LONDON (AP) — Catherine, Princess of Wales, said Friday she has cancer and is undergoing chemotherapy.
Her condition was disclosed in a video message recorded on Wednesday and broadcast Friday, coming after weeks of speculation on social media about her whereabouts and health since she was hospitalized in January for unspecified abdominal surgery.
Watch her video message:
She asked for “time, space and privacy” while she is treated for an unspecified type of cancer.
“I am well,” she said. “I am getting stronger every day by focusing on the things that will help me heal.”
Catherine, 42, née Kate Middleton, hadn’t been seen publicly since Christmas until video surfaced this week of her with her husband, Prince William, heir to the throne, walking from a farm shop near their Windsor home.
Princess Catherine and Prince William accompany their children (from left to right: George, Louis, and Charlotte) to school on September 7, 2022, in Bracknell, England. (Jonathan Brady/Getty Images)
From right to left: Prince George of Wales; Catherine, Princess of Wales; Prince Louis of Wales; Princess Charlotte of Wales; and William, Prince of Wales, on the Buckingham Palace balcony during Trooping the Colour on June 17, 2023, in London, England. (Chris Jackson/Getty Images)
Catherine hugs her youngest child, Louis, during the Platinum Pageant on The Mall concert on June 5, 2022, in London, England, to celebrate the Platinum Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II. (Max Mumby/Indigo/Getty Images)
Kensington Palace had given little detail about Catherine’s condition beyond saying it wasn’t cancer-related, the surgery was successful and recuperation would keep the princess away from public duties until April.
The news is another shock for the royal family since the announcement last month that King Charles III was being treated for an unspecified type of cancer that was caught while undergoing a procedure for a benign enlarged prostate.