{"id":683657,"date":"2026-01-09T03:45:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-09T03:45:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/683657\/"},"modified":"2026-01-09T03:45:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-09T03:45:11","slug":"kate-celebrates-her-44th-birthday-the-day-after-surprising-nhs-staff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/683657\/","title":{"rendered":"Kate celebrates her 44th birthday the day after surprising NHS staff"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Princess of Wales is celebrating her 44th birthday, the day after making a surprise appearance to show support for under pressure NHS staff.<\/p>\n

Kate visited Charing Cross Hospital with the Prince of Wales on Thursday as the pair carried out their first public engagement of 2026.<\/p>\n

The princess\u2019s birthday on Friday falls just days before the first anniversary of her announcement at the start of 2025 that she was in remission from cancer.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe Prince and Princess of Wales during their visit to Charing Cross Hospital on Thursday (Isabel Infantes\/PA)PA Wire\/PA Images – Isabel Infantes<\/p>\n

The future queen will be hoping for a fresh start in 2026, with the Wales family settling into their new home, the Grade II-listed eight-bedroom Forest Lodge in Windsor Great Park, after a move from Adelaide Cottage in the autumn.<\/p>\n

Kate joined William, who had been planning to pay a solo visit, to drop in on NHS workers on a tea break in west London to offer support amid the challenging winter period, which has seen record levels of flu cases.<\/p>\n

Chatting to volunteer Maureen Gilmour, 86, who helps patients during their chemotherapy, the princess was told that \u201cpeople sit there for hours\u201d.<\/p>\n

Kate replied, \u201cI know\u201d, before touching William on the arm and adding: \u201cWe know.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"TheThe Princess of Wales and Prince George at the annual Royal British Legion Festival of Remembrance in November (Jack Taylor\/PA)PA Wire\/PA Images – Jack Taylor<\/p>\n

The princess had last been seen on Christmas Day when she joined William and their children Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis and the rest of the royal family for their traditional walk to church at Sandringham in Norfolk.<\/p>\n

George is set to enter his teens in July when he celebrates his 13th birthday.<\/p>\n

The prince is preparing to leave his prep school Lambrook, ready to start senior school in September, with Marlborough College and Eton thought to be among the contenders.<\/p>\n

Kate has gradually increased her public engagements over the past year, returning to state banquets including the one hosted for US president Donald Trump<\/a> at Windsor Castle.<\/p>\n

\"RoyalThe Princess of Wales at the state banquet at Windsor Castle for US president Donald Trump in September (Aaron Chown\/PA)PA Wire\/PA Images – Aaron Chown<\/p>\n

She missed Royal Ascot as she sought the right balance in the wake of her cancer treatment, but attended the VE Day commemorations, Trooping the Colour and the annual Order of the Garter service, made a solo visit to a V&A storage facility in London and travelled to meet the bereaved families of the girls killed in the Southport attack.<\/p>\n

She also debuted a new \u201cbronde\u201d look, stepping out with a blonder balayage in September.<\/p>\n

Kate has yet to undertake an overseas tour since her cancer diagnosis.<\/p>\n

William is expected to travel to the US for the Fifa World Cup in July, around the same time as commemorations marking the 250th anniversary of American independence, but it is not yet known whether the princess will join him.<\/p>\n

\"KateKate playing a game as she met members of the Scouts\u2019 Squirrels with Melania Trump<\/a> in Frogmore Gardens in September (Yui Mok\/PA)PA Wire\/PA Images – Yui Mok<\/p>\n

Last year, the prince marked Kate\u2019s 43rd birthday by making a public declaration of his love for his wife.<\/p>\n

In a rare move, William issued a heartfelt written message on social media after a turbulent 2024 which saw Kate diagnosed with cancer, praising her as \u201cmost incredible wife and mother\u201d, and saying \u201cthe strength you\u2019ve shown over the last year has been remarkable\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said he and George, Charlotte and Louis were proud of her, adding \u201cwe love you\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Princess of Wales is celebrating her 44th birthday, the day after making a surprise appearance to show…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":683658,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7708],"tags":[19783,13396,2832,2831,5105,7710,519,448,7712],"class_list":{"0":"post-683657","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-royals","8":"tag-birthday","9":"tag-kate","10":"tag-prince-of-wales","11":"tag-princess-of-wales","12":"tag-royal","13":"tag-royal-families","14":"tag-royal-family","15":"tag-royals","16":"tag-william"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115863088145212993","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/683657","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=683657"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/683657\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/683658"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=683657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=683657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=683657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}