Kate Middleton Glows in First Trooping the Colour After Cancer Remission

The Princess of Wales was a welcome sight at the King's birthday parade on June 14.

Key Points

• Last year’s Trooping the Colour was Kate Middleton’s first since announcing she had been diagnosed with cancer in March 2024.
• This year’s event, which falls on June 14, will mark her first annual birthday parade for the monarch since sharing she was in remission, which she did back in January.
• The Princess of Wales continues her gradual return to royal duty and public life since a rocky 2024—and has never missed a Trooping the Colour in all of her 14-plus years as a working royal.

While last year’s Trooping the Colour was Kate Middleton’s first appearance at the annual event since her cancer diagnosis—and her first public appearance for the entirety of 2024 up to that point—the Princess of Wales’ appearance this year is her first since she announced in January that she was in remission.

Following a major abdominal surgery in January 2024, cancer was detected; Kate announced her diagnosis to the world on March 22, and, though she worked from home some, she rightfully prioritized her health throughout much of last year. On June 14, the day before Trooping the Colour on June 15 of last year, the Princess of Wales announced that she would be joining other members of the royal family to celebrate King Charles’ birthday at the yearly occasion—he, too, was diagnosed with cancer in the early part of 2024. (Both Charles and Kate’s specific type and stage of cancer has never been publicly revealed; the King’s cancer treatment continues weekly up to the present day.)

On September 9, Kate announced that she had completed cancer treatment, and shared in January that she was in remission. Since then, 2025 has seen the future queen gradually return to royal life, including an appearance on June 14 at Trooping the Colour, an event she’s never once missed in her 14-plus years as a working royal.

At 2024’s Trooping the Colour, “It would have been difficult to tell that either the King or the princess had been ill and undergoing some pretty rugged treatment,” royal biographer Sally Bedell Smith told People. Queen Elizabeth’s former press secretary Ailsa Anderson added that Kate “might be the Princess of Wales, but she is still a mother and wife and going through the same set of emotions and worries and fears as anyone else in that set of circumstances would be.”

Of Kate’s gradual return to public duty, royal biographer Robert Jobson told People that “She is doing things slowly and when she is ready. She isn’t being governed by it being a good picture opportunity. They aren’t worried about visibility—they are just going to do it, and that will be visible rather than the other way around. The health and the proper recovery is what is important.”

Above all else, her priority will “always be her family,” Jobson said, and added that Kate’s cancer diagnosis last year “shows that you can’t take anything for granted. Both the Prince and the Princess of Wales are acutely aware of that, and that’s why they are spending as much time as [they] can with their children, whilst they can. One day, they may not be able to do so—certainly William [when he takes the throne]. Both are acutely aware of that.”

Bedell Smith said that Kate is returning to life as a public figure “in her own way and at her own pace, and carefully,” adding that she “has managed the expectations of the public very well.”

“Being a senior member of the royal family and doing these ceremonial events is obviously important to her,” she said, adding, “She is clearly a vital piece of the royal family, really important both symbolically and in reality as a future queen.”

Of life post-cancer journey, a source said of the Princess of Wales, “You can’t go through something like that and come out the other side unchanged. She is a different person now.”