COURAGE UNDER FIRE

Princess Kate stunned the world with a deeply personal video announcement that she has cancer after speculation and vicious rumours about her reached fever pitch 

- NICOLA WHITFIELD

TWO minutes and 16 seconds – that’s how long it took for her to deliver the news that simultaneously stunned and chastised the world.

The video, filmed by the BBC two days before it was released, showed a pale yet composed Kate, seated alone on a bench in Windsor, a backdrop of daffodils adding a splash of colour to a grey British spring day.

Despite the enormity of the occasion, the Princess of Wales was in typical form: straightforward, compassionate, reassuring.

It was only when she started speaking about her children that she looked down – a fleeting insight into the roiling emotions she must have been feeling.

Kate’s cancer announcement was a shocking climax to the intense speculation and rampant conspiracy theories that had been doing the rounds since she was admitted to hospital in January.

For weeks people demanded to know where she was and what was really going on. The theories fed an information vacuum from the palace – but now we know exactly what’s been going on. And the news is terrible.

“In January I underwent major abdominal surgery in London and at the time it was thought my condition was non-cancerous,” she said. “The surgery was successful. However, tests after the operation found cancer had been present. My medical team therefore advised I should undergo a course of preventative chemotherapy and I am now in the early stages of treatment.”

The outpouring of support from across the globe was swift – and some people who’d made fun of Kate being missing in action ate humble pie.