Cancer announcement video’s impact on Kate revealed as Harry full of ‘regret’ – live

A source close to the Middletons told The Independent: “Carole has been the driving force keeping the family together with minimum fuss and maximum modesty.

“She’s ferried and fetched George, Louis and Charlotte, taken them to school sports matches and given them endless support. She’s been a real Mary Poppins-like figure.”

The source described Carole, 69, who in 1987 founded Party Pieces, a company selling supplies for children’s parties, as having provided the young family with the “three R’s”. They said: “She’s come to the rescue, provided reassurance, and has been a rock to Catherine and William as they come to terms with the news.”

In a video released on 22 March, the Princess of Wales revealed that she had been undergoing chemotherapy in the wake of major abdominal surgery in January. Following the operation, cancer cells were found in subsequent tests.

At the time, Kate’s condition was not disclosed to the public, and the release of a photoshopped image of the princess and her children exacerbated the spread of conspiracy theories speculating on the reason behind her low profile.

“I just want to say, I am heartbroken by the news about Princess Kate,” Cohen, 55, said on Monday’s broadcast of his SiriusXM radio show, Andy Cohen Live.

“I think someone on Sky News called me a numpty, and they were right. I wish I had kept my mouth shut.”

Tours of Balmoral Castle, which will give visitors the chance to see parts of the royal family’s private home for the first time, have sold out.

Guided tours will take place of the castle’s interior from July 1 to August 4, but tickets sold out within a day of going on sale.

Only 40 tickets a day were made available. More on what can be seen:

A media frenzy was born on 27 February, when the hashtag #WhereIsKate exploded online with speculation about the whereabouts of Britain’s Princess of Wales. It opened a rabbit hole of amateur detective work, memes, bizarre theories and jokes — mixed with genuine concern about Kate’s health — into which thousands of people descended until her announcement that she was recovering from cancer.

The episode offered the royal family — and everyone else — a lesson in the modern world of online media: If your silence leaves an information vacuum, others will rush to fill it. And the results may be messy.

“The royal family’s mantra is never complain, never explain,” said Ellie Hall, a journalist who specialises in covering Britain’s king and his court. “That really doesn’t work in a digital age. It doesn’t take much to get the crazy things going.”

It was, in part, entertainment for some people with too much time on their hands. Except it involved real people with real lives — and, it turns out, real medical challenges.

According to a report in the Daily Beast, the unidentified friend of the couple said they had been “clear they want peace and quiet… A visit from Harry, with all the drama that would bring, would be the opposite of that”.

Another friend of William and Kate was quoted as saying that “they have come to terms with the estrangement from Harry, and are content to let sleeping dogs lie”.

Harry is reported to be heading back to the UK in May to mark the 10th anniversary of the Invictus Games, an international sporting event he founded in 2014 for wounded armed forces veterans.

There is hope for those of us afflicted with this horrible disease, writes Nina Lopes. Some days are harder than others, but we must never stop cherishing every single moment:

Last year the Queen commended journalists risking their lives reporting from the Middle East and Ukraine: