Not long after her video message on March 22 announcing to the world she had been diagnosed with cancer the month prior, the Princess of Wales and her family—husband Prince William and kids Prince George, Princess Charlotte, and Prince Louis—have been at their country home, Anmer Hall, on the grounds of the Sandringham Estate in Norfolk. Kate has spoken in the past about how much her family loves to be there, away from it all, enjoying the outdoors, getting dirty, and taking a breather from life inside the royal fishbowl.
It’s no doubt what the family of five is doing now as all three kids remain on Easter break from Lambrook School, and former BBC royal correspondent Jennie Bond said that Kate will be taking time to recover and heal over Easter break, and will be “doing her best to join in the outdoor life,” per The Sun.
“I expect Catherine and William will blank out any talk of her illness with the kids,” she said. “She says she’s getting stronger every day, so I’m sure she’s doing her best to join in the outdoor life—the picnic, barbecues, and walks on the beach.”
Royal expert Dickie Arbiter praised Kate for delaying her announcement to coordinate with her kids’ Easter break from school—only telling the world when she and William could ensure that they’d be away from prying questions of fellow classmates that are curious. “Kate got her priorities right by talking to the family and children first, and then telling everybody what is wrong, what sort of treatment she’s getting and that she’s getting stronger and hopes to be back soon,” he said.
Kate’s video announcement would be difficult for anyone to deliver, but particularly so for Kate as “she is inherently shy, and for her to do that took a lot,” royal biographer Sally Bedell Smith said, per People. Bedell Smith said the Princess of Wales was “sincere, dignified, poised, and she was forthright” in her delivery, and it reminded the longtime royal expert of someone many if not all would love to be compared to: the late Queen Elizabeth.
“When she [Kate] ended with ‘You are not alone,’ it rang a bell with something that Queen Elizabeth would have said,” Bedell Smith said. “It was very similar to what Queen Elizabeth said during COVID when she said, “We are all in this together.’” Bedell Smith added “She [Kate] 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. There was not a trace of self-pity. She projected honesty. It was the right balance.”
Kate’s father-in-law King Charles is also battling cancer, and “It’s very clear that he’s extremely concerned about her,” royal biographer Robert Hardman told Hello of how Charles feels about Kate. “I think he wants to make sure as much as he can that if there’s anything he can do, he will do, because for a very fit and healthy young mother, this is a different order of magnitude to someone having to deal with this in their seventies. I’m sure he’s been a source of comfort for her in the same way she’s probably been a source of comfort for him. I think it cannot but have brought them even closer together. He’s always had a huge regard for his daughter-in-law. He thinks she’s just wonderful.”
Hardman added “It’s a reminder that the Windsors are mortals like the rest of us. And we have to have great sympathy with the fact that they are undergoing an absolute shock of a lifetime, except they’re having to undergo it with all of us talking about it.”
