Two dark words in new Kate statement as Princess of Wales announces surprise ‘comeback’

A huge clue about the Princess of Wales has emerged as she continues to battle cancer – but the news might not be as happy as it seems.

Mark your calendars, set your alarms, and prepare to hydrate properly – finally, someone has started using the good “C” word in conjunction with Kate, the Princess of Wales, the UK’s greatest export since the invention of the shortbread finger.

Comeback.

In news sure to revive the flagging spirits of the British millinery industry, the princess is

reportedly quietly preparing to return to some royal duties in the next few months.

According to the The Sunday Times’ royal editor Roya Nikkhah, who manages to produce more scoops than a gelato shop, there are now “hopes for an autumn comeback” for Kate who has been battling cancer since the start of the year.

The biggest, bestest sign that there is hope in the air comes thanks to what is the bane of our normie working lives – meetings. The Times reports that the Princess of Wales’ private secretary, Tom White, her assistant private secretary, Natalie Burrows, and the Waleses’ communications secretary, Lee Thompson, have been “holding more regular meetings” with Kate so they can “plan for the future”.

Well-spoken, nicely-turned out Avengers assemble.

The Princess of Wales shocked the world when she announced she had cancer earlier this year.

Nikkhah writes: “After a restful summer … the princess is beginning to think about the months ahead”. While Kate has been “continuing with some work from home”, now her team “have started planning for the princess’s annual televised Together at Christmas carol service at Westminster Abbey”.

There is even a chance we might see Kate back out on the royal beat sooner than that, should she be feeling well enough, with she and one of her trove of black hats possibly joining the rest of the working members of the royal family on November 10 at the Cenotaph for the National Service of Remembrance.

So there you have it – huzzah. Break out the second-best Waitrose bubbles and someone prepare for royal social media to be overtaken by a slightly sappy outpouring of heart emojis.

But the spectre at the feast over here reckons everyone needs to hold their horses. Corks back in please.

Without a doubt, Nikkhah’s story is a lovely bit of good news after a year of Buckingham and Kensington Palace courtiers having to spend far too much time on WebMD and rescheduling air base visits. The Princess of Wales even tentatively being open to discussing some sort of return to official engagements, even months from now, is obviously cause for celebration.

However, read Nikkhah’s story a second time (or a third or fourth) and a slightly less rosy-hued perspective comes into view – that Kate’s “friends say the uncertainty of her good days and bad days ‘still rings true’,” as the report sets out.

That Remembrance event? That is only something the princess might “potentially” be well enough to do. Any return to frontline duties will be “gradual”.

The princess might only ‘potentially’ be well enough to attend a Remembrance event Picture: Richard Pohle – WPA Pool/Getty Images

“People know and understand it is a long journey to recovery,” a royal friend told The Times.

Those two words – “long journey” – do not make it sound like there is any sort of definitive end date in near sight for the gloomy chapter of cancer treatments and Kate’s “good days and bad days”.

Those key words – “long journey” – mean that Kate being able to get back to her usual roster of early childhood boffin-convening and small-child-charming, with the occasional go on a tank thrown in, could be quite the way off yet. How long is a way off? Let me find a piece of string …

What all of this adds up to is that there will be no great big antique firing gun proudly borne aloft and joyously fired by Prince William out on the front lawn of Adelaide Cottage. There will be no swaggering “mission accomplished” bit of theatre from Kensington Palace, at least

not any time soon.

Nikkhah writes that “those close to the princess continue to echo the Kensington Palace mood music that there is ‘no expectation for her to rush back’.”

In this regard, Kate has clearly split from King Charles who favoured a much speedier, line-in-the-sand approach when he returned to public-facing duties after only three months away from public duties after his own cancer diagnosis.

It was in late April, amid much fanfare, that the Palace announced that Charles was ready to officially return to work after his doctors had finally given him a permission note to get back out there to touch the unsanitised hands of the great unwashed. (This resumption of regularly scheduled kingly programming even came with a sweet new portrait of him and Queen Camilla doing their septuagenarian lovebird routine that got blanket coverage).

Kate has clearly split from King Charles who favoured a much speedier, line-in-the-sand approach when he returned to public-facing duties after only three months away from public duties after his own cancer diagnosis. Picture: Chris Jackson/Getty Images

What this weekend’s Sunday Times report suggests is that Kate will be adopting a wholly more measured and sedate approach, and nor will she be doing things in such a cut-and-dried, one-fell-swoop fashion. Think more of a stop-start, dribs-and-drabs approach, an incremental dialling up of her presence.

You’ve heard of trickle down economics, well, prepare yourself for what sounds like some trickle down Kate.

What this “gradual” strategy could look like is the Princess of Wales turning up for red letter days on the royal calendar, like the Remembrance Day commemoration or her carol service, but that any sort of categorical, full-on “comeback” might not be happening any hot minute – or even this year.

Still, here’s to many more “good days” for the princess and the “good day” that the reindeer-hirer who provided the festive beasts for last year’s Abbey carol service must be having.

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