Kate Middleton receives bad news while Prince William pays visit to Cornwall 

Kate Middleton and her family are grieving the loss of a dear family friend, whose son was a renowned tennis player, reported Mirror.

Kate's family, particularly her parents Carole and Michael, were said to have been close to Tony Henman, the father of former British tennis number one Tim Henman, who reportedly died on Friday at the age of 84.

Mr Henman and his wife Jane were guests at Prince William and Kate's wedding at Westminster Abbey back in 2011. 

The two couples had been seen together at Wimbledon over the years after the Middletons struck up a friendship with the former solicitor and his wife.

In recent years when Kate has visited Wimbledon, Tim, who was a semi-finalist at the All-England club four times, was seen sitting with the princess. The Middletons, including Kate and her sister Pippa, are all known to be huge tennis fans and have all been regulars at SW19 over the years.

But one year, Kate revealed she was left "mortified" after her dad Michael was involved in an embarrassing mix-up. Kate revealed the cringeworthy story in a 2017 BBC documentary called Our Wimbledon presented by sports host Sue Barker.

She told Sue how her dad tried to play it cool in front of the former British number one tennis player Tim. Kate explained: "My father is not going to appreciate this, but we were walking past Tim Henman and we had just seen [Pete] Sampras play. My dad said very coolly: 'Hi Pete'. I was mortified!"

The sad news comes as the prince, who holds the title of Duke of Cornwall, made a trip to Fistral Beach shortly after his estranged brother, Prince Harry, was in the UK for an appearance at St. Paul's Cathedral for his Invictus Games.