Kate's SECRET LIFE IN HIDING

TORN BETWEEN DUTY AND FAMILY AMID THE WORST YEAR OF HER LIFE, THE PRINCESS OF WALES HAS MADE PRIVATE CHOICES THAT HAVE FUELED TENSIONS IN HER MARRIAGE.

MOMENT OF CANDOR

Before the annual carol service, pop star Paloma Faith expressed sympathy for Kate in the wake of her cancer battle. "I didn't know this time last year it was going to be the year I've just had," Kate replied.

CHATTING with performers before her fourth annual Together at Christmas carol service, Princess Kate admitted to some family subterfuge. The 42-yearold confessed to singer Paloma Faith at London’s Westminster Abbey Dec. 6 that she’d asked her 6-year-old son, Louis, to keep a lid on news that members of the Royal Ballet would be dancing at the event. “Otherwise it won’t be a surprise” for his ballet-loving sister, Charlotte, 9. (Big brother George is 11.) She marveled, “He has kept the secret for, what, nearly two weeks now.”

GRANNY GRATITUDE

George, Charlotte and Louis joined their parents Dec. 6 at Westminster Abbey in London, where Louis carried a note of thanks he wrote about his maternal grandparents.

That’s not the family’s only secret. Since announcing her cancer battle in March, Kate has faced what she called a “complex, scary and unpredictable” time as she’s grappled with her illness, treatment and recovery. As she slowly returns to royal duties, a source tells Star that Kate and her three children have all but moved in with her parents, Carole and Michael Middleton, at their home in Bucklebury, England. (A rep for Kensington Palace calls Star’s story “wholly inaccurate.”) “Friends say she spends more time there than at her own home,” says the insider. “So much that she might as well live there.”

MOTHER’S LOVE