People Magazine’s cover story this week is all about the Princess of Wales. What’s remarkable is how little there is to say. Throughout 2024, it’s often felt like there’s a huge part of Kate’s story which was never revealed or openly discussed, but people were leaving bread crumbs and talking around whatever “it” was. All I know is that by Wimbledon in July, Kate looked like she had a new lease on life. Refreshed, fluffy hair and the same gawping and jazz hands. By the time she released her bizarre “cancer free” video in September, we thought Kate would be back to regular programming. But no, we’re going to get months, if not years, of Kate’s mysterious absences, all in the name of “recovery.” I was also left with the impression from this People story that Kate and her handlers are kicking the can down the road even further, basically saying that it will all come out in the wash once Kate is queen consort. Well, here’s more from People’s cover story:
Kate has changed: “You can’t go through something like that and come out the other side unchanged,” an insider tells PEOPLE in this week’s issue. “She is a different person now.”
Kate’s intentionality: Despite the uncertainty surrounding the royal family, Kate is approaching her path forward with intentionality. Experts and sources close to the family agree that she isn’t rushing back into her previous routine. “She is focused on herself and her family right now, rightly,” says a source close to the palace.
She will only pursue her passions: She likely won’t return to her previous intensity—she took on 128 engagements in 2023—in the coming year. The palace has cautioned that decisions about 2025 will be taken in line with medical advice. “She will probably continue to be strategic about how often she appears in public, and people shouldn’t hold it against her if she is doing less next year,” says royal biographer Sally Bedell Smith. “The important thing is she will be pacing herself. She will do what she’s able to do and pursue things she feels passionate about.”
Don’t expect too much: Adds Anderson: “She is a member of the royal family but also a wife, mother and daughter. Don’t expect too much— she’s a person going through something horrific.” Says the insider: “She won’t be going back to work in the same way for a long time.”
I chuckled a bit at “Kate is approaching her path forward with intentionality.” They’re trying so hard to make it sound like everything this year was completely above-board and there wasn’t a months-long PR catastrophe because Kate, William and their staff could not stop lying and misrepresenting everything. Not to mention the completely contrived video, an announcement that she had completed chemotherapy and was focused on “staying cancer-free,” as she galloped and twirled in a meadow in between rolling around on a beach with William. The palace messaging is still significantly dire, you must admit. If the message is “Kate is much too fragile to do more than one event a month,” then why the video? Why the hours spent prancing around Wimbledon? And why is she ordered to appear at certain events, but benched for events where she could wear a tiara?
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images. Cover courtesy of People.
