Kate Middleton Is Prioritizing Her Children Amid Cancer

Though Kate Middleton was able to surprise and delight riyal observers with appearances at Trooping the Colour and Wimbledon earlier this summer, don’t expect to see her at future events—according to sources, the Princess of Wales is laser focused on her children amid her battle with cancer.

According to a Buckingham Palace inside who spoke with The Daily Beast, Kate’s calendar is empty in the upcoming weeks where in September, it would traditionally kick off with royal engagements that extend until Christmas later this year. “There is still nothing in her diary. My understanding is that people are going to have to get used to seeing a lot less of Kate,” the source revealed. “The priority for her now is going to be family and the children. The youngest of those kids, Louis, is only 6.”

The insider continued, “Like a lot of people who have a brush with mortality, Kate is going to prioritize the things that matter to her from now on. In her case, that means her kids.”

Kate has been thinking a lot of King Charles as well, who is also dealing with cancer. “Charles’ cancer hasn’t gone away, the palace have said as much, and to be brutally honest, the once-popular notion that he will live to a similar age as his mother [94] or father [99] is now less widespread,” a separate source added. “I think that has very much focused Kate’s mind on the fact that there may only be a few years of freedom left. What does she want to do with them? Nurture her kids and try her best to equip them for the life ahead of them.”

As for Kate’s calendar this week, she and the rest of the royal family are vacationing at Balmoral for the opening of the grouse-shooting season on Aug. 12, which is referred to as the “Glorious Twelfth.”

“Balmoral is basically a very fancy Victorian hunting lodge. That is what you do up there: You go out shooting, you fish, and you have lunch in the hut,” a friend of the royal family told the outlet. “It is an important ritual for Kate and William to take their children there for the Glorious Twelfth and that is the goal this year.”

The Balmoral trip, in light of Kate’s cancer diagnosis, likely comes amid her bid to keep her kids life relatively unchanged. “She keeps the family down to earth,” a source previously told The Daily Mail. “In a bid to keep things functioning as smoothly as possible she has been keen for everything to carry on as normal for the children.”