New photos reignite Princess Kate engagement ring mystery
The Princess of Wales has undertaken her first major solo engagement since 2023 – and one very strange detail has emerged.
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There are certain letters on my keyboard that I’m surprised still even function after the last year.
The ‘C’ one, as in cancer and chemotherapy, the ‘P’ for preventive and the ‘U’ has
also really been knocked around thanks to how often it has been necessary to deploy “unprecedented”.
Not least, the ‘M’ key – for mystery and madness and mania.
If the major plot points of 2024 were Kate, the Princess of Wales and King Charles both being diagnosed with cancer, then a runner up would have to be chaos and craziness and
conspiracy cuckoo-ness that has sprung up around the princess.
Today, the ‘M’ key looks set to come in for quite the working over yet again.
On Tuesday, London time, Kate undertook her first solo official engagement since 2023 (wild, I know), visiting the Royal Marsden Hospital in London – where she herself underwent treatment – revealing she is in now remission – and there are some curious details.
To start with, the outing, full stop. To paraphrase Prince Harry back in the day, the Kate who turned up was less princess and far more former patient. There were hugs, war story-trading and a lot of raw emotion on display.
However, one thing wasn’t … now be a lamb, and imagine the CSI theme tune is playing …
Her engagement ring.
Actually, make that two things – because what about that tall drink of room temperature tap water that is the bloke who gave the ring to her, Prince William? Where was he?
To start with, let us consider the missing case of the million-dollar bling.
That 12-carat sapphire and diamond knuckleduster would have to be the most famous ring in the world – yet over the last 12 months, it has disappeared and then mysteriously materialised on the princess’ finger like a hand-y Houdini.
It will be a hell of a long time before anyone can forget the absolute stark, raving lunacy that was set off last year when she posed for a Mother’s Day photo wearing nothing on her left digits.
Which is to say, the ring’s absence on Tuesday was never going to go slip by unnoticed – and yet they did it anyway.
One possible answer to why it was gone is germs. Germy germ germs. For cleanliness reasons, the princess reportedly skipped wearing it.
Yet where our old friend the ‘M’ key comes in again is that mysteriously, this is not always the case, with her having worn the famous piece of jewellery during other hospital outings in the past, including during Covid, when the world was so phobic about nasty little bacteria we were sanitising individual grapes.
Kate’s last major solo outing, that one in 2023, was to open Evelina London’s new children’s day surgery unit – and she wore her ring, including while meeting with kids and staff.
Then before that, in January 2023, she and William went to Royal Liverpool University Hospital and, would you know it, ring.
In 2022, even with masks still being worn, she visited the maternity unit at Royal Surrey County Hospital – ring. (And even while meeting mothers and cradling a newborn).
What’s that? A couple of hospital sorties during the height of the pandemic in Lancashire hospital and Scotland?
Ring and ring. (Though to be fair, she did not meet any patients).
You’d have to assume that the princess’ decision on Tuesday would have been made for her based on medical guidance but still, it’s all a bit mystifying.
And the ring mystery extends beyond hospital visits too.
The ring was absent in October last year when Kate and William visited Southport to meet the parents of Bebe King, six, Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, who were murdered during a Taylor Swift dance class in late July, as well as the first responders who attended the scene.
In March 2024, its disappearance from THAT photo released to mark Mother’s Day sparked a frenzy of speculation, and it was also gone a week later, when the princess announced her doctors had discovered she had cancer during planned abdominal surgery.
The bling reappeared in June, when Kate appeared at Trooping the Colour, and the following month, when the Princess of Wales turned up at Wimbledon.
But then came August, and when William and Kate appeared in a video to celebrate the Olympics, poof – it was gone again.
Come September, and the release of the heavily-stylised bit of glossy good news that was the princess’ video announcing the end of her chemotherapy, and the ring was still MIA.
Meanwhile, what’s harder to understand in Kate’s latest appearance is the prince, or lack thereof, part.
In an X and Instagram post about the Royal Marsden engagement, Kate wrote about “those who have quietly walked alongside William and me as we have navigated everything”.
“We couldn’t have asked for more,” she posted.
Then, during the Princess of Wales’ visit, one of the things that the 43-year-old spoke about was the toll cancer takes on a family, saying that “loved ones … need support just as much as I did as the patient”.
Lastly, to coincide with the visit, Kensington Palace revealed that both the Prince and Princess of Wales have signed on as joint patrons of the Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust.
Therefore, on multiple levels, wouldn’t it have been a perfect fit for William to be there too, manfully doing his Kate back-up act?
(Queen Camilla joined Charles when he visited a cancer centre last year).
Maybe the intention was to keep the spotlight and attention on Kate, but come on. Does anyone really think that he, even with his new beard, is that distracting that the world might, for a single millisecond, take their eyes off the princess? And during such a powerful outing for her too?
Because it was, by all accounts, a highly personal and charged outing. Far from an instance of Olympic-level small talking, rather, it seems like it was much more a case of one former patient sharing her first-hand experiences with others still going through it. The practical benefits of warm clothing, sunlight, water and the power of joy during treatment were all discussed.
“It’s hard to get back to normal,” Kate said, also reflecting on the “resilience you need”.
At another point, the princess said: “You think the treatment has finished and you can crack on and get back to normal, but that’s still a real challenge. The words totally disappear. And understanding that as a patient, yes there are side effects around treatment but actually there are more long-term side-effects”.
When meeting a mother whose teenage daughter is undergoing treatment, Kate put an arm around her and rubbed her shoulder, according to the Telegraph.
The whole thing ran over-schedule by 20 minutes and there is no hiding the unadulterated emotion on the princess’ face in photos.
Sadly though, even after today, there is one key that won’t get much use for a while – ‘B’ for back. The Palace has made clear that Kate’s Royal Marsden visit was not the beginning of her big return to frontline royal duties, but driven by her desire to show her gratitude and support for medical staff.
Hopefully, she will get all the ‘T’ for time she needs.
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
Originally published as New photos reignite Princess Kate engagement ring mystery
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