Kate Middleton spent most of the year battling cancer, but the Princess of Wales is slowly returning to royal duties after months of living under the radar.
“You can’t go through something like that and come out the other side unchanged,” an insider told an outlet. “She is a different person now.”
“She is focused on herself and her family right now, rightly,” a source close to the palace added.
Kate returned to the spotlight in June for Trooping the Colour, but she continues to be selective with which engagements she attends.
According to Queen Elizabeth’s former press secretary Ailsa Anderson, the mom-of-three has “not fully recovered,” but “each time we see her, she’s looking better and better.”
The Princess of Wales was recently spotted at the royal family’s annual Together at Christmas concert, but she’s been noticeably absent during other official gatherings.
“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,” royal biographer Sally Bedell Smith explained. “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.”
“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,” Andersen noted.
Kate returned to social media in September to reveal she completed chemotherapy.
“They can’t raise people’s expectations with lots of engagements only for her to face a setback, not feel well, and things are canceled,” Anderson shared. “The strategy of an unexpected visit gives her flexibility. She doesn’t have the pressure of feeling she has to turn up.”
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