Princess Kate is preparing to rebuild her life as a working royal after 12 months mired by a major health crisis.

The first half of Kate’s year was spent focusing on her health after major abdominal surgery in mid-January followed by chemotherapy beginning in late-February.

Throw in a major social media frenzy spreading conspiracy theories about her absence from public life and it’s safe to say she’s had better years.

However, there are reasons for optimism after she announced in September that her chemotherapy had finished and William hinted in November that fans may see more of her in 2025.

Princess Kate and Prince William’s Year in Review

As Kate prepares to see in the New Year she will no doubt have spent time thinking about how different her life looked in December 2023 when she was just weeks away from major abdominal surgery.

She went under the knife at The London Clinic on January 16 for a planned procedure and Kensington Palace initially said she would spend a couple of weeks in hospital before recovering at home until around Easter.

However, after the operation, further investigations showed “cancer had been present,” Kate would later say in a March video message.

By the time she began chemotherapy in late-February there was a growing viral social media trend asking “Where is ” with some speculating that she was “missing.”

On March 10, the palace released a Mother’s Day image of Kate with her three children , and .

However, it bore the hallmarks of having been edited in numerous ways, bouncing Kate into an apology on social media the following day.

Kate had been accused of editing pictures before but on this occasion it sent the rumor mill into overdrive precisely because the conspiracy theorists had been asking for proof of life and then when a picture emerged it appeared fake.

Respected international picture agencies issued “kill notices” for the photograph, saying it had been doctored at source, creating a trust crisis for the palace.

The saga left Kate—who had been pushing to preserve her medical privacy—to reveal her cancer news in a March 22 video message in which she appealed for space.

While a handful of accounts on X, formerly Twitter, argued the broadcast had been created using AI, Kate’s message mostly stopped the speculation.

And what little remained was squashed when she appeared in public for the first time at Trooping the Colour, ‘s birthday parade, in June.

In September, she announced her course of chemotherapy had come to an end and she was working on remaining “cancer free.”

She had more public engagements in the final stretch of the year, including back to back over Remembrance weekend, and hosting her own Together at Christmas carol service at Westminster Abbey in London.

However, she is still not back at work full-time.

For , much of 2024 was spent flying solo on jobs where his wife would usually have been by his side.

At one point, shortly after the operation, he too stepped back from public visits to spend more time with Kate and their children.

However, he has been one of the key figures in a significantly scaled down monarchy in 2024, as his father has also been receiving ongoing treatment for cancer.

What’s Next for Princess Kate and Prince William in 2025

William dropped a major hint during a visit to South Africa at the start of December that Kate will make a comeback in 2025 and may even manage an overseas tour.

The prince had just put on the Earthshot Prize in Cape Town when he gave an interview to journalists who traveled out for the ceremony.

“I think hopefully Catherine will be doing a bit more next year, so we’ll have some more trips maybe lined up,” he said.

The comment comes on the back of an already increased workload in the fall and winter so fans may get to see something a little bit closer to normality in 2025.

January is always quiet for the royals so the earliest Kate might show signs of stepping up her workload is February and March.

She will then likely take Easter off, while the kids are off school, followed by a busier May, June and July.

The royals tend to holiday for the whole of August meaning Kate will only have to make it through those three months before she can unwind again.

Kate has said throughout her health crisis that being in nature has helped her heal so she is likely to take every chance she gets to spend time out doors in 2025.

Williams Brown is chief royal correspondent for Regalrumination.com, based in London. You can find him on X, formerly , at and read his stories on Regalrumination.com‘s

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