Kate middleton

DIAGNOSED

WHEN KENSINGTON PALACE ANNOUNCED ON JAN. 17 THAT Catherine, the Princess of Wales, had undergone a “planned ab-C dominal surgery” and would likely not participate in any public engagements until after Easter, speculation swirled. In the press and online, many wondered what was behind such a prolonged absence from royal duties. The question sparked both well-wishes and—especially after a Mother’s Day photo of the Princess and her children was revealed to have been manipulated—conspiracy theories. But when Kate Middleton herself announced in a video released March 22 that she had been diagnosed with cancer following that surgery and was undergoing “preventative chemotherapy,” the news was a sober reminder life is no less fragile for being lived in public.

In the video, the Princess thanked the public for their messages of support during her recovery from surgery, sharing that while doctors had thought the condition that initially required the surgery, about which the palace did not share more information, was noncancerous, “tests after the operation found cancer had been present.” The royal—whose illness compounds an already difficult time for the British monarchy, as King Charles III faces his own cancer diagnosis—added that she and Prince William had stayed silent in part to have an opportunity to privately explain her diagnosis to her three young children and “to reassure them that I am going to be OK.”

Kate’s appeal for continued privacy was received by a world perhaps chastened by the furor over her no longer mysterious whereabouts. “We hope that you’ll understand that a