Here’s why Kate Middleton is never allowed to take off her coat in public

Kate Middleton has a fair number of decent coats in her wardrobe.

There's red ones, there's blue ones, there's maternity ones that she's been wearing as of late to fit over her ever-growing bump containing royal baby number three. The list goes on. And we're glad of it too, because, during these harsh and blisteringly cold early spring evenings, there's nothing better than finding a class new bit of outerwear that you'd love to pick up for yourself. Brightens our nights, so it does. However, if you're as big a fan of what kind of coats Duchess Kate wears as we are (unlikely), you might have noticed something a little odd about how she wears them. And more importantly, when she takes them off. Which is never. At least, not in public anyway. And apparently, there's a reason for it too. According to OK! magazine, royal tradition states that if a female member of the royal family was to remove her coat in public it would be deemed "unladylike." Seriously? Apparently, taking off a coat would be similar enough to "undressing" in public, so the royal women are encouraged to take off their coats away from the prying eyes of camera lenses. It explains why we never see photos of Kate at engagements actually taking off a jacket to reveal her outfit underneath, but still, this particular rule seems intensely outdated. And seeing as we haven't actually seen Meghan Markle remove her coat in public yet either, we can probably go ahead and assume that she's been told to adhere to this tradition too. We knew the Royals weren't permitted to wear nail varnish and that they could only wear jewels that came from the family itself, but this is another level of ridiculous. What if you suddenly get roasting and simply can't wait to whip your jacket off? Would it be so terrible? Would you be shunned? Banished? Sent away to Brussels without getting to say goodbye to your loved ones? Probably.