‘Real sense of panic’: Kate Middleton sparks Palace ‘chaos’

The Princess of Wales’ last minute decision to pull out of a huge royal event reportedly triggered behind-the-scenes drama this week.

Have you ever wondered what royal courtiers might look like in a flap? Maybe well-bred brows, sweating? Teacups nervously rattling in saucers? A fretful, ‘Oh I say’ here and there?

This was the scene, or at least something like it I’m assuming, inside the palace this week after “chaos” and “panic broke out” when Kate, The Princess of Wales pulled out of a major event less than an hour before she was meant to arrive.

It has now emerged that her last minute call to skip Ascot left royal aides “bewildered and worried” and that “rumours had briefly swirled around the palace that the future queen had been taken unwell and either needed to see a doctor or had been rushed to the hospital,” according to a new report.

Oh I say!

The Palance announced Kate Middleton’s withdrawal from the event an hour before she was due to appear. Picture: Stephen Pond/Getty Images

The full extent of the hullabaloo caused by the princess’ about-face has been revealed by The Daily Beast’s Tom Sykes whose unbeatable contacts paint a picture of the palace having been briefly pushed to the edge of a meltdown.

On Wednesday, UK time Kate and her husband Prince William were slated to attend day two of Royal Ascot to enjoy their God-given right to drink champers in the sun and put 10 quid each way on a sure thing. Accordingly, the couple was listed in the official “carriage list” put out by the palace of members of their royal family who would be arriving in clippety-clop regency style to the racecourse.

But, less than an hour after the carriage list was published, and just over an hour before Kate was due to appear along with King Charles and Queen Camilla, the palace announced she had withdrawn.

Cue the drammahhhh.

Inside the palace, it was “chaos”, according to Sykes.

“Rumours … briefly swirled around the palace” that Kate “either needed to see a doctor or had been rushed to the hospital,” he has reported.

“Everyone was wandering around going, ‘What is going on?’” a former courtier told Sykes.

“One minute she was going, and the next she wasn’t. This is one of the biggest days of the year in the royal calendar; you don’t just miss Ascot on a whim, so there was a real sense of panic.”

The Royal Ascot is one of Britain’s most well-known racecourses. Picture: Getty Images for Ascot Racecourse

The good news is that none of these fears were borne out by the facts. The truth about what had gone one was reassuringly benign.

As every single UK news story pointed out, Kate herself said exactly this time last year that she was “taking each day as it comes”. Despite having announced in January this year she is remission, clearly this still holds. She was said to be “disappointed” to not be up to attending Ascot.

The Telegraph’s royal editor Hannah Furness reported that “there [was] no cause for alarm” and only that “the Princess was mindful of treading a careful line as she returns to work.”

A friend of Kate’s has backed up this explanation too.

They told Sykes: “My understanding is that Kate was basically exhausted after Trooping the Colour on Saturday and Garter Day on Monday and couldn’t face it. There are good days and bad days, as she herself has very candidly said.”

That’s the good news.

The bad news is that the palace’s handling of this situation suggests they have not exactly learnt that much since last year when we witnessed the months-long extraordinarily clumsy and inept royal mismanagement around Kate.

She announced her cancer diagnosis in March 2024. Picture: Supplied

Last year, Kate said she was “taking each day as it comes”. Picture: Will Warr/Prince and Princess of Wales/Instagram

Who can forget how the internet collectively lost its mind in early 2024 about Kate supposedly going ‘missing’ after having abdominal surgery? In the absence of any real information and in what felt like a squirrely royal climate, social media quickly filled the void with noxious conspiracy theories about Kate and William.

The princess ditching Ascot immediately brought to mind the PR disaster that came at the peak of Kate-madness in February 2024 after William pulled out of his godfather King Constantine of Greece’s memorial service only 45 minutes before it started, and despite it being held only minutes away from their Windsor home. The prince’s abrupt cancellation only stoked the fires and led to more feverish speculation online.

(As we all now know, several weeks later in March 2024, Kate would tell the world she had cancer.)

“I am learning how to be patient, especially with uncertainty.” Picture: Twitter

While this week the princess was just “exhausted”, as the former coutrier told Sykes of the Ascot mess, “The chaotic nature of the announcement was eerily reminiscent of the dark days of last year. People were bewildered and worried.”

Kate wrote in June last year, “I am learning how to be patient, especially with uncertainty.”

A year on and the palace still does not seem to have much more of a clue how to manage communications around Kate’s fluid health needs. You have to wonder if any lessons might have been learned since those “dark days” of 2025.

The best bit of news that came out of Wednesday’s Ascot situation came courtesy of William. The princess might not have gone but the prince trotted along where he was photographed drinking beer with friends and having what looked like a cracking good time. The proof is in the pilsner. Panic over.

Daniela Elser is a writer, editor and commentator with more than 15 years’ experience working with a number of Australia’s leading media titles.

Originally published as ‘Real sense of panic’: Kate Middleton sparks Palace ‘chaos’