert to Catholicism in 1994, the first senior royal to convert publicly since the passing of the 1701 Act of Settlement.
However, it was then revealed the duchess had in fact been busy working with UNICEF and then in Hull.
