The 173 days Kate was away left a huge hole in the nation’s hearts: NATASHA LIVINGSTONE on the shock felt inside and outside Palace walls during the Princess of Wales’s cancer battle [Video]

16:31 EDT 15 Jun 2024, updated 20:54 EDT 15 Jun 2024

Wearing Princess Diana‘s earrings and an Alexander McQueen royal blue coat, Kate’s megawatt smile, as she held her children’s hands and greeted Sandringham crowds on Christmas Day, betrayed not a hint that anything was wrong.

Bolstered by the joyful success of her star-studded carol service days earlier at Westminster Abbey, she looked set to have a bumper year ahead, with talk of a glamorous trip to Italy.

But as the whole world now knows, that patina of good health and happiness was illusory.

Kate’s attendance at St Mary Magdalene Church in Norfolk was to be her last formal public appearance for six months.