The Princess of Wales sat on a bench among spring blossom in the grounds of Windsor Castle and told the country she has cancer. She was 42. In a video of two minutes and 16 seconds, released on Friday, Catherine said she is in the early stages of chemotherapy.
The BBC filmed the message on Wednesday. She wore a white jumper with dark stripes, spoke steadily, and glanced down only when she reached the part about her family’s shock.
Doctors found the cancer after she had major abdominal surgery at the London Clinic on 16 January. At the time, Kensington Palace said her condition was non-cancerous, and on Friday it said again that no test before the operation had shown cancer. Then came the results afterwards. “Tests after the operation found cancer had been present,” she said. Her doctors advised a course of preventative chemotherapy, which the palace said began in late February.
The palace has not said what kind of cancer it is, or how advanced. It has asked people not to guess. “The Princess has a right to medical privacy, as we all do,” a spokesman said.
Telling the children first
Catherine said the news had been a “huge shock” and that she and Prince William had tried to handle it privately for the sake of their young family. The hardest part, she said, was explaining it to George, Charlotte and Louis, then aged 10, eight and five, in a way they could take in. She told them she was going to be OK.
The timing was not an accident. The children broke up from school for the Easter holidays that day, and the palace understood the couple wanted time away with them before the news spread.
“I am well and getting stronger every day by focusing on the things that will help me heal; in my mind, body and spirits,” she said. William, she added, was a great source of comfort and reassurance.
The weeks of rumour
The announcement ended weeks of speculation. It began after the January surgery, and it grew when the first official photograph of her since the operation, a Mother’s Day family picture, was recalled by several of the world’s biggest picture agencies over claims it had been manipulated. Catherine apologised for the “confusion” and said she had edited the photograph herself.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak criticised how parts of the media and social media had treated her. Keir Starmer said: “Any cancer diagnosis is shocking. But I can only imagine the added stress of receiving that news amid the lurid speculation we’ve seen in recent weeks.”
King Charles, 75, who is also being treated for cancer and was in hospital at the same time as Catherine in January, said he was proud of her “courage in speaking as she did”. Buckingham Palace said he has stayed in the closest contact with his daughter-in-law. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex wished “health and healing for Kate and the family”.
A spokesman described her as being on a “recovery pathway”. William pulled out of a memorial service for his godfather, King Constantine II, in late February. The “personal matter” behind that decision is understood to have been her diagnosis.
Catherine closed her message with a few words for others in her position. “For everyone facing this disease, in whatever form, please do not lose faith or hope. You are not alone.” Kensington Palace said it will give further information only when there is something significant to say.
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