Kate, Princess of Wales: ‘I am being treated for cancer’

One of the most famous, photographed, and talked-about women in the world is fighting a very personal battle.

Kate, Princess of Wales, disclosed on Friday (March 22) that she is being treated for an unspecified form of cancer. In a video statement recorded by BBC Studios, she said it was a “huge shock after an incredibly tough couple of months”. But she also said, “I am well and getting stronger every day.”

She said that they discovered she had cancer only after they carried out tests post her abdominal surgery in January this year. Her medical team advised her to have preventative chemotherapy, which she underwent in late February. In fact, she and King Charles, who has also been undergoing treatment for cancer, were treated at the same time at a private hospital in London.

Message of hope to those affected by cancer

The princess sent out a positive message to everyone affected by cancer, saying, “For everyone facing this disease, in whatever form, please do not lose faith or hope. You are not alone.”

She said it had taken her and her husband some time to explain the situation to their young children and to reassure them that she was going to be okay.

The revelation went alongside a request for “some time, space, and privacy while I complete my treatment” and was in part an attempt to quell the clamour of rumour and speculation that has built since the palace announced in January that Kate, 42, had undergone abdominal surgery and would be out of sight for several months.

Palace hopes that she would be left alone to convalesce were dashed. An admission from Kate that she altered an official family photo - one meant to reassure the public that she was doing well - only made things worse.

It was a rare misstep for the princess, who has hardly put a foot wrong in her journey from William's shy “commoner” girlfriend to the glamorous young mother who, more than any royal since Princess Diana, boosted the popularity and appeal of the British monarchy worldwide. Kate has enjoyed overwhelmingly positive coverage from the press in recent years, but her relationship with journalists hasn't always been smooth sailing.

From ‘commoner’ to princess

The former Kate Middleton is the oldest of three children brought up in a well-to-do neighbuorhood in the county of Berkshire, west of London. The Middletons have no aristocratic background, and the British press often referred to Kate as a “commoner” marrying into royalty.

Kate attended the private school Marlborough College and then University of St. Andrews in Scotland, where she met William around 2001. Friends and housemates at first, their relationship came to be in the public eye when they were pictured together on a skiing holiday in Switzerland in 2004.

Kate graduated in 2005 with a degree in art history and a budding relationship with the prince.

Uneasy relationship with the press

The pair's relationship came under intense public scrutiny from the start.

In 2005, Kate's lawyers asked newspaper editors to leave her alone, saying photographers were invading her private life. That didn't stop media interest in her relationship with William, or unkind headlines calling her “Waity Katie” when the couple briefly split in 2007.

The couple's 2011 wedding sparked a level of royal-mania unseen since the nuptials of the then-Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer in 1981. After the wall-to-wall wedding coverage, the couple retreated to a relatively quiet life away from the limelight in rural Wales for two years while William completed his military service.

But the royals' tussle with the press again came to the fore in 2012, when William and Kate sued a French magazine for publishing photos of a topless Kate, snapped while the couple was holidaying at a private villa in southern France.

Media pressure on Kate largely eased when Prince Harry married Meghan Markle in 2018, and the tabloids' critical eye turned to scrutinise the bi-racial American actress. The papers often depicted Meghan as the upstart newcomer to the royal institution, a contrast to reliable, staid Kate, now a mother to the future king and a darling of the front pages with her elegant outfits and photogenic smile.

Coming into her own

Kate rarely revealed her thoughts in public, though in recent years she has grown in confidence as a public speaker and a champion of early education for young children. In 2021, she showed she had some talent as a performer, surprising the audience at a Christmas carol service with her piano playing.

Motherhood brought about a determination to forge a new, more controlled relationship with the media. In 2015, when Kate and William's first-born, Prince George, was 2, the couple appealed to journalists to stop taking unofficial photos of him. They said they wanted their children to lead as “normal” a life as possible.

Since then, Kate and William have periodically released their own photos of their three children - George, 10; Princess Charlotte, 8; and Prince Louis, 5 - to mark important dates and milestones such as birthdays and Christmases.

Relative privacy

In 2022, the family moved from Kensington Palace in central London to a cottage near Windsor Castle, further underlining their desire to raise their children in relative privacy. That went well until January, when palace officials announced that Kate was hospitalised for abdominal surgery. They said she would not appear for public engagements until Easter.

Her decision to keep details private fuelled a social media frenzy. The release of a photo to mark Mother's Day in Britain, which was withdrawn later by The Associated Press and other news agencies over concerns about digital alteration, only fanned more questions.

There have been calls for privacy by Kensington Palace after a lot of speculation and conspiracy theories in the media.

Wishes for health and healing

Prince Harry and his wife Meghan reached out with a message wishing health and healing for Kate and her family, and hoping they could do so in privacy and peace.

Prime Minster Rishi Sunak and Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer wished her speedy recovery, with the former saying she had shown “tremendous bravery with her statement”, and the latter saying he was “heartened by Catherine’s optimistic tone and her message of faith and hope”.

(With agency inputs)