In January 2024, Princess Catherine underwent abdominal surgery, and shocked the world when she announced two months later that she was diagnosed with cancer. She confirmed this with an Instagram video on March 22nd, but some heartless people were still incorrectly convinced it was a conspiracy theory. In January 2025, Kate announced that she was officially in remission — but this cancer battle isn’t the only tragedy that Kate has weathered in her life.
She’s heartbroken by her husband’s estrangement from his brother
Along with health concerns, Kate Middleton has been dealing with the rift between Prince William and Prince Harry, who were once very close. According to palace sources, Kate is still upset with her brother-in-law but also frustrated that her husband and the other royals have allowed the feud to get this far. Her empathy for Harry is causing issues with her husband, who is still furious that his brother has aired royal business to media outlets. An insider said, “William doesn’t like having to put his foot down with Kate, but he sees this as necessary to protect everyone.”
The rumors that William had an affair with her friend
Tabloids reported that William had a romantic affair with Kate’s friend, Rose Hanbury. After confronting her husband, he laughed it off, but Kate reportedly still cut ties with Rose and asked her husband to do the same. These rumors were reawakened after Kate’s surgery, and people speculated more about the alleged affair. Someone who claimed to be a friend of the Middleton family told Us Weekly, “Kate finds the rumors hurtful, obviously, and hates the thought that one day her children will be able to read about them online.”
She was painted as evil in Harry’s memoir
In Prince Harry’s memoir Spare, he blamed Kate for making his wife cry before their wedding and mentioned how much Kate bullied Meghan when he first entered the royal family, saying that the Princess of Wales cringed when Meghan borrowed lip gloss from her and squeezed it onto her finger to apply it. He also blamed Kate and William for giving him the idea for the Nazi costume he wore to a 2005 Halloween party.
She was bullied in her childhood
While Harry painted her as a nasty sister-in-law, it turns out she was once a victim of bullying. In the book Kate: The Future Queen, it was revealed that Kate felt out of place at her boarding school since she joined when she was older than the other students and lived at home, unlike them. After being interviewed by the author of the book, fellow students confirmed the school was “cliquey” and put pressure on students, and that Kate was “miserable” from the start.
The same happened when she switched to Marlborough College, where she experienced low confidence. This was in part due to problematic practices at the school, where the older male students would score the girls’ looks, and Kate got a low rating.
Her privacy was invaded when she was traveling to France with William
One of the biggest PR disasters for the royal family was when a tabloid photographer took naked pictures of Princess Catherine that appeared in a French gossip magazine. She wasn’t being an exhibitionist; instead, she was sunbathing while on vacation with her husband at a private chateau. Still, the paparazzi invaded her space for the sake of a paycheck.
The photos were published by a local newspaper called La Provence, but UK tabloids held back, not wanting to be in the bad graces of the royals forever. Still, it was a traumatic experience for Catherine, especially since a pre-POTUS Donald Trump decided to weigh in, saying on X, “Who wouldn’t take Kate’s picture and make lots of money if she does the nude sunbathing thing. Come on, Kate!”
Ultimately, Kate and William ended up filing a lawsuit against La Provence and the photographers. They were granted £91,000 (around $123,000) in damages, and the palace released a statement calling the incident a “serious breach of privacy.”
