To King Charles, Kate Middleton has always been like the daughter he never had. Their bond has been a special one over the years, and now, they find themselves facing the same difficult battle—cancer.
As they both undergo treatment, His Majesty and his daughter-in-law have been a source of strength for each other.
Not long before her public announcement, Kate was spotted in the gardens of Windsor, where she reportedly shared a private lunch with King Charles at Windsor Castle. Recently, new details about their meeting have come to light, touching the hearts of many.
After weeks of speculation about her health and absence from public life, Kate finally broke her silence on March 22.
In an emotional video, the Princess of Wales revealed her cancer diagnosis and shared that she is now undergoing chemotherapy.
“I wanted to take this opportunity to say thank you, personally, for all the wonderful messages of support and for your understanding whilst I have been recovering from surgery,” Kate said in the video, seated on a bench in Windsor with daffodils blooming in the background.
“It has 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. Tests after the operation found cancer had been present,” Kate continued, adding that she was in the early stages of treatment.
“This of course came as a huge shock, and William and I have been doing everything we can to process and manage this privately for the sake of our young family.”
“As you can imagine, this has taken time. It has taken me time to recover from major surgery in order to start my treatment. But, most importantly, it has taken us time to explain everything to George, Charlotte and Louis in a way that is appropriate for them and to reassure them that I am going to be okay,” the Princess of Wales added and asked for privacy.
Royal experts agreed that Kate’s video showed her strength and courage.
“She is inherently shy, and for her to do that took a lot,” Bedell Smith explained, adding that she got flashbacks to Queen Elizabeth II.
“When she ended with ‘You are not alone,’ it rang a bell with something that Queen Elizabeth would have said,” Bedell Smith explains. “It was very similar to what Queen Elizabeth said during COVID when she said, ‘We are all in this together.’”
“She was mindful there are very few people who read about that or watched that who doesn’t know someone who has cancer. She was mindful of that. It was a way of reassuring people not only about her condition but helping them have courage,” Sally Bedell smith added.
Kate and Charles have always been close and the fact they are now both fighting cancer brought them even closer together.
Speaking on The Royal Beat, royal commentator Victoria Arbiter noted that Charles and Kate “would have found tremendous comfort in each other, going through something so similar.”
After Kate publicly shared her health condition, the Palace released a statement on behalf of King Charles, expressing that he was “so proud of Catherine for her courage in speaking as she did” and emphasizing that he has “remained in the closest contact with his beloved daughter-in-law throughout the past weeks.”
