The Princess of Wales will probably “not appear in public for the rest of the year,” and is being “surrounded” by her birth family as she continues a course of preventive chemotherapy having been diagnosed with cancer earlier this year, royal sources and friends of Kate Middleton and Prince William have told The Daily Beast

https://www.thedailybeast.com/kate-middleton-may-not-appear-in-public-for-rest-of-the-year-sources

Posted by fortunatelyso

24 comments

  1. The Princess of Wales will probably “not appear in public for the rest of the year,” and is being “surrounded” by her birth family as she continues a course of preventive chemotherapy having been diagnosed with cancer earlier this year, royal sources and friends of Kate Middleton and Prince William have told The Daily Beast.

    Kate and her family are expected to spend next week, which is a school holiday, at her and William’s country home on the Sandringham Estate. Her parents, to whom she is close, are thought likely to visit her.

    William is expected to devote even more time to his family over the next six weeks having been unexpectedly gifted time off after the royal family said they would be stepping back from some engagements to avoid distracting from a snap U.K. general election called this week and due to take place on July 4.

    Tom Sykes
    The portrait of “Kate.”
    One source said they do not expect to see Kate back in any kind of public-facing role in the medium term, adding it was possible she would remain absent from public life for the rest of the year.

    The source said: “Lots of people involved in planning need to know what all the principals are doing a long way in advance. I am told that Kate’s diary for this year is empty. There is nothing planned. She may not appear in public for the rest of the year.”

    (The Daily Mail’s Richard Eden reported Thursday that Kate’s friends have told him “we might not see Catherine again until the autumn—and only then if she has recovered fully.”)

    Asked how the Palace would deal with the inevitable resurgence of conspiracy theories and speculation that a protracted absence would provoke, The Daily Beast’s source said: “I would not rule out another video message updating the country on her health. That proved to be a very effective way of keeping the conspiracy theorists at bay.”

    A friend of Kate and William told The Daily Beast: “The key thing for her now is avoiding any kind of stress or anxiety and just getting on with the business of getting better. They will bail out and be off to Sandringham the moment school breaks up.”

    The friend said that Kate has preferred to lean on and confide in her family rather than her and William’s circle of friends, many of whom will be at the Duke of Westminster’s wedding next month (along with her husband who is best man).

    They said: “The circle of trust is tiny. She has been surrounded by Carole and Michael, and (sister) Pippa and (brother) James have obviously been there for her as well. They are an incredibly tight family, and Catherine feels absolutely confident relying on them. They have been there for her for decades and never let her down.”

    It is now five months since Kate was last seen in public, and the Palace may indeed deem it necessary to give another update—whether via video or a more traditional statement—if Kate really is going to remain unseen for many more months to come.

    Kate revealed her cancer diagnosis in a video message released March 22, saying she had initially thought her condition was non-cancerous, but discovered the truth after successful abdominal surgery in January and subsequent tests which revealed cancer—as yet of an unspecified kind—was present.

    Catherine, Princess of Wales, appears in this still image from a handout video released March 22, 2024, in which she announced that she is undergoing preventative chemotherapy after cancer was found to have been present, following abdominal surgery.
    Catherine, Princess of Wales, appears in this still image from a handout video released March 22, 2024, in which she announced that she is undergoing preventative chemotherapy after cancer was found to have been present, following her abdominal surgery in January.
    Kate said she was in the early stages of having preventive chemotherapy, which began in late February, and said she had needed to take time to explain her condition to her three children. It had been “an incredibly tough couple of months for our entire family, but I’ve had a fantastic medical team who have taken great care of me, for which I am so grateful,” Kate said.

    Kensington Palace said Kate was on a “recovery pathway”; the princess herself said she was well “and getting stronger every day.”

    “Please do not lose faith or hope, you are not alone,” Kate said, directly addressing fellow cancer sufferers.

    There is no doubt her office is certainly managing expectations downwards when it comes to the question of her return to work.

    Just this week, for example, her team clearly implied that she was not working from home when it announced the publication of a report commissioned by her Early Childhood initiative into how large businesses can better support the early childhoods of their staff’s children.

    While making clear she had read the report and been kept updated on it, and that her office was on top of things, the statement carefully avoided any suggestion she was spending her days sitting up in bed with a computer. A source described as a “senior royal aide” went further when it came to explicitly downplaying any suggestions she had an ongoing daily workload, telling the Mail: “She will return to work when she has had the green light from doctors.”

    Her office declined to comment to The Daily Beast on when Kate would next be seen in public or if she was working at home, but one courtier said: “The Princess is continuing her recovery at home. She continues to need the space and time to prioritize her privacy, as she said in her video.”

    There will certainly be a focus on family time next week, with her children’s school on recess for “half term,” a one-week holiday from school.

    “There have been rumors she has done drop-off, but I haven’t seen her since the video. We all feel very protective of her.”
    — Fellow school parent
    Kate and William are expected to “bail out” of their Windsor home on Friday, one friend said.

    They are likely to spend the short holiday at the family’s country house, Anmer Hall, on the Sandringham Estate in Norfolk, where there is plenty of room for her mother and father (Carole and Michael Middleton), to stay, and privacy is easy to enforce thanks to a protective local community, many of whom are either friends with or work for the royals in some capacity.

