Kate Middleton and Prince William were hurt by the fallout around the photo they released for Mother’s Day last year after the Princess of Wales admitted to editing the picture.
“There was a real sense then that they felt bruised by it,” royal author Robert Hardman tells PEOPLE in this week’s exclusive cover story. “It was treated like some great fraud.”
After undergoing planned abdominal surgery on Jan. 16, 2024, Princess Kate, 43, largely retreated from public view, fueling online rumors. When she shared a Mother’s Day photo of herself with her children Prince George, 11, Princess Charlotte, 9, and Prince Louis, 6, taken by William, on March 10, the image quickly became the center of controversy.
Online sleuths spotted irregularities, leading major picture agencies to pull it from circulation. The following day, Kate admitted to editing the picture, but by then, a firestorm of conspiracy theories had taken hold.
For Kate and her family, the experience was overwhelming.
Prince William and Kate Middleton, Princess of Wales with Prince George, Prince Louis and Princess Charlotte on on June 15, 2024.
Max Mumby/Indigo/Getty
“It was like being on a roller coaster for them… undergoing chemotherapy and trying to protect your children. It was like being in the middle of a tornado and not knowing when it was going to calm down,” says Ailsa Anderson, former press secretary to the late Queen Elizabeth.
Unbeknownst to the public at the time, Princess Kate had been undergoing treatment for cancer. She bravely shared her diagnosis on March 22, 2024, in an emotional video filmed at Windsor.
Kate’s announcement followed months of mounting speculation and relentless scrutiny, capping what has been the most challenging time of her and William’s lives.
“If you’re Prince William, you find out that both your wife and your father have cancer,” the prince’s former private secretary Jason Knauf said in a rare interview with 60 Minutes Australia, referring to King Charles‘ and Princess Kate’s cancer diagnoses shared last year.
It was, he added, “absolutely awful… the lowest I’ve ever seen him.”
King Charles, Queen Camilla, Prince William and Kate Middleton at the Commonwealth Day Service of Celebration at Westminster Abbey on March 10, 2025.
Aaron Chown – WPA Pool/Getty
William himself reflected on that difficult period while speaking to reporters in Cape Town during his Earthshot Prize visit in November 2024.
“Trying to get through everything else and keep everything on track has been really difficult,” he said then. “I’m so proud of my wife, I’m proud of my father, for handling the things that they have done. But from a personal family point of view, it’s been, yeah, it’s been brutal.”
The hardest moment for Kate came around this time in 2024, according to Hardman, author of The Making of a King: King Charles III and the Modern Monarchy: “She knew she had the disease, but she couldn’t talk about it because she wanted to wait until the school holidays. Meanwhile, people were saying horrible things online.”
Adds royal biographer Sally Bedell Smith, who runs the Substack Royals Extra, “They were besieged by ugly speculation and intrusion, with Kate having to make an announcement that was very worrying and uncertain.”
Prince William and Kate Middleton at the Six Nations Match between England and Wales at Principality Stadium in Cardiff, Wales on March 15, 2025.
Alastair Grant-WPA Pool/Getty
By September, there was reason for optimism. Kate had completed her chemotherapy, and in January she received the welcome news that her cancer was in remission. Since then her return to public duties has been measured and deliberate, each step taken with a renewed sense of purpose. In fact, Kate has surprised many palace insiders with her bold approach.
While some speculated that her public appearances would remain limited and largely alongside William, she defied expectations with a string of solo engagements early in the year.
“She is the MVP of the royal family, and no one knew when she was going to come back,” says royal historian Amanda Foreman.
Kate Middleton marks St. Patrick’s Day with the Irish Guards on March 17, 2025.
Samir Hussein/WireImage
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Her recent engagements, from visiting a children’s hospice to championing her early-childhood development initiatives, have reflected a deepened commitment. Her meaningful solo appearance on March 17 to fulfill the annual tradition of distributing St. Patrick’s Day shamrocks to the Irish Guards, for which she serves as honorary colonel, was particularly poignant. She was forced to miss the event last year while recovering from abdominal surgery, and shared days after the parade that she was receiving treatment for cancer.
“There is definitely a feeling of resetting the dial — of being back,” Hardman says.