A royal insider told The Daily Beast there was a “real sense of panic” at the palace Wednesday, after Kate Middleton dramatically pulled out of a scheduled appearance at the Royal Ascot horse-racing festival at the last minute.
The palace has provided no on-the-record explanation for the absence.
However, Kate’s team sought to play down the idea that the cancellation signaled a downturn in her health, with some media briefed that it was just a question of the princess seeking “balance” as she continues to recover from cancer.
Prince William attended the legendary horse-racing festival without his wife. Chris Jackson/Chris Jackson/Getty Images Kate herself clearly said that her plans could be subject to change when she announced she was cancer-free earlier this year, which at least gave a superficial plausibility to the claims that Wednesday’s unscheduled cancellation was no big deal.
The U.K. media has largely gone along with the palace spin, dutifully reporting that Kate’s decision to abandon the legendary Ascot carriage procession was no big deal. Pulling out of such a high-profile event just over an hour before she was due to appear with the king and queen, however, is highly unusual.
The Princess of Wales would not have stood up the in-laws lightly. Mark Cuthbert/Mark Cuthbert/UK Press via Getty Images Behind the scenes in the royal household, people are far less sanguine.
The Daily Beast can reveal that the announcement left staff behind palace walls “bewildered and worried” as they tried to figure out what was happening.
The situation was made worse by the fact that an official “carriage list” published at noon by the palace said Kate would be there, only for her to cancel within the hour.
One former courtier who retains good links with serving staff said, “Everyone was wandering around going, ‘What is going on?’ One minute she was going, and the next she wasn’t. This is one of the biggest days of the year in the royal calendar; you don’t just miss Ascot on a whim, so there was a real sense of panic. The chaotic nature of the announcement was eerily reminiscent of the dark days of last year. People were bewildered and worried.”
Kate did attend the Order of the Garter service at St. George's Chapel, Windsor Castle on Monday. Pool/Samir Hussein/WireImage The insider added that rumors had briefly swirled around the palace that the future queen had been taken unwell and either needed to see a doctor or had been rushed to the hospital.
Kate’s office did not respond to The Daily Beast’s requests for comment, but a friend of the princess told The Daily Beast: “My understanding is that Kate was basically exhausted after Trooping the Color on Saturday and Garter Day on Monday and couldn’t face it. There are good days and bad days, as she herself has very candidly said. ”
Kate’s March 2024 announcement that she had cancer came after the catastrophic failure of an attempt to impose a news blackout on Kate’s health. The information vacuum meant Kate’s whereabouts became the subject of worldwide speculation.
This time, at least, palace aides have not tried to simply remain silent in the face of self-evidently unusual events.
Discreet briefings were issued to the media saying that while Kate was “disappointed” not to go, she is seeking “to find the right balance” when it comes to doing public engagements.
However, there was no denying that Prince William looked decidedly somber on arrival at the festival, although he seemed to cheer up later when he was photographed smiling and having a drink.
Royal Ascot is one of the highlights of the social calendar in the U.K. Samir Hussein/Samir Hussein/WireImage via Getty One of the few hints in the U.K. media that there might be more to Kate’s non-appearance than meets the eye came in a line in a report in the usually well-informed Daily Telegraph, reading: “Her appearance, recently so healthy, has belied how difficult things were last year, and how hard the fight to return to normality has been.”
Kate finished “preventative chemotherapy” in September and announced she was in remission in January of this year.
She said, in a precedent-busting video: “There are good days and bad days. I am learning how to be patient, especially with uncertainty.”
King Charles has also said that he has cancer, which is understood to be being managed on an ongoing basis with weekly treatment.
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