For the Royal Family, January is usually ‘downtime’ – a quiet month for diary planning and administration following high-profile events over Christmas. Not in 2024, however.
On January 17, just after 2pm, a statement from Kensington Palace was released announcing that the Princess of Wales had undergone abdominal surgery the previous day. She would remain in hospital for up to a fortnight and would be unlikely to return to public duties until Easter.
Her priority was to ‘maintain as much normality for her children as possible’. There would be no further updates unless there was ‘significant new information’. Aides let it be known her condition was ‘non-cancerous’.
Less than an hour and a half later another statement landed, this time from Buckingham Palace. Shorter, less dramatic, it stood out for the tone of its language: ‘In common with thousands of men each year, The King has sought treatment for an enlarged prostate,’ it said.
‘His Majesty’s condition is benign and he will attend hospital next week for a corrective procedure. The King’s public engagements will be postponed for a short period of recuperation.’
To have one such royal announcement was major news. To have two in the same afternoon led, immediately, to wider speculation. Had the King timed his announcement to draw some of the media heat away from the Princess?
On January 17, a statement from Kensington Palace was released announcing that the Princess of Wales had undergone abdominal surgery the previous day. Two months later, she revealed in a video that she was undergoing cancer treatment
Royal aides now smile at some of the more outlandish theories, pointing out that the two medical conditions had, simply, been a coincidence. ‘It was not an issue of, ‘Let’s all make sure it’s on the same day’,’ says one of those involved. ‘There just happened to be a certain time limit in which announcements had to be made for logistical reasons.’
Entirely understandably, the Princess of Wales wished to keep her recovery as private as possible. But in the absence of an explanation or updates, a bewilderingly fanciful series of conspiracy theories took flight around the world. Even sober publications like America’s Forbes magazine were referencing a Spanish TV report that the Princess was in a coma, alongside another fast-trending South American rumour that she was either in hiding following a disastrous haircut or failed cosmetic surgery.
In Scotland, meanwhile, rugby fans wondered why their patron the Princess Royal was not in Edinburgh on February 24 to see them win the sport’s oldest international contest, the Calcutta Cup, against England.
She was a regular at this event before most of the current team were born. At the last minute, however, the King had asked her to fly to Namibia to represent him at the funeral of the former president, Hage Geingob. Traditionally it would have been the job of the heir to the throne to attend an occasion like this (monarchs do not, as a rule, attend funerals). But the new Prince of Wales, William, was otherwise preoccupied.
Barely noticed by the media, the Princess Royal flew via South Africa on commercial flights to the Namibian capital Windhoek, returned to London overnight and was back in action for an engagement in Berkshire on the Monday. The next day, however, the Prince of Wales was absent again. He had been due to attend a memorial service for his godfather, ex-King Constantine of the Hellenes, at Windsor Castle.
Buckingham Palace also announced in January: ‘In common with thousands of men each year, The King has sought treatment for an enlarged prostate. His Majesty’s condition is benign and he will attend hospital next week for a corrective procedure’
With next to no notice, it was announced he would not be attending for ‘personal’ reasons. On social media and in mainstream media, patience was wearing thin.
Given that he lived a short walk from St George’s Chapel, what could possibly have prevented him from spending an hour commemorating his godfather?
It was well known that, like his father before him, the Prince was determined not to be dictated to by the monarch’s office.
‘William and his team like to police their own lanes. His father did exactly the same when he was Prince of Wales,’ points out one former member of staff.
Even so, the Prince’s behaviour seemed hard to explain. And no explanation was forthcoming, from his office or the King’s team.
In spite of the increasingly deranged speculation about the Princess’s whereabouts, the Waleses were sticking to their original strategy. The Prince continued to go about his official engagements while the Princess recovered in private.
‘No constitutional responsibility sits on the Princess of Wales and never will,’ says a senior aide to the King. ‘She is not in the line of succession.
‘She plays an absolutely vital supporting role to the Prince of Wales and in bringing up their children who are in the line of succession. But she herself is not. Her situation is different and it can be treated differently.’
After almost two weeks of hysteria and wild speculation, the ‘Where is Kate?’ brigade had an answer of sorts on March 10 as Kensington Palace released a photograph, taken by the Prince of Wales, of the smiling Princess surrounded by her children. This was not, aides insist, a response to noises off. It was something she had planned all along to mark Mothering Sunday.
