This fall, Kate Middleton returned to public engagements following a year spent largely out of the spotlight due to health issues and treatment following a cancer diagnosis, but her schedule is still greatly reduced. Though the princess met with victims of violence in Southport, stood on the balcony at November’s Remembrance Day Cenotaph ceremony, and hosted her annual Christmas choral concert at Westminster Abbey, an insider told People that she isn’t planning to return to her previous pace anytime soon.
“She won’t be going back to work in the same way for a long time,” the insider said. “You can’t go through something like that and come out the other side unchanged. She is a different person now.” A family friend told the magazine that Princess Kate “is not back to normal,” but there are signs of “light at the end of the tunnel.”
For the last decade, Kate’s work as a full-time royal meant a diary of high-wattage public engagements where she met citizens and attracted attention for charitable causes, all rounded out by work days in her palace office. At the same time, she and husband Prince William prioritized their young family when planning their work schedules, reportedly at the encouragement of Queen Elizabeth II. Still, Kate’s consistency and eye-catching outfits made her the public face of the family, even if she never beat Princess Anne and King Charles III for the title of busiest working royal in terms of her number of public events.
Following the queen’s death in September 2022, William and Kate launched new projects and began ramping up their engagement schedules, with the hope of taking on more of the royal workload, so it came as a surprise in January 2024 when the princess’s public-facing work came to a halt. She was eventually hospitalized for two weeks in January for abdominal surgery, and her slow recovery prompted international concern.
When Kate announced that she had been diagnosed with an unspecified form of cancer in a March video, she emphasized that she was putting her health and her three children, Prince George, Prince Charlotte, and Prince Louis first. A source close to the royal household told People that her experience with cancer has encouraged her to continue focusing on her family.
“Life-threatening illnesses bring a reconsideration of priorities,” the source said. “She and William have always made it clear that family is the most important thing.”
