Princess of Wales, shock cancer news

Catherine, the Princess of Wales, has announced that she's having treatment for cancer via a video message.

The Princess recently had a successful stomach operation in hospital. However, in the checks afterwards, cancer was found to be present. The Princess has been given chemotherapy to prevent the cancer from growing.

The unexpected news shocked tourist Amy Watson, from Australia.

Amy Watson: "Yeah, well I actually got the notification of her diagnosis as I was just standing outside of the palace. It's quite a shock, yeah."

The video ends weeks of discussion about the Princess' health, after reporters and the public were curious to know why she'd had the operation.

Hannah Dickerson, who's from the US, understands the difficulty with mixing their public and private lives.

Hannah Dickerson: "I think, I think they're really doing their best to balance it. I think they, I feel like with all the news about Kate's, like, disappearance and her not being here, I feel like that's them juggling how, how to balance telling the public but also privately making sure they do it in their own terms. So, I think it's just a massive challenge, but I think they understand that we want to know the information and people care and want to know. So I think it's just, it's hard but they're doing a good job."

Kate said the hospital news had been an enormous shock. As a family, time was necessary to break the news to their three young children.

King Charles has spoken about how brave the Princess is to give her video message.

The whole royal family has faced a challenging year. King Charles made an announcement in January that he was having treatment for cancer. His brother Andrew's former wife Sarah, the Duchess of York, has also been having treatment - she has breast and skin cancer.

For the Princess of Wales, what she and her family need now is time, space and peace, so she's able to complete her treatment.

View Less