Our nation is in shock as the Princess of Wales faces her toughest test

Oh, no. No. A sense that something was not right, that our wonderful Princess was perhaps in more trouble than we’d been told, was confirmed at 6pm on Friday with an unprecedented TV address that dealt a blow to the nation’s solar plexus. 

Some will simply have been stunned by the news, hardly able to comprehend it (what, cancer twice in the Royal family within two months? But she’s so young). Others will have been in tears, as I was, watching our Princess of Wales, parchment-pale, clearly fragile yet valiantly composing herself to record a message in that crystal-clear voice, reassuring us that, although it had been “an incredibly tough couple of months for our entire family”, she would be OK, given enough time, space and privacy. 

One friend who heard it on the car radio pulled over to the side of the road and sobbed. “I am just so upset,” she texted. Another confessed she was relieved that the Waleses hadn’t separated – one of the wilder rumours that had been flying around since the Princess of Wales was pictured in that photoshopped, too-smiley Mother’s Day picture without her wedding rings. “For the backbone of Britain, we need those two to be together and happily married,” said my friend. So true.

William ’n’ Kate, Kate ’n’ William, a couple for almost the whole of their adult lives, one unimaginable without the other. Our monarchy is assured as long as there is them (the Waleses will celebrate their thirteenth wedding anniversary on 29th April, six days after little Louis turns six). Suddenly, with this announcement, we are reminded that they are only human too, vulnerable at times, and Britain is badly shaken.    

As she finished her statement, the ramifications started to sink in. Prince William has to deal with a father and a wife with cancer at the same time. There are haunting echoes of Diana, too, another beloved princess whose personal challenges played out so publicly. Poor William must feel like there are snipers in the garden taking aim at his family. 

You could tell the children were uppermost in her mind, just as they are for any parent who is told they have cancer. George, Charlotte and Louis, she spoke their names aloud, her darlings. You know, I think they were the real reason she steeled herself to do it. To sit there on that wooden bench with spring bursting out behind her. Daffodils on a grassy bank, trees in blossom – a cruelly lovely backdrop for such sad tidings. How simply dressed she was in a matelot jumper and jeans, stripped of finery and clothed, instead, in a becoming humility, her beauty thrown into sharp relief by the strain on her face; a 42-year-old who is uniquely privileged yet now confronts everywoman’s frightening brush with mortality.

Her statement was carefully timed to coincide with the start of the school Easter holidays so the children could be safe at home and wouldn’t have to endure whispers in class about Mummy’s illness. (Sparing them the agonies of embarrassment young William and Harry suffered at boarding school when Charles and Diana were getting divorced.)

It’s not easy to protect your children when their grandfather is the King and their father his heir. The Prince and Princess of Wales have always been concerned to make things as normal, as Middleton, as possible, for their young family; this is their toughest test yet. Was there more than a hint of rebuke in the Princess’s carefully measured words for a media that really has shown neither patience nor “understanding” since she disappeared from public view to have abdominal surgery? She could be forgiven for being furious. (Believe me, many of us are furious on her behalf.) 

“William and I have been doing everything we can to process and manage this privately for the sake of our young family,” she said pointedly. “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 OK.”

“Back off,” she was saying in the politest possible way, “leave me and my kids alone.” 

Of course she needed time to come to terms with the shattering blow of having a life-threatening illness and three children under 10. Every mother’s nightmare. But time is one thing the vultures and conspiracy theorists were not prepared to give her. In the vacuum Kensington Palace foolishly allowed to develop, the vilest rumours flourished. Had she undergone cosmetic surgery? Wasn’t she just slacking? Why wasn’t William taking up more duties to relieve his sick father? Had Kate left William? Was it a lookalike pictured with William at a Windsor farm shop? The gossip went global, causing universal hysteria.

Imagine feeling as sick and scared as the Princess must have done, yet being under pressure to show yourself in order to disprove the lies and appease the baying online mob. It’s barbaric. I  hope those who made such disgusting comments are burning with shame today now that we know the reason she hid away. 

It wasn’t only ghouls with a conscience bypass who were trying to fill the gaps in the story. Theories also came from people who adore the Royal family and were deeply worried for the absent Princess. We love and respect her so much. Incredibly, in a poll earlier this month the recuperating Princess still managed to emerge as the most popular royal, narrowly ahead of her husband. Despite the slurry of accusations – not least the appalling claim in an early draft of a book by Harry and Meghan’s media snitch, Omid Scobie, that she was one of the two alleged “royal racists” who speculated on baby Archie’s likely skin colour – their figures are broadly unchanged since a previous poll in 2023.     

Never Put a Foot Wrong is said so often it’s practically the definition of her. Turns out there may be stresses and strains to appearing always in control, to aiming for perfection, that can eat away at a sensitive person not born to be royal. Kate says her job brings her joy; it must also have caused worry (such remorseless spotlight scrutiny). We should reflect on that, I think. On what it’s reasonable to expect from one human being who expects so much of herself.

How the Princess came to win such a large place in British people’s hearts is better than any fairy tale. Bullied at school, the quiet, sporty brunette was famous for her record-breaking high jump and tenacious character. She had blossomed by the time she met William in their first term at St Andrew’s. At 29, when they finally exchanged vows in Westminster Abbey, she was the first royal bride to have a university degree; the first to have lived with her husband before marriage; the first to be raised in a house that had a street number instead of a fancy name and a moat with swans. 

As second in line to the throne, William was expected to pick his princess from a select group of well-bred young fillies. Hot favourites included Davina Duckworth-Chad and one Isabella Amaryllis Charlotte Anstruther-Gough-Calthorpe. Enough hyphens to make plain Catherine Middleton of Bucklebury, Berkshire, feel a little inadequate, you might think. Except that, when a friend at university told Kate how lucky she was to be going out with Prince William, a smiling Kate replied: “He’s lucky to have me.”

The years have proved her right, haven’t they? The death of Diana left William a damaged, stubborn and angry young man, acutely aware he was a prisoner of fate and railing at the media who pursued his mother. Kate has calmed him, rebuilding trust while providing the regular family life he had never known. She has grown brilliantly into the role and the Waleses are a formidable team, lighting up any event they enter. Now, it is his turn to soothe and calm her, although he must be deeply worried.

“Having William by my side is a great source of comfort and reassurance too, as is the love, support and kindness that has been shown by so many of you. It means so much to us both,” she said. 

The King was right to salute his daughter-in-law for her courage. Imagine what it takes to first tell your small children you have cancer, and then tell the whole world. She did it so naturally, so sweetly, with such great empathy for others with that cruel disease that no one could possibly guess what it cost her. But it cost her. 

She has told George, Charlotte and Louis that Mummy is well, and getting better, but the only way she will make a full recovery is if she’s left alone as she completes her treatment. Will the vultures listen? Will they give her the time she needs or go back pecking for more? 

Millions of us are praying for the return to health of our wonderful Princess of Wales. She has all our support and love. A Britain without her is unthinkable, unbearable. Take your time, Princess, take your time.