The Princess of Wales will attend the Remembrance Sunday ceremony at the Cenotaph with senior members of the royal family to mark an annual national day of remembrance for all those lost in war, Buckingham Palace has confirmed.
The palace has also said the princess would attend the Festival of Remembrance at the Royal Albert Hall on Saturday evening, a clear sign that the royal is on the road to recovery.
There is uncertainty, however, over whether Queen Camilla will be well enough to attend. The queen, who recently returned from Australia and Samoa with King Charles, has been in bed this week with a chest infection.
According to a family friend, the princess, who was photographed in Scotland in August attending a church service with Prince William and the king and queen, is “doing well” and feeling “better than ever.”
“Catherine was committed to attending two key events, Trooping the Colour and Remembrance Sunday, because she knows how important they are both to the king and the nation. She’s doing very well and feeling very strong and positive about the future,” the source told VF.com. “In fact, she and William have enjoyed a couple of low-key visits to Scotland recently without the children, which has been very special time for them.”
Aides say it’s the princess’s intention to return to work full-time when she is ready, and that she is working on her Christmas carol service of thanksgiving, to be held at Westminster Abbey next month, which she also plans to attend with her family.
The palace’s confirmation of her attendance at the Cenotaph ceremony this weekend comes after the Prince of Wales spoke about going through “the hardest year of my life” in an interview in Cape Town, following his Earthshot Prize awards ceremony in South Africa.
The prince, who has said very little about his wife’s cancer diagnosis and his father’s own cancer battle, opened up about what the past few months have been like, saying how proud he was of his wife and how the time has been “brutal.” He added that the princess is “doing well.”
Speaking to reporters in Cape Town about these stressful months, the prince said: “Honestly? It’s been dreadful. It’s probably been the hardest year in my life. So, trying to get through everything else and keep everything on track has been really difficult.
“But I’m so proud of my wife. I’m proud of my father, for handling the things that they have done.
But from a personal family point of view, it’s been, yeah, it’s been brutal.”
Asked how the princess is “getting on,” he smiled and said: “She’s doing well. Doing well.”
It has largely come down to William and Camilla to pick up the baton while the king and princess have undergone surgery and cancer treatments. The king, who recently carried out a tour of Australia and attended the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Samoa, is still undergoing treatment but is said to be tolerating it well.
William’s comments mark a new level of openness following the decision of his wife and father to speak publicly about their cancer journeys.
The prince spoke to reporters on the final day of his hugely successful tour of South Africa, which has hosted the fourth Earthshot Prize–giving ceremony.
Opening up about his plans for the future, the prince said he intended to use his platform and title to “do something good“ adding that, “I’m helping people’s lives and I’m doing something that is genuinely meaningful.”
William’s Earthshot initiative is a 10-year project aimed at finding solutions to the many climate and environmental issues the world faces. Every year for a decade, five winners will each receive 1 million pounds in prize money to put their ideas and innovations into practice.
