Everything We Know About Princess Kate's Months-Long Absence ...

We’re used to near-daily access to the British royal family. News outlets across the globe, including Bazaar, breathlessly cover the members’ every step, from state banquets to charity events, international royal tours to local walkabouts. Countless photos of the family inundate our digital landscape, making these unreachable figures feel more like a thread intrinsic to the fabric of everyday life. This is what makes the Princess of Wales’s abrupt disappearance from the public eye feel so jarring.

Princess Kate made her last public appearance on December 25, joining King Charles III, husband Prince William, and her three kids—Prince George, 10, Princess Charlotte, 8, and Prince Louis, 5—for the annual walk to Sandringham Church for Christmas morning service. Prior to that, she had been pulling off multiple engagements per week, including welcoming foreign dignitaries at Buckingham Palace, hosting her yearly holiday carol service at Westminster Abbey, and walking the red carpet for the famed Royal Variety Show.

Then, silence.

On January 17, Kensington Palace shared an uncharacteristically personal update on the princess’s health, revealing that she had been hospitalized for an abdominal surgery. While the palace didn’t specify what the surgery was for, it did confirm that her recuperation period likely meant we would not see Kate again until after Easter.

Public speculation over her whereabouts has unsurprisingly grown in the weeks since, with social media churning out a new conspiracy theory to explain her absence seemingly every other day. But this frenzied reaction seems to be exactly what Kate expected. “The Princess of Wales appreciates the interest this statement will generate,” the palace’s initial statement read. “She hopes that the public will understand her desire to maintain as much normality for her children as possible; and her wish that her personal medical information remains private.”

Ahead, we break down all the legitimate information we have so far about Kate’s surgery, from her recovery to her expected return to public duties. Make sure to watch this space for updates.

What surgery did Kate have?

Kensington Palace announced Kate’s hospitalization for a “planned abdominal surgery” on January 17, though it refrained from specifying the reason for the operation.

“The surgery was successful, and it is expected that she will remain in hospital for 10 to 14 days, before returning home to continue her recovery,” the statement read.

While we don’t yet know what led to Kate’s hospitalization, Harper’s Bazaar can confirm the condition was not cancerous.

When will Kate return to royal duties?

Following “the current medical advice,” the princess is not expected to make a comeback until after Easter, which falls on March 31 this year, according to the palace’s initial statement.

Why haven’t we seen Kate since her surgery?

The palace has kept mum on Kate’s progress since her surgery, releasing very few statements about and zero photos of the princess, all presumably in an effort to maintain her privacy.

The day her surgery was announced, the palace said Kate “hopes that the public will understand her desire to maintain as much normality for her children as possible; and her wish that her personal medical information remains private. Kensington Palace will, therefore, only provide updates on Her Royal Highness’s progress when there is significant new information to share.”

So what do we know about her recuperation period?

Nearly two weeks after her surgery, Kate was discharged from the London Clinic on January 29.

“The Princess of Wales has returned home to Windsor to continue her recovery from surgery. She is making good progress,” the palace said in a statement at the time. “The prince and princess wish to say a huge thank you to the entire team at the London Clinic, especially the dedicated nursing staff, for the care they have provided. The Wales family continues to be grateful for the well wishes they have received from around the world.”

A royal source also told Harper’s Bazaar, “The princess is in good spirits.”

On February 27, nearly a month after her release from the hospital, a source close to the family told Bazaar that Kate’s recovery was still going well.

While there have been no publicly released photos of Kate since her surgery, photographers did capture William driving to the hospital to visit her on January 18.

Has Prince William said anything about Kate’s health?

On February 7, William resumed his royal duties for the first time since his wife’s surgery to attend the annual fundraising gala for the London Air Ambulance. (The event also marked the prince’s first public outing since Buckingham Palace had announced King Charles’s cancer diagnosis on February 5.)

At the gala, William referenced the family’s recent bout of alarming health news. “I’d like to take this opportunity to say thank you, also, for the kind messages of support for Catherine and for my father, especially in recent days. It means a great deal to us all,” he said in a speech, before jokingly adding, “It’s fair to say the past few weeks have had a rather ‘medical’ focus. So I thought I’d come to an air ambulance function to get away from it all!”

At another event held at Windsor Castle earlier that day, William gave rare insight into the team guiding Kate through her recovery. According to a LinkedIn post shared by Trish Spruce—a recruiter for the United Kingdom’s National Health Service, who was honored with a Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire at the investiture ceremony—the Prince of Wales “said that Catherine had two Filipino nurses looking after her and they were amazing and kind.”