Rather than calm down the commentariat and the cyber-trolls, however, the image only set them off all over again.
Some had spotted small inconsistencies with the photograph – a missing section of a child’s sleeve or blurring of a knee, for example. Clearly, the photo had undergone minor editing prior to release.
The two royal cancer diagnoses sent shockwaves across the globe. Kate and Charles are pictured embracing at the premiere for Bond film No Time To Die in 2021
The Waleses and their staff were astonished by what happened next. On the same Sunday, the world’s four main international photographic agencies issued a ‘kill notice’, industry jargon for retracting a photograph.
‘At closer inspection, it appears that the source has manipulated the image,’ Associated Press announced, declaring that the photograph had thus fallen short of its standards. Getty, AFP and Reuters said much the same.
While the industry’s concerns about the threat of artificial intelligence (AI) to the integrity of mainstream photography were well known, this seemed an oddly exaggerated, almost performative, response.
‘There were several factors,’ says one of the Waleses’ team. ‘Anything written or said about the Princess of Wales at that point was at fever pitch and front page news. It also spoke to the nervousness of the photography industry around AI and their future. Even so, the reaction seemed extremely disproportionate.’ As far as the Princess was concerned, says the aide, ‘this had just been a mother deciding to share a personal picture of her and her children on Mother’s Day to bring some joy to the nation. That’s all’.
Within Kensington Palace and Adelaide Cottage, the Waleses’ home at Windsor, there was no great soul-searching the next day.
‘The Prince and Princess have agency in everything,’ says the Kensington Palace staffer. ‘They are the final decision-makers.’
If there was frustration that the media should be making quite such a meal of a well-intentioned, homespun gesture, there was no time to dwell on it.
The agencies had ‘killed’ the image and it was time to try to ‘kill’ the story.
That morning, instead of a royal statement, the Princess issued a first-person apology via Twitter/X.
‘Like many amateur photographers, I do occasionally experiment with editing,’ she wrote. ‘I wanted to express my apologies for any confusion the family photograph we shared yesterday caused.’
Stories about the Princess, however, continued to pile up. A grainy video of her shopping at the Windsor farm shop surfaced online. Was it her or a lookalike? The Information Commissioner’s Office confirmed that it had received a report of a possible data breach involving the Princess’s hospital records.
With so much rumour and counter-rumour, even regular royal watchers scarcely noticed the launch of a new commercial venture by the Duchess of Sussex, a ‘lifestyle’ brand of household goods called American Riviera Orchard. And then, all the hysteria and speculation came to an abrupt halt at 6pm on March 22.
The Princess appeared in a pre-recorded video message that created a genuine sense of shock around the planet. She was undergoing treatment for cancer.
Dressed in a simple striped jersey and jeans, sitting on a wooden bench and surrounded by daffodils, she calmly outlined the story of her ordeal. ‘It has been an incredibly tough couple of months for our entire family,’ she said, explaining that the ‘major abdominal surgery’ had been successful.
The Princess of Wales is said to have become rather more interested in questions of faith as a result of her cancer ordeal. Here, she enjoys the company of worship minister Tim Laurence at Easter Sunday with daughter Charlotte last year
‘However, tests after the operation found cancer had been present. My medical team therefore advised that I should undergo a course of preventative chemotherapy and I am now in the early stages of that treatment.’
In cyberspace there was a mass stampede for cover as the trolls, the mockers, the critics and the peddlers of conspiracy theories beat a headlong retreat. This had been an immensely dignified and wholly rational explanation for what had happened in recent weeks.
Kensington Palace staff were assiduous in not giving details of the cancer, or of the treatment.
However, it was officially confirmed that the chemotherapy had started in late February.
In other words, it was entirely understandable why the Prince of Wales had not attended that service at St George’s Chapel and why there had been no clear explanation. Even ordinary members of the public now felt faintly embarrassed for having wondered what on earth had been going on in recent weeks.
It was commonly agreed that this had been an emotional moment for the whole country.
