True extent of Princess Kate's cancer battle revealed

Courier-Mail

25-06-2025

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On June 15 last year Kate, The Princess of Wales really put the 'trooper' into Trooping the Colour and appeared at the annual celebration of the sovereign's birthday, despite being in the middle of chemotherapy.
She wore a suitably formal hat and waved with her signature aplomb. But what no one knew at the time was that underneath her Jenny Packham dress there was a port in her chest.
A port is a medical device used to draw blood and give treatments, including intravenous fluids, blood transfusions, or drugs such as chemotherapy and antibiotics.
Now, new details have come out about how 'serious' the princess' 2024 health battle was with it being claimed she 'is fortunate' to have survived.
Holy hell.
Buckle up - the word 'serious' is going to appear in this story a lot.
Until now, the severity of Kate's 2024 fight has never been revealed, with details hither too thin to the point of non-existence.
Kensington Palace has remained firmly tight-lipped about what sort of cancer she had and it was only in January that the world learnt she had been a patient at Chelsea's Royal Marsden Hospital.
The Princess of Wales revealed she had cancer. Picture: Danny Lawson / POOL / AFP
(During an emotional visit there in January she talked about the 'secrecy' of her treatment and having to use side doors for 'so many quiet visits'.)
Kate at Trooping in 2024 might have looked as we have always seen her - perfectly turned out and doing some Olympic-level smiling but behind the scenes, she was reportedly going 'to hell and back'.
On Tuesday the Daily Mail's royal editor Rebecca English published a shocking report offering details about what the princess was privately enduring.
Even before the dreaded 'c' word entered the picture, per English, the mother-of-three was 'seriously unwell' in the 'run-up' to having 'serious' abdominal surgery in January.
In March, as Kate herself announced that testing 'after the operation found cancer' and that she was having chemotherapy.
And then comes a bit of a blank in the Kate story. It would be six months before she and husband Prince William and their kids filmed a dreamy video meditation on life, love and the healing power of family and a nice old gnarled oak, in which she announced she had finished her treatment.
Kate pictured earlier this month. Picture: Yui Mok/Pool Photo via AP
The Mail's new report offers details about those mystery months and the severity of what Kate faced.
According to English, when she began treatment last year, she 'was fitted with a semi- permanent 'port' into her chest.
'This small device was inserted under the skin and kept in place until her treatment (delivered via the port through a special needle and a thin tube in vein close to the heart) was over, several weeks later.'
It was, the veteran royal editor writes, 'a literal lifeline - which offers no cast-iron guarantee of success, even if you are a royal.'
The princess, per English 'is fortunate to even be speaking of recovery' today.
The severity of Kate's illness has not been detailed before.
This startling new report comes a week after the princess reportedly triggered 'chaos' and 'panic' inside the palace after pulling out of Ascot only half an hour before she was set to arrive at the generally set-down-in-stone event.
William and Kate posted a video ton social media. Picture: Instagram
Royal staffers, The Daily Beast's Tom Sykes reported, were left 'bewildered and worried' by the dramatic change with rumours briefly swirling around that Kate 'either needed to see a doctor or had been rushed to the hospital.'
The Princess of Wales' withdrawing from the event, a source told English on Tuesday, 'is a good reminder that she was really seriously ill last year and underwent a significant period of chemo…It can take years [to recover]'.
Similarly a 'well-connected' source has told the Beast's Sykes that the Ascot mini-debacle was 'a wake-up call, not a one-off' and that Kate 'is recalibrating her entire life' after a 'horrific' few years.
What that practically means is that Kate is 'expected Kate to dramatically scale back her public appearances for the rest of the year,' per the Beast.
The world was shocked after Kate revealed what she had been going through. Picture: Supplied
Expect the princess to be seen at Wimbledon, starting June 30, and during the French state visit in July, but we could be in for a very Kate-lite year.
English reports that while an overseas tour 'cannot entirely be ruled out' it seems unlikely.
In November Willliam will be off to Rio de Janeiro for his Earthshot Prize awards but he could well be travelling solo.
The princess possibly going is officially still 'TBC', she reports, 'but my gut feeling is probably not.'
As English reported earlier this year, the Princess of Wales has 'been to hell and back'.
But what has become clear in the wake of the Ascot mess is that there is 'back' and there is 'back'.
The story was all over the globe. Picture: Supplied
How long until the princess is ready to return to anything like per-cancer workload is the great unknown.
We will next see her courtside at All England Lawn Tennis Club and after that toasting the Macrons but after that, the next Queen is set for a hopefully unbothered Wordsworthian summer stint in Norfolk and Scotland of long walks and lounging about in appropriately elasticised trousers.
Daniela Elser is a writer, editor and commentator with more than 15 years' experience working with Australia's leading media titles.
Originally published as True extent of Kate's cancer battle revealed