The Princess of Wales has made a triumphant return to public life in the midst of her cancer treatment and joined the royal family to celebrate the King’s official birthday. Kate and her three children, Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis, were cheered by crowds in The Mall as they left Buckingham Palace in a carriage procession for the Trooping the Colour ceremony.
Kate said in a statement on Friday she was making “good progress” with her treatment, but candidly said she has “good days and bad days” and although she has been working from home, said “I am not out of the woods yet”. Support from the public has made a deep impression on the princess, who said she had been “blown away” by the “kind messages” that had made a “world of difference to William and me and has helped us both through some of the harder times”.
In a change from last year, Kate did not join senior family members on a dais, but watched the spectacle from the Duke of Wellington’s former office with her children.
It featured more than 1,250 soldiers, and hundreds of Guardsmen were lined up on the parade ground waiting to be inspected by the King from his carriage with Camilla, Colonel of the Grenadier Guards, and joined by the mounted royal Colonels.