Princess Kate's hidden hobby she even does in the dark - and Prince William hates it

Princess Kate has admitted that her husband Prince William can't get his head around her passion for one of her more unusual hobby - but she 'absolutely loves it'

The Princess of Wales has picked up an unusual hobby - and her husband Prince William thinks she is 'crazy'. It's no secret that Kate loves all manner of sports, from hockey to netball, tennis and skiing. But there is one activity that she 'absolutely loves' and William can't get his head around it.

The Princess opened up on her 'crazy' hobby - which she also does in the dark - during an appearance on the podcast, The Good, The Bad and The Rugby , hosted by Mike Tindall, James Haskell and Alex Payne.

"I can always remember being physical, using our bodies, whether it's walking, climbing the lake district, in Scotland [or] swimming from a young age. [My parents] always encouraged us to be physically active and sporty and they always encouraged us into doing team sports and trying things."

She then shared her love of cold water swimming, which has many health benefits and involves swimming during the winter season in outdoor locations or unheated pools.

Kate raved: "Cold swimming - the colder, the better. I absolutely love it. Slightly to the point where William's [saying] 'You're crazy' and it's dark and it's raining. I will go and seek out cold water. I love it!" It's clear that Princess Kate's adventurous spirit extends to the water; back in 2015, it was disclosed that she is also an accomplished scuba diver.

Kensington Palace confirmed that she had passed a Professional Association of Diving Instructors (PADI) Advanced Open Water Diver qualification, which will allow her to dive to a depth of up to 98 feet (30 metres). It also means she can dive with her husband, Prince William , who has had his scuba qualifications for some time – and is the president of the British Sub-Aqua Club.

A spokesperson for Kate told the Telegraph at the time, "Diving is something the Duchess very much enjoys, and the Duke of Cambridge, who is of course president of the BSAC, has said in the past that he is hopeful his children will become interested in the sport."

It comes after Mike and his podcast co-hosts released a book titled The Good, the Bad & the Rugby — Unleashed in which they spoke about William and Kate's appearance. The couple taped their episode of the show in September 2023 at Windsor Castle, alongside Mike's mother-in-law Princess Anne. Writing about the Prince and Princess of Wales, Mike noted: “I think the podcast humanised them a little bit, and I kind of wish they'd let us put the uncut version out, because it would have blown the public away.

'Down to earth'

"They came across as down-to-earth, fully engaged, funny and knowledgeable," he wrote in the book, as excerpted in the Daily Mail . "It was a far more enlightening chat than I expected, not because I thought they'd be dull (I already knew that they weren't) but because I know how everything to do with the royal family is so carefully controlled."

Mike - married to the late Queen's granddaughter Zara Tindall since 2011 - is not a working member of the royal family, but he certainly knows what the family is like in private — and wrote that the experience of being royal is nothing like Downton Abbey. They "are a very close family who loved each other dearly," Mike said, and described relaxed picnic lunches and watching television with the late Queen Elizabeth — not "meals on long tables and everyone dressed in their finery every night".

"Zara and I would often watch the racing with her [Queen Elizabeth] on TV, as I'm sure lots of people reading this have done with their Gran," Mike said. "Lunches were also relaxed, especially up in Scotland, where lunch would often be heading out into the open space of the Scottish Highlands for a picnic."