Kate Middleton’s whereabouts, explained

Kate Middleton — now Catherine, the Princess of Wales — announced Monday in a video message that she had completed chemotherapy for the cancer diagnosis she first revealed in March. She said she would resume some public events, though engagements are expected to remain limited through the end of the year.

“Doing what I can to stay cancer free is now my focus,” the princess wrote in a post shared on X. “Although I have finished chemotherapy, my path to healing and full recovery is long and I must continue to take each day as it comes.”

The Princess of Wales, formerly Kate Middleton, made her first public appearance since her cancer diagnosis when she attended King Charles’s birthday parade over the weekend. In a statement posted to X, she said she hopes “to join a few public engagements over the summer, but equally knowing I am not out of the woods yet.”

She also expressed gratitude for the support she has seen since sharing her diagnosis, and noted she has several months of treatment left. “I am making good progress, but as anyone going through chemotherapy will know, there are good days and bad days,” she wrote. “On those bad days you feel weak, tired and you have to give in to your body resting. But on the good days, when you feel stronger, you want to make the most of feeling well.” The statement was accompanied by a new photo of the princess.

On March 22, Kate Middleton announced that she has been diagnosed with cancer and will be undergoing preventative chemotherapy. The news comes amid fevered speculation over the Princess of Wales, after she disappeared from the public eye for multiple months, the only trace of her a heavily Photoshopped picture. In the midst of the turmoil, British-owned tabloids directed their ire toward a familiar target: Meghan Markle.

To an unpracticed observer, it would be difficult to blame the disappearance of Princess Kate from the public eye on her sister-in-law, but the tabloids are nothing if not resourceful. Page Six reported that Prince Harry and Meghan’s inner circle were mocking Kate’s botched Photoshop and sneering that Meghan would never have made such a mistake. Meanwhile, Meghan and Harry, alleged the Daily Mail, were nothing but a pair of hypocrites. They had used Photoshop on their own pregnancy announcement pictures, and so had no leg to stand on when it came to criticizing Kensington Palace for Photoshopping Kate’s Mother’s Day/proof-of-life picture.

The British royal family is no stranger to scandal. From cheating rumors to actual affairs, divorces and abdications, unruly royals, phone recordings, rehab, and one prince’s dubious friendship with Jeffrey Epstein — the list of infamous incidents is long and, at times, salacious.

For the first time in recent memory, however, something odd has happened: The coverups and fumbles have become bigger than the stories themselves.

Editor’s note: The Princess of Wales, Kate Middleton, announced her cancer diagnosis on March 22. Below is an interview from March 12 about the doctored image that fueled speculation regarding the princess’s disappearance from public view.

Over the past few days, we’ve all come to learn that the only thing more suspicious than a missing princess is a poorly edited photo of that princess. All the worse if it’s accompanied by a note allegedly written by the MIA monarch herself, saying she casually dabbles in Adobe Photoshop and got lost in the moment.