The Gist
-
Kate Middleton made a poignant visit to RAF Coningsby in Lincolnshire on October 2, her first visit to the base.
-
The Princess of Wales was named royal honorary air commodore of the base in 2023.
-
Her husband, Prince William, also served in the RAF, and was stationed at RAF Anglesey from 2010 to 2013, where he and Kate spent their earliest newlywed years.
Kate Middleton is back at front-facing work today, undertaking a poignant visit to RAF Coningsby after becoming royal honorary air commodore of the base in 2023.
October 2 will mark the Princess of Wales’s first visit to the Lincolnshire base, and while there she is expected to meet personnel and get an overview of recent operations at the site, according to the BBC. The visit is also set to include a viewing of the Quick Reaction Alert Typhoon aircraft—which provides around-the-clock protection for U.K. airspace—meeting members of RAF Coningsby’s welfare team, and seeing a newly opened training facility. The future queen will also meet families of those serving at the base as well as speaking to aviators from junior ranks to hear about their experiences. She wore a gray checked pantsuit, black heels, and her RAF pin as she made her visit on Thursday.
Getty
Kate Middleton at RAF Coningsby on October 2, 2025
Getty
Kate Middleton at RAF Coningsby on October 2, 2025
Kate’s visit adds another layer of poignancy, as her husband, Prince William, served in the RAF, training as a search and rescue helicopter pilot from 2010 to 2013 at a different RAF base, RAF Anglesey.
Getty
Kate Middleton on October 2, 2025
Getty
Kate Middleton on October 2, 2025
The Princess of Wales’s engagement today follows a high-profile state visit last month, where she charmed U.S. President Donald Trump at a state banquet at Windsor Castle on September 17 and then did the same for First Lady Melania Trump at a joint appearance on September 18. Though Kate “lit up the table with the megawatt smile” at the state banquet, following her cancer treatment she is still not at “100 percent,” royal biographer Ingrid Seward told People.
“There was a lot of pressure on her, because all eyes were on her,” Seward added. “She would be very aware that the most important person there was the King, but she can’t help that all eyes are on her.”
Getty
Kate Middleton on September 17, 2025
When asked by the outlet if the future queen is the royal family’s “secret weapon,” Seward said, “She is the weapon—not a secret one.”
Following her cancer diagnosis in early 2024, Kate was absent from public life for most of the year, announcing in September of last year that she had completed cancer treatment and sharing in January of this year that she was in remission.
Getty
Kate Middleton on June 16, 2025.
Getty
Kate Middleton on June 14, 2025
“One of the things Kate’s illness showed us is how much we need her,” royal biographer Katie Nicholl told The Mirror. “Now she’s working again, you can see how instrumental she is. That was never more apparent than in all those months when we hardly saw her. I think the whole nation felt her absence.”
“She offers such a story of hope and positivity,” Nicholl continued. “She has shown you can survive cancer and continue to live a full, healthy life after diagnosis.”
Read the original article on InStyle