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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Harriet Sherwood

‘Hardest conversation’: how to tell children about a cancer diagnosis

Princess Charlotte, Prince George, Prince Louis and Catherine Princess of Wales at a Christmas Day church service in Sandringham, Norfolk, 2023.
Princess Charlotte, Prince George, Prince Louis and Catherine, Princess of Wales at a Christmas Day church service in Sandringham, Norfolk, 2023. Photograph: Arthur Edwards/WPA Pool/Shutterstock

For many parents coming to terms with a cancer diagnosis, it is the hardest conversation to have. How do you tell your children that you have a serious illness, and that you can’t be certain of what the future holds?

In her video statement released on Friday, the Princess of Wales said the news of her cancer had been a “huge shock”. It had taken her and William “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”.

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