King Charles offers support to Kate after cancer announcement | BBC News

Catherine, Princess of Wales, detailing the treatment she is now undergoing. Let's talk to our health correspondent, Catherine Burns, who's still with me. Catherine, Kensington Palace calling this a recovery pathway. The important point in that, the recovery elements. What do they mean by that? Well, it's very interesting that she said that, you know, the post-operative tests after her successful surgery in January found that cancer. had been present and she's describing this as a recovery pathway as you say and talking about preventative chemotherapy. So chemotherapy that is an umbrella term it's basically any drug that targets cancer cells in this way. Anyway, so... The hope is you know that it could be that cancer has been removed but we just can't speculate those things. We don't know what kind of cancer it is, we don't know what stage it's at. What we do know is that she is now one of three million people in the UK living with cancer and it was very striking the way she ended that video saying to other patients who are out there, you are not alone. You know the fact that she is someone with this this status and with the prestige in her life being hit by something so common and And the hope then is that other people who've got symptoms, niggling symptoms that they're ignoring, hopefully they will go, right, I'm coming forward, I'm getting this, because we know that early diagnosis is the best possible way of treating this Catherine, thank you for now. Catherine Burns, our health correspondent. Let's bring in Sarah Griswood now. She is the royal author and commentator. Sarah, good evening to you. Thank you for joining us. So coming as a huge shock, but what do you make of the timing of this announcement? Well, indeed, there's a very strong personal reason for it, obviously, in terms of the need to protect the children at the beginning of the school holidays. But there is also the fact that there has been over the last weeks, but particularly days, this... Really appalling stream of conspiracy theories, a very wild speculation on social media. So I think there must be the hope and expectation that this announcement will at least put an end to that and, of course, produce a great wave of sympathy for the princess and for the family as a whole. Okay, so stay with us, if you will. I just want to bring in our Royal Correspondent, Sarah Campbell, who's with us. And Sarah, you've got a statement from Buckingham Palace. Yeah, this is a spokesperson. I think this just brings and underlines the fact that, of course, we have two senior members of the Royal family who have been coping with a very similar diagnosis over the past few weeks. And so we have this from a Buckingham Palace spokesperson. His Majesty is so proud of Catherine for her courage in speaking as she did following their time in hospital together because, of course, they were both in the London Clinic at the same time in mid-January. This goes on, His Majesty has remained in the closest contact with his beloved daughter-in-law throughout the past weeks. Both their Majesties will continue to offer their love and support to the whole family through this difficult. time. Obviously, His Majesty the King, with his own cancer diagnosis, able to understand in a very personal, acute way exactly what his daughter-in-law is going through. Yeah, and so rare for two senior royals to be out of action in this way, temporarily. Absolutely. Yeah, I mean, in families... You know, for two close members of family to get a cancer diagnosis at almost exactly the same time, I mean, forget about the fact that it's the royal family. It's a It's a deeply upsetting, worrying time for the royal family. You know, they are... Grandparents, they are parents, they have three young children to think about and they are having to cope with this and of course being hugely public figures. So just that Buckingham Palace spokesperson, again, just the reflections from His Majesty who, going through his own cancer diagnosis, his own cancer treatment, His Majesty is so proud of Catherine for her courage in speaking as she did. He's remained in the closest contact with her and both their Majesties will continue to offer their love. And support to the whole family throughout this difficult time. Sarah Fennell, thank you. Let's bring in Sarah Gristwood once again, royal author and commentator. And Sarah, I hope you were able to hear that. And the line that jumped out to me there was King Charles saying he is so proud of Catherine. It's a positive way of looking at it because, of course, we've been talking about the private story, which is absolutely the most important one, but there is a public story too, that the royal family are facing a really unprecedented crisis with two of the foremost senior members out of action at the same time. And this, I think, shows that they are very determined to look forward, to put, if you like, as strong and positive a spin on it as possible. It's not just that they won't be able to be seen in public massively for quite some time. It is that they are going through what a great many people in this country are also going through. And that they are prepared to share the journey. Sarah Griswood, thank you for being with us on the programme tonight. It's good to have your insight. Thank you.