Princess Kate: "My Cancer Recovery Was a Rollercoaster"

Catherine visited RHS Colchester Hospital and shed light on her health journey and putting on a brave face in uncertain times

The Princess of Wales with staff at RHS Colchester Hospital

Hello Dear Readers,

Word started buzzing not long after it was announced that Catherine, Princess of Wales, wouldn’t be attending a much-anticipated royal event. Naturally, the whispers and speculations kicked off straight away.

She was meant to be at Royal Ascot on Wednesday, the 18th of June, especially since Prince William was handing out a trophy. The official carriage list had just come out, showing the Prince and Princess riding together, and then, almost immediately, Kensington Palace put out a statement saying she wouldn’t be coming after all.

Royal aides insisted the original list had issued in ‘error’ - but their explanation did little to halt speculation as to why, not least because it was clear that Ascot had, at some point, been told she planned to be there.

The Palace would only say that the princess was ‘disappointed’ but ‘has to find the right balance as she fully returns to public facing duties’.

If you’ve ever gone through it yourself, or watched a loved one face it, you’ll know that cancer’s recovery isn’t a straight line. There are twists and turns, good days and rough ones, and nothing about it’s simple.

That’s just the reality for anyone who’s walked the road of cancer recovery. It’s rarely straightforward, and anyone who’s been through it knows the journey can be unpredictable.

Not long after Ascot, a piece by long-standing royal correspondent Rebecca English popped up in The Daily Mail. And if you’ve followed royal coverage over the years, the subtext wasn’t hard to spot, this had all the hallmarks of a carefully crafted message from the Kensington Palace press office. What were they trying to say? That Kate Middleton’s health was, at its core,