Before the Princess of Wales’ battle with cancer, critics of Kate slammed her work ethic, lambasting her and saying that—even though alongside her royal duties she is juggling raising three children 10 years old and under (including the future king)—she wasn’t undertaking enough engagements.
Of course, now everything has changed as Kate (rightfully so) focuses on her health. She has been out of the spotlight most of 2024, and after her March 22 announcement via video message that she was undergoing treatment for cancer, she has kept an enormously low profile. Her father-in-law, King Charles, is also battling cancer, but he came back to public-facing duties on April 30. Charles and Kate have grown closer through this awful experience, and royal biographer Christopher Andersen said, per OK, that anyone who dares criticizing his “beloved daughter-in-law” will “risk being read the Riot Act,” he said.
“There are those inside and outside the Palace who have criticized Kate over the years [before her diagnosis] for supposedly not shouldering her share of the royal burden, for not going to as many ribbon cuttings, hospital openings, and plaque unveilings as the late Queen Elizabeth II, the King, or Princess Anne, for instance,” Andersen said. “It has always been Kate’s choice to prioritize her children’s well-being over royal duties. In the past, Charles has remained silent about this and allowed the sniping from the sidelines to continue. But no more. Now, the King brooks no criticism of Kate—period.”
It has become known around the Palace that “Other royal family members and courtiers alike know that they risk being read the Riot Act by the King if they dare utter a negative syllable about Kate,” Andersen continued. “Charles has also made it clear that everyone should stand down in terms of when and how she returns to a full public schedule.”
Andersen also added that, after Kate’s video announcement revealing she had been diagnosed with cancer—which came about six weeks after his own announcement about his diagnosis, delivered via a statement, on February 5—“Charles was moved to tears by Kate’s stunning video announcement that she has cancer,” he said. “The King sees her as, in a word, brave. He also knows better than anyone that the future of the monarchy is, to a considerable extent, in her hands.”
He added “She is not only the wife of a future king but the mother of a future monarch. Kate has also shown herself to be unswervingly loyal to the royal family and above reproach—things he can’t always say about other Windsors.”
As terrible as the dual cancer diagnoses has been for the royal family (and not to mention Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York, who is also battling the disease), it has brought Charles and Kate closer together than maybe they’ve ever been. “Nobody understands more fully than King Charles just how difficult fighting cancer can be—the toll it takes emotionally and physically,” Andersen said, adding “The King has made it clear that whatever Kate feels she needs, she gets.”
