NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY REOPENS: THE PRINCESS OF WALES HAS A BRUSH WITH POP ROYALTY AS NEW LOOK IS UNVEILED

Surrounded by exquisite works of art, the Princess of Wales looked delighted as she chatted with music legend Sir Paul McCartney about the new Beatles exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery, which reopened last week following a major refurbishment

- LILY WADDELL

The pair quickly struck up a bond over their shared love of photography as they reflected on the show, Paul McCartney Photographs 1963-64: Eyes of the Storm, which opens on 28 June.

Playful Macca, who had celebrated his 81st birthday just days before, was quick to point out that Kate, who is patron of the London gallery, wasn’t alive when he took the photographs in the Beatles’ early days. “When you weren’t born,” he told the Princess, 41, referring to the previously unseen pictures. “Or you, either,” he said to his wife Nancy Shevell, 63, who laughed and reassured him she had indeed been born by then.

An inquisitive Kate asked: “Were there pieces that were very important to you personally?”

In response, an emotional Sir Paul, who put together the exhibition with the gallery’s curator Rosie Broadley and his own archivist, reflected on the poignancy of the pictures, especially those of his former bandmates John Lennon and George Harrison. "For me, the pictures of John and George particularly, just because they are not here," he said.

A GRAND ENTRANCE 

Kate, who studied history of art at St Andrews University, reopened the gallery after an extensive three-year refurbishment costing £40m – the building’s biggest redevelopment project since it opened in 1896. The Princess wore a £450 white midi dress featuring a pleated skirt, with her choice of clothing brand – Self-Portrait – perhaps intended as a nod to the artistic occasion.