A number of commentators had been struck by the daffodils. These had been a strong feature of Elizabeth II’s ‘we will meet again’ broadcast in the depths of the Covid pandemic in 2020.
This address had a similar sense of stopping the country in its tracks, of resetting the barometer of national discourse.
It had certainly not been captured on a family mobile phone. The Princess had been filmed by a cameraman from BBC Studios Events Productions, the same team that filmed the Coronation and the late Queen’s funeral. The words, however, were entirely the Princess’s own.
Even the formal transcript issued by the Palace broke with protocol. It was attributed not to ‘HRH The Princess of Wales’, but to ‘Catherine, The Princess of Wales’, a tiny point, but a note-worthy one in an institution bound to a correct way of doing things.
The Princess made her first public appearance of the year on June 15 in honour of the King for his Birthday Parade, otherwise known as Trooping the Colour.
Ahead of the event, she issued another very personal statement which had all the hallmarks of being carefully written by the Princess herself.
‘I have been blown away by all the kind messages of support and encouragement over the last couple of months,’ she began.
‘I am making good progress, but as anyone going through chemotherapy will know, there are good days and bad days.’
There were still months of treatment ahead, she explained. Though she was ‘not out of the woods yet’, she hoped to attend the occasional public engagement like this one.
On her good days, it was ‘a joy’ to engage in school life and even a little work. ‘I am learning how to be patient, especially with uncertainty,’ she concluded. ‘Taking each day as it comes, listening to my body, and allowing myself to take this much-needed time to heal.’
The last-minute nature of her appearance was a reflection of that. ‘We wanted to give the green light that she was going to the parade when we knew, rather than to dangle the possibility,’ says one aide. ‘So it was very late in the day. But she was very keen on sharing an update on her progress.’
The Dean of Westminster the Very Reverend Dr David Hoyle stands beside Kate at a Christmas carol service at Westminster Abbey last year
After the parade, the family made the traditional appearance on the Palace balcony, with all eyes on the Princess of Wales.
It was a bittersweet moment for royalists. It was a pleasure to see the Princess out in public and in good spirits with her children, but also a reminder of how long it had been since her last such appearance: Christmas Day.
Whereas the royal operation around the King and Queen had not altered a great deal since his diagnosis, there had been great changes afoot in the smaller household of the Prince and Princess of Wales, with its 66 staff.
Earlier in the year, the Prince’s private secretary Jean-Christophe Gray had returned to the Civil Service, from where he had been seconded.
He had been replaced by a permanent recruit in the form of former diplomat and Balkan expert Ian Patrick.
The Princess had appointed a new private secretary too, Lieutenant-Colonel Tom White, ex-Royal Marines and a former equerry to the late Queen.
The Waleses had jointly hired a new chief operating officer, Sean Carney, brother of former Bank of England Governor Mark Carney, to run the financial side of things.
Until 2022 and his elevation to Duke of Cornwall, Prince William and his family had been funded by the Duchy of Cornwall as a subsidiary of his father. Some of the old infrastructure had since moved on with the King, leaving the new Duke to start again.
As one aide puts it: ‘Since the death of the late Queen, it has been a case of redoing the plumbing – hiring a finance team, an HR [human resources] team and all the rest.’
There were also changes within the Duchy of Cornwall, with the appointment of a new secretary (chief executive) and a ‘net zero target’ of 2032.
Given how long the staff had worked with the King in his days as Duke of Cornwall, they now found it easier to refer to the old boss and the new one by their numbers – ’24’ (the King – the 24th Duke of Cornwall) and ’25’ (Prince William).
Whereas ’24’ had preferred to communicate with the Duchy team by phone, ’25’ liked to stay in touch by WhatsApp.
However, when it came to publishing tax and expenditure, the new Duke was less enthusiastic. Whereas his father had traditionally included these details in the Duchy’s annual report on a voluntary basis, Prince William opted for the minimum disclosure required. Here was a small but telling indicator of the different views of father and son on the issue of royal transparency.
Robert Hardman’s book, Charles III, details the inside story of the King’s first years as monarch
Within the wider royal orbit, especially the Church of England, there had been speculation the events of 2024 might have nudged the Prince of Wales a little closer in the direction of the Almighty. He had not hitherto shared his father’s interest in faith and spiritualism, nor the late Queen’s solid devotion to the Anglican communion. Might the health scares afflicting his wife and his father have led to a little soul-searching?
