LONDON — Kate, the Princess of Wales, will miss a military ceremony she would usually take part in next month as she continues her cancer treatment, a Kensington Palace spokesperson said Thursday.
Bearing the honorary rank of Colonel in Chief of the Irish Guards, Kate, 42, would normally take part in the Colonel's Review, a ceremonial military event that takes place in London on June 8, featuring soldiers marching in scarlet coats and bearskin fur hats accompanied by music played by military bands.
The princess, wife of the heir to the throne, Prince William, has not been seen in public since she revealed she had cancer in a video in March. Kate said she was undergoing “a course of preventative chemotherapy” on the advice of her medical team.
The video was released after months of fervent speculation about her whereabouts after Kensington Palace — the Prince and Princess of Wales' official residence and office — said she would be taking a step back from public duties as she recovered from a planned abdominal surgery.
After William pulled out of a memorial service for his godfather, Kate’s name began trending on X, where a flurry of memes, jokes and baseless theories populated the platform. Hundreds of people also commented on a Reddit thread titled "What is going on with Kate Middleton?"
Kate’s children, George, 10; Charlotte, 8; and Louis, 5, have also largely been out of the public eye since her surgery.
King Charles III was himself diagnosed with cancer in February and has been undergoing treatment. Doctors discovered the disease after he was hospitalized with an enlarged prostate, although the palace has said that he does not have prostate cancer.
Both Charles and Kate have declined to specify either what type of cancer they have or details about their prognosis, although the 75-year-old monarch has attended several engagements since he resumed public duties last month.
Buckingham Palace said in a statement at the time that his “treatment program will continue” and “doctors are sufficiently pleased with the progress made so far.” But it added that he would not undertake “a full summer program” and “will remain subject to doctors’ advice.”
Charles is expected to take part in Trooping the Colour, a traditional show of military pomp and pageantry featuring “over 1,400 officers and soldiers,” along with 200 horses and 400 musicians who play in unison, according to the British army website.
It takes place June 15, a week after the Colonel’s Review, the traditional dress rehearsal for the main event, Trooping the Colour. Both events are held on Horse Guards Parade in central London.
During Trooping the Colour, the PA reported that Charles will carry out the review of the guardsmen and officers from a carriage alongside Queen Camilla.
At last year's ceremony, Charles inspected the troops on horseback, reviving a tradition that his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, gave up in 1986 when she was 60.
Also known as the King’s Birthday Parade, the ceremony that has been an annual event since 1760 is the British military’s annual tribute to the monarch and marks their official birthday.
Charles’ actual birthday is Nov. 14.
