Prince William “Wasn’t Emotionally Prepared” for the Dual Cancer Diagnoses of His Wife, Princess Kate, and His Father, King Charles, Royal Expert Says

As William prepares to turn 42 years old in a week’s time, the Prince of Wales has proven himself “more than competent and capable” of stepping up in their absence throughout 2024.

Prince William turns 42 one week from tomorrow, on June 21—and, while the first half of his 41st year was mostly business as usual, the latter half has been anything but. It takes a different kind of strength and resilience—an almost superhuman kind of strength and resilience—to weather the dual cancer diagnoses of your wife and father, while raising three kids 10 years old and under, while continuing to work, while the entire world is watching. But that’s what William’s 2024 has looked like.

Prayerfully, his 42nd year will be much smoother waters than the monsoon these past six months have brought on his life. When it comes to what life has been like for the Prince of Wales in 2024, royal historian Gareth Russell told Us Weekly “maybe he wasn’t emotionally prepared for it,” he said. (After all, in all fairness, who among us is prepared for hearing that your father and your wife—who were going in for seemingly routine procedures—both have cancer?) William losing his beloved mother, Princess Diana, at just 15 years old and knowing the immense grief that comes from a loss like that couldn’t have made this tumultuous time any easier.

Of his father the King, Russell said that Charles “yes, is elderly, but his father was famously quite healthy and lives well, eats well, and, according to his wife, Queen Camilla, just never stops walking,” he said of the shock William must have felt at his diagnosis. Every cancer diagnosis is shocking, but maybe none more so than Kate’s, who is young (only 42 herself), fit, and active. Both Charles and Kate’s specific type and stage of cancer have not been publicly disclosed, and they may never be publicly disclosed.