Prince William arrived for the Royal Ascot horse racing meeting on Wednesday without Princess Kate by his side.

The princess’ no-show comes as she for cancer, having made her for the Trooping the Colour celebrations on June 15.

In a statement issued by the royal a day earlier, she said she hoped to be able to “join a few public engagements over the summer,” but added that she is health-wise as her cancer treatment continues.

Kate has attended Royal Ascot over since her marriage to William in 2011.

Wednesday marked the second day of the 2024 meeting, with William photographed accompanying his stepmother, Queen Camilla, in the formal carriage procession along the racecourse.

King Charles, who is also receiving treatment for an was absent on Wednesday, having attended Royal Ascot’s opening day with the queen a day earlier.

William and Camilla were joined in their carriage by the Earl and Countess of Halifax, longtime aristocratic friends of the royal family with an interest in racing.

Other members of the royal family were also in attendance. The king’s cousins, the hosted composer Andrew Lloyd Webber and his wife in the second carriage of the procession, while ‘s daughter, Princess Eugenie and her husband were seated in the third.

Two of the non-royals included in the carriage procession happen to have a link to Charles’ younger son, .

Baron and Baroness von Westenholz are both friends of King Charles and Queen Camilla, with the baroness being one of the queen’s official companions (ladies in waiting).

The couple’s daughter, Violet, is close friends with Harry and is widely regarded to have been key in introducing him to another of her friends, .

In his memoir, , Harry told readers he had first seen Meghan in a social media post of Violet’s, who worked in PR with the fashion brand Ralph Lauren, which was dressing the actress for an appearance at the Wimbledon Tennis Championships in 2016.

The prince and Meghan were linked on social media and . They celebrated their in May.

The Royal Ascot carriage procession on Wednesday was played into view of the grandstand by the British national anthem “God Save The King.” The royal party was greeted with cheers from the crowd and made their way to the exclusive box where the racing is viewed from.

The day’s events included the Prince of Wales’s Stakes, the Windsor Castle Stakes and the Kensington Palace Stakes.

King Charles and Queen Camilla have four horses entered into events over the course of the festival, including Dessert Hero, who won the King George V Stakes in 2023.

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

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