I have recently had the bad fortune to read a forthcoming biography of the Princess of Wales. Its greatest fault isn’t just that it’s poorly written, incurious or unrevealing, but that it came out at exactly the wrong time. What would, under normal circumstances, have been a harmless enough puff book now becomes irrelevant the date it’s published.
Ever since the Princess made her heartbreakingly vulnerable and deeply sad announcement that she was suffering from cancer, the whole existential stability of the British royal family has been shaken. Catherine was always meant to be the one who was able to convey an air of normality and stability in a way that her husband, for instance, never could, and the revelations about her health have been shattering.
We must be grateful that the news that she will be taking part in the King’s Birthday Parade this weekend suggests that there has been a significant improvement in her condition, but the announcement comes tempered with provisos aplenty. She has said that “I’m making good progress, but as anyone going through chemotherapy will know, there are good days and bad days. 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.”
This is not the stiff, formal language of royals from former eras. This is the kind of tone that the Princess has always managed to convey; warm, straightforward and candid, but also businesslike when it concerns anything to do with “the Firm.” There had been worries that she would be out of action and invisible until late this year, and possibly longer. Given how popular she is in the opinion polls, this would have been catastrophic from a public relations perspective. Yet we have to remember that this is a young mother of three, first and foremost, rather than an icon. Like the King, heading to D-Day, she has put duty ahead of comfort, and we should admire her all the more for it.
She will not be fully back on show for some time to come, as she has stated. Her reappearance in public tomorrow is an anomaly rather than a return to business as usual. As she said, “I am learning how to be patient, especially with uncertainty. Taking each day as it comes, listening to my body, and allowing myself to take this much needed time to heal.” This is vitally important. Yet when when we think of the sorrow, panic — and in some deserved cases, shame — that her announcement of her cancer was greeted with earlier this year, this highly welcome news must be regarded as very glad tidings indeed.
This article was originally published on The Spectator’s UK website.
