Embracing Vulnerability: Kate’s Personal Journey Through Cancer
Unlike earlier updates on Kate’s health, which sounded like factual news reports, this had an entirely different tone, one much warmer and personal.
LONDON, UK — Public displays of affection on a royal video? My, how times have changed! When the Princess of Wales announced that she had completed chemotherapy treatment in a soft-focus, Insta-ready video, she ventured into realms not previously inhabited by Britain’s royal family, traditionally known for the stiff-upper-lip, “never complain, never explain” ethos of the late Queen Elizabeth II.
Here was the most popular royal, a public figure usually known simply as Kate, using the tools of social media to share the fact that for all her wealth and privilege, her life had been upended by cancer, just like millions of other people.
But it wasn’t just what she said, it was how she said it. Unlike earlier updates on Kate’s health, which sounded like factual news reports, this had an entirely different tone. The slickly produced mini-movie released on Monday showed the princess hugging Prince William and their three young children and sharing intimate moments at home with her parents. There’s even a chaste kiss on her cheek.
“It is a real break,’’ said George Gross, a royal historian at King’s College London. “But I think people will look at it and won’t necessarily realize that. I think they will think: This is just right, this is normal. That’s what a family does.”
Kate’s video marks the royal family’s latest experiment with greater openness since King Charles III assumed the throne in 2022. That has been tested repeatedly this year as both Charles and Kate were treated for serious health problems, then later announced they were undergoing cancer treatment.
For centuries, Britain’s royal family withheld news of illness for fear it might weaken their authority. That reticence and secrecy lingered even after they became constitutional figureheads.
Charles has made a point of being more open than his mother, Elizabeth, whom Buckingham Palace described as suffering from “mobility issues” in the months before her death.
In the video, Kate described how difficult the past nine months had been for her family and expressed “relief” at completing her course of treatment. “Life as you know it can change in an instant, and we have had to find a way to navigate the stormy waters and road unknown,’’ she said in the video, which was shot in a woodland near the family’s summer home in Norfolk.
Some see the film as a reflection of a family bonded in a crisis, as many do when facing illness — sharing their thoughts with others. “It is a love story,” former BBC royal correspondent Michael Cole told TalkTV. “You’re seeing it there. You’re seeing what it means to a family.”
Now that she has completed chemotherapy, Kate plans to slowly return to public duties, “undertaking a few more public appearances” in the coming months. But Kate said in her video that the path to full recovery would be long and she would “take each day as it comes.”
The video should be seen as part of the king’s effort to increase the openness of the royal family as he seeks to build support for the monarchy, Gross said. “It’s an operation. It’s the whole firm together,’’ he said. “And, I think, it really matches that sense of we’re being as open as we can, whilst retaining a natural sense of privacy that you need over these things.’’
