Looking fresh and tan off the heels of her vacation to Mustique, where paparazzi snapped photos of Kate Middleton in her bikini, the duchess of Cambridge showed off her baby bump during an official appearance at London's Hope House.
The press caught Middleton shopping for maternity wear in London a few weeks ago, though a roomy Zara cape mostly concealed her bump.
This time, Kate, 31, wore a relatively form-fitting Max Mara wrap dress to her official engagement at Hope House, a London rehab facility for women run by Action on Addition, for which Middleton is a patron.
"Well done for getting sober," the duchess told one woman in an art therapy class at the center, according to The Telegraph.
Nick Barton, of Action for Addiction, defended Middleton against author Hilary Mantel's cutting remarks, in an interview with the Daily Express.
"You can tell a lot from people's questions and she asks really good questions," Nick Barton said. "They're not routine stuff, they're questions of someone who wants to learn. I find her very easy to deal with."
“I can only speak of what I know, and having met the Duchess several times I find her to be engaging, natural and genuinely interested in the subject," he said.
Mantel described the duchess as a "show-window mannequin" whose only purpose was to give birth in a recent lecture at the British museum.
Kate is due in July.
