Last week, a group of well-wishers asked Prince William about how his wife Kate Middleton was faring after her recent cancer diagnosis. “We’re all doing well,” he said, declining to get into the specifics. But according to a royal insider who spoke to People, the ordeal—which is complicated by King Charles III’s cancer diagnosis—has been hard on the 41-year-old prince and father of three.
“Whether you’re a prince or a pauper, no one would expect anything like this with his father and his wife both being treated for cancer,” this insider said. “William is digging deep.”
Another close source added that William is putting Kate and the well-being of his three children, Prince George, Princess Charlotte, and Prince Louis first when deciding how to balance his public role and private life. “William is prioritizing giving her all the time she needs to get better and the support, particularly to the children,” said the source.
In the years since William and Kate started their family, they have prized their privacy and spending time together. According to biographer Robert Lacey, whose 2020 book Battle of Brothers looked at William’s life behind the scenes, he and Kate value that time above everything else “From what we know of their personal lives, for William and Kate, spending time with their children is the most precious and enjoyable thing they can do,” the writer told People. “The double illness has placed enormous pressure on William, both as a parent and inheritor of the family business… It has brought all kinds of challenges. He [has handled] it with calmness and lack of drama.”
William’s last took place on April 30, when he visited Newcastle to highlight a series of mental health initiatives. But he was last spotted in public on May 2, watching a Aston Villa soccer match in Birmingham with George.