Kate Middleton and King Charles III reconnected on the public stage for the first time in six months when they stood next to each other Saturday on the Buckingham Palace balcony at the 2024 Trooping the Colour in London, England.
The Princess of Wales and the monarch waved to the crowd and soaked in the festivities, which included looking up as the Royal Air Force made its iconic appearance. It’s the first time Kate and Charles had been seen together in public since they announced their own cancer diagnosis earlier this year.
Kate and Charles were last together in public when the royal family attended the Christmas Morning Service at Sandringham Church on Dec. 25 in Sandringham, Norfolk. But after the holidays ended, there was palpable concern just weeks into the new year, when Kensington Palace on Jan. 17 sent out an alert that Kate had been admitted into The London Clinic for a planned abdominal surgery.
Two hours after that alert, it was announced that Charles would seek treatment for an enlarged prostate. His Majesty would ultimately be admitted to The London Clinic — where Kate was recovering — on the morning of Jan. 26 to undergo his surgery, but not before he first paid Kate a visit.
A source told ET at the time that the king and Queen Camilla “wanted to visit Kate” and see how she was doing before his prostate procedure. The king “absolutely adores his daughter-in-law,” another source close to the family told ET. They share a “warm bond” and he thinks she is a “wonderful mother” and has done a “remarkable job with her devotion to her work on behalf of the monarchy.”
On Jan. 29, both Kate and Charles were discharged from the hospital. But their health updates were far from over.
Less than a week later, on Feb. 5, Buckingham Palace announced that Charles had been diagnosed with cancer. Then, on March 22, Kate announced her own cancer diagnosis.
In that announcement, Kate shared she underwent abdominal surgery earlier in the year and it was thought that her condition was non-cancerous. But tests after the operation later “found cancer had been present,” prompting her to undergo “preventative chemotherapy.”
The Princess of Wales then offered her most extensive health update on June 14, when she shared that she’ll be undergoing treatment for “a few more months.” That being said, she also cautioned she’s “not out of the woods yet.”
“I’m looking forward to attending The King’s Birthday Parade this weekend with my family and hope to join a few public engagements over the summer,” she wrote in her statement, “but equally knowing I am not out of the woods yet.”
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