    Kate and the children fled to Anmer in March when school broke up for the Easter vacation. Just hours after arriving there Kate released her unprecedented (pre-recorded) video in which she revealed she had cancer. The couple had deliberately delayed releasing the news until the school holidays had started to protect their children from unwelcome attention in the schoolyard.

    The Daily Beast has been told by fellow parents at the smart private school which Kate’s children attend that she has not been seen at the sports matches and the other school events she and her husband usually religiously attend. However, she is understood to have done occasional school runs, one parent said, but while keeping a low profile.

    “There have been rumors she has done drop-off, but I haven’t seen her since the video,” said one. “We all feel very protective of her. Ask anyone at the school—they are amazing parents.”

  2. Wow, so lovely they can prioritize her mental health and level of stress. Too bad they choose not to for others who needed it.

  3. Getting prepped for Kate-gate 2.0. They sounding shady. KP get it together!

  4. I wouldn’t be surprised if this ends up being the case. Any aspect of her appearance or manner will be ruthlessly picked apart so I wouldn’t want to come back until I was 110%, either.

  5. I can’t help but think this strengthens the growing cultural feeling that perhaps the Royal system is unhealthy for the people in it, even if you find it good for the country. She can’t appear in public at all, for an entire year, to avoid stress for the good of her health? How is that a workable or humane life (even all the wealth and privilege in the world can’t insulate her sufficiently?) and what message does that send to the public about the desire of the humans at the heart of this system to be part of it?

  6. I saw this on Twitter and it was pointed out – why is Tom Sykes emphasizing Kate is with/supported by her birth family?? And says not with William and her friends. Like why say that right ?? 🤔 she’s been married forever this is odd and sticks out

  7. Are we allowed to say this is weird yet? Because this is weird.

  8. At this point, I’m convinced they’re separated. Whether she’s sick or not, she’s not with William, and they’re not quite sure how to announce it / make the transition to a single Prince of Wales.

  10. I guess we’re going to get something like this every couple of months

  12. Now can I say I’m worried about her and can the BBC please send someone to sit down (no photos, that’s cool) to confirm she is alive and as ok as one can be? Is it time now to ask for proof of life? I do not want details of her medical history. That’s not my business. I just want to know she’s alive and as ok as she can be.

    Is it time now?

  13. She’s probably lost all her hair (and weight) from chemo so she can’t appear till it grows out.

  15. “They have been there for her for decades and never let her down”. They being her parents and siblings.

  16. If she’s taking chemo she’s likely immunocompromised. She needs to avoid crowds and people. She’s being supported by her birth family because they can isolate themselves from large crowds much easier than the royal family.

    The royal family still has obligations to see the public including travel all over the world and therefore are at higher risk for contracting an illness and then passing it to Kate. Her birth family can restrict themselves and also track sick contacts much easier because they are not in huge crowds of people across multiple countries.

    I don’t think there’s anything untoward about her being closely supported by her birth family and not so much her in-laws because of this simple fact. I think her in-laws want her to recover quickly and love her very much but because of their royal duties can’t risk close contact with her.

  17. Kate’s hair is so much a part of her look, when she appears in public again and her hair is short, people will again start to speculate what kind of cancer she had because this certain kind is given this kind of chemo which causes hair loss. When she appears in public and has a full head of hair, people will think she is wearing a wig and will still speculate what kind of cancer she had. She cannot win.

  19. I see this as a harbinger of the future where the Royal Family slowly back away from all public appearances and disappear from public life. It just doesn’t make sense anymore to put a family in a fishbowl and think they’re gonna stay sane.

  22. It’s Tom Sykes, who is often full of shit. But let’s take him at his word….I don’t find it weird if Carole is taking care of her. It doesn’t mean Will ditched her or is like..abandoning his ill wife (and I’m no fan of Will, but the assumptions on here are wild and it’s amusing because when people make the assumptions about others y’all go crazy).

    If she has what I sadly think she has, it’s probably pretty bad and yeah, I would only want to spend time with my kids & family. Some people with cancer work and are social. Some can’t work at all and want to limit their exposure. Kate was already incredibly thin and likely had autoimmune issues (there are very few surgeries that require a lengthy hospital stay for stomach surgery) so I can imagine she’s physically struggling.

    A course of chemo (even adjuvant chemo) can last three to six months, so again, Kate not wanting to do public appearances until Nov….aligns with that. My mom had adjuvant chemo for “seven” months, which isn’t unheard of, for breast cancer.

    I get that some people like to go out, but my mom was fucking miserable during the whole thing, incredibly ill, and wanted to stay at home. Also, her immune system was wrecked. Just because you may known someone who goes out and works with cancer, doesn’t mean everyone is capable of doing it.

    Anyway, sometimes the simplest explanation is the most likely. And a lot of these comments are really mean spirited..and I don’t even like the BRF that much (I just find it fun gossip, and am an equal opportunity snarker).

  23. I don’t blame her. I would probably do the same in her shoes. She’s always appeared in public looking her best, even showing perfectionist tendencies. It is probably unfathomable to her to imagine being photographed looking ill, maybe losing her hair, and having those photos on every TV and newspaper around the world. She might be still very scared about what is happening or what could happen in the future regarding her illness and doesn’t have the energy to deal with looking and behaving like a ‘princess’ in public view.

  24. That’s totally fine! Celebrities can disappear for years and no one will care about that

Leave a Reply