Kate Middleton: Why William was not with Kate in her cancer diagnosis video revealed

The Queen said she is “still standing” when a well-wisher asked her how she is amid the King’s cancer diagnosis during a visit to Shrewsbury on Wednesday, 27 March.

Camilla was greeted by huge crowds during a visit to a farmers’ market in the town centre.

She also stopped to say hello to ten-year-old Harriet and Lois Waterston, aged six, who gave her posters they had made saying “send our love to Kate”.

Camilla’s visit to Shrewsbury was her first royal engagement with members of the public since the monarchy’s double cancer scare.

The Princess of Wales did not want her husband by her side in the video revealing her cancer diagnosis as she wanted to “personally deliver” the news herself.

Sitting on a bench surrounded by greenery, Kate was markedly alone as she told the speculating world that she is undergoing preventative chemotherapy.

As many wondered why Prince William was not in the emotional video, a palace source told People: “It is a message from the princess about her health, and she wanted to personally deliver the message on her own.”

However, Kate did refer to her husband in the two-minute address, as she said: “William and I have been doing everything we can to process and manage this privately for the sake of our young family.”

The palace insider said the Prince of Wales has been “supporting throughout,” adding: “William is extremely proud of his wife for the courage and strength she has shown not just this week but since her surgery in January.”

British filmmaker Christopher Nolan and his wife and producer Emma Thomas are to receive a knighthood and damehood for their services to film.

Their recognition comes after their biopic Oppenheimer swept the 2024 awards season.

Earlier this month, London-born filmmaker Nolan won his first Oscar for directing the movie about the “father of the atomic bomb”, which starred Irish actor Cillian Murphy in the titular role.

It was also the first time the couple won the best picture Oscar and best film Bafta having previously been nominated for 2010’s sci-fi Inception and 2017’s war thriller Dunkirk.

Over the years, Thomas has collaborated with Nolan on all of his major feature films, including The Dark Knight trilogy, 2014’s Interstellar and 2020’s Tenet.

The Queen was inundated with goodwill messages for the King and Princess of Wales when she stood in for her husband during the historic Royal Maundy Service.

Camilla was asked to pass on public support from some in the congregation at Worcester Cathedral, where she presented Maundy money to community stalwarts in recognition of their service.

And when she went on a brief walkabout, meeting well-wishers outside, she was presented with a card for her daughter-in-law while others told the royal they were thinking of her.

In a video statement issued on Friday evening, Kate announced that she had begun preventative chemotherapy and told other cancer patients: “You are not alone.”

Ever since Anthony Bridges found out he had prostate cancer six years ago, he hasn’t stopped talking about it. He told his Facebook friends immediately.

Now, the 68-year-old man from Georgia spends time working with others to encourage other men to talk to their doctor about getting screened.

Not everyone is as eager to share, for cultural or privacy reasons — or because they just don’t want to talk about it. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin kept his prostate cancer quiet, including from President Joe Biden. And more recently, Kate, Princess of Wales, waited weeks before publicly disclosing her cancer.

Born Catherine Elizabeth Middleton in January 1982 in Reading, England, the former Kate Middleton grew up in a well-to-do neighbourhood in Bucklebury, Berkshire, and has two siblings, Pippa, 39, and James, 35.

She is the eldest of the three, shared by parents Michael and Carole Middleton – a former flight dispatcher and flight attendant at British Airways who went on to found Party Pieces, a company selling supplies for children’s parties, in 1987.

Although they had ties to members of the royal family and members of the British aristocracy, the Middletons themselves have no aristocratic background, and the British press often referred to Kate as a “commoner” marrying into royalty.

According to a report in the Daily Beast, the unidentified friend of the couple said they had been “clear they want peace and quiet… A visit from Harry, with all the drama that would bring, would be the opposite of that”.

Another friend of William and Kate was quoted as saying that “they have come to terms with the estrangement from Harry, and are content to let sleeping dogs lie”.

A media frenzy was born on Feb. 27, when the hashtag #WhereIsKate exploded online with speculation about the whereabouts of Britain’s Princess of Wales. It opened a rabbit hole of amateur detective work, memes, bizarre theories and jokes — mixed with genuine concern about Kate’s health — into which thousands of people descended until her announcement last week that she was recovering from cancer.

The episode offered the royal family — and everyone else — a lesson in the modern world of online media: If your silence leaves an information vacuum, others will rush to fill it. And the results may be messy.

“The royal family’s mantra is never complain, never explain,” said Ellie Hall, a journalist who specializes in covering Britain’s king and his court. “That really doesn’t work in a digital age. It doesn’t take much to get the crazy things going.”