‘No change of course there,’ is the firm response from one who knows him well.
‘He is a modern young man,’ says another, ‘and I think he gets embarrassed by certain aspects of ceremonial and religion.’
The Prince’s position, say those in a position to know, is that, when the time comes, he will observe all his constitutional obligations to the Church of England. He will not, however, suddenly become a regular worshipper or feign an enthusiasm for something that he does not feel personally, however bleak the situation.
The Princess, on the other hand, is said to have become rather more interested in questions of faith as a result of her condition.
‘I would say that things are more hopeful there,’ says one church-going friend of the family. These were all further subtle indications of the different outlooks and generational styles of the King and his elder son.
Since becoming Prince of Wales, the new heir to the throne had not accumulated a vast portfolio of patronages, as his father had done, but was keen to keep his focus on a deeper connection with a smaller number of organisations.
There was also his contrasting attitude to public disclosure, be it with regard to those Duchy accounts or the Princess’s illness.
How the Waleses choose to handle their communications is one of those issues on which the King knows well to steer clear.
If there is one element of the Kensington Palace operation that does concern some old hands in royal circles it is a sense that the Prince of Wales lacks the odd wise old consigliere who might step in to point out a potential misstep.
One veteran of the late Queen’s era points to the Prince’s intervention on Gaza in February and the lack of consultation with the Foreign Office as ‘a worry’.
The Prince had called for ‘an end to the fighting’ and ‘a desperate need’ for humanitarian support. Though perfectly benign sentiments, they were not entirely in line with government policy. Senior Foreign Office sources now say that the Prince’s statement had not been authorised. ‘We were briefed it was happening,’ says one, ‘but we were certainly not asked in advance.’
However, the Palace veteran adds: ‘I have to hand it to [William]. When he does appoint staff, he does choose very good people.’
The events of 2024 had brought the core family group together even more but the Waleses would still guard their autonomy, such as it is, very carefully. That came as no surprise to those who knew the King when he was at a similar stage of life.
‘William is just doing what his father did,’ says a former member of staff who worked for the King in princely days.
‘If Prince Charles was ever asked to do something by Buckingham Palace, he would triple-ask. He would say: ‘Who told you? Why?’ He might well ring his mother to check.’
It was not that there were things he actively did or did not want to do on the late Queen’s behalf. Rather, Prince Charles wanted to avoid any suggestion that he was trying to step into the monarch’s shoes or that he was being manipulated by scheming courtiers.
‘He was positively allergic to any suggestion that he might be trying to get closer to the role of monarch. It was always: ‘Do I have to do it? Are you sure?’.’ Now, it was his son doing the triple-checking.
Through the low points of the year, Prince William has been buoyed by small things, say his staff, like taking his two elder children to see Taylor Swift at Wembley (the US star’s backstage shot of them together accumulated more than nine million ‘likes’ in a day).
However, there remained, right across the wider royal circle and among the public at large, a strong sense that the Prince had been in a uniquely difficult situation in 2024.
‘He’s lost his mother, he’s effectively lost his brother, his wife’s got cancer, his father’s got cancer and he’s trying to keep the show on the road. It could hardly be more stressful,’ as one friend puts it.
One member of the Royal Household was particularly struck by the sight of the Prince, in the midst of all the issues at home, standing alongside Presidents Biden and Macron, as well as other heads of state and government, at Omaha Beach in Normandy, representing the United Kingdom in the absence of the King and Prime Minister.
‘There he was among twenty-odd world leaders, having just done events with the Canadians at Juno Beach and a walkabout in the crowd at Arromanches, speaking a bit of French, following big events in Portsmouth the day before – and he looked entirely comfortable and statesmanlike.
‘We know about his commitment to duty and service. But what you’ve seen since the start of this year, more than ever, is the Prince of Wales’s strength of character.’
© Robert Hardman, 2024. Adapted from Charles III by Robert Hardman (Macmillan, £22), to be published on November 7. To order a copy for £19.80 (offer valid to November 15 UK p&p free on orders over £25) go to mailshop.co.uk/books or call 020 3176 2937
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