The Royal Family will be honouring their fathers as they celebrate Father’s Day on Sunday and royal expert Jennie Bond says it will be an especially poignant day for the Prince and Princess of Wales
He’s been the rock the Princess of Wales needed during her cancer journey, putting her and their three children before anything else. And with Father’s Day here, there’s no doubt Kate as well as Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis, will want to make it a very special one for Prince William.
This time last year, the Wales family were still grappling with Kate’s cancer diagnosis and her subsequent chemotherapy treatment as she prepared to make her first major public appearance since her shock health news at Trooping the Colour. But now, things appear much brighter with the princess now in remission from cancer and slowly increasing her royal workload, and both William and Kate appearing to be proud parents as they watched their children take part in VE Day commemorations last month.
It is all a world away from last year, when as soon as Kate was admitted to hospital for major abdominal surgery, William immediately cleared his diary to be there for not just his wife, but his three children too.
He later opened up on a trip to South Africa saying it had been a ‘brutal’ year for the family and one of the hardest of his life as he also dealt with his father, the King’s cancer diagnosis. But 12 months on, and the Waleses are in a very different place, and former BBC royal correspondent Jennie Bond tells the Mirror that this Father’s Day will be one where Kate will especially want to show her appreciation for her husband for all he does as a dad.
She explained: “I’m sure Catherine will want to make a real fuss of William after the year and a half they’ve been through. The truth is, though, that they’ll probably both be rather knackered because the Trooping the Colour is the day before! So they’ll probably be spending Father’s Day at home in Windsor – or very possibly with Catherine’s family in Berkshire.
“Last year Catherine posted a beautiful Father’s Day picture of William and the children with their backs to the camera, on a Norfolk beach, staring out to sea.
“It was a touching portrait of a dad with protective arms around his children and I’m sure it represented how grateful the princess was for the rock-solid support and love that William has given her throughout their marriage – but particularly through the emotional turmoil of cancer treatment.”
When it comes to bringing up their children, it has become clear this is more important than anything else to William and Kate. Family nearly always comes first and this was no more so evident than at Easter when the couple decided to skip the traditional Easter Sunday church service with the King and Queen at Windsor to spend precious family time together – all with the King’s blessing.
The pair are also very hands-on with their children, doing the school run and ferrying the kids to their various afterschool sports clubs and activities.
On many royal engagements, William and Kate talk about George’s love of football, Charlotte’s interest in dancing and Louis’ lessons in learning to play the drums. And Jennie believes Kate in particular appreciates how different William is from most royal parents of the past.
She said: “Both he and Harry learned from their mother that parents can be fun and funny, loving and tactile, hands-on and cuddly. Charles was some of these things too, but he was always extremely busy with his work. From the off, though, William has been very obviously hands-on – helping to strap newborn George into the car seat all those years ago (with some trepidation) and sharing all the fun and sleep deprivation of life with a tiny baby.
“Diana once told me that the country was very lucky to have William. I think Catherine is very lucky to have him as well. I think they have put on a united front about their priorities at this stage of their lives: family comes first and sometimes duty has to be put on a bit of a back burner.”
The tight-knit family life that William and Kate have managed to create with their children at their Adelaide Cottage home in Windsor has come all with the blessing of the King. He too has also had to endure receiving his own cancer diagnosis and is still receiving weekly treatment for his condition.
His diagnosis came after he underwent a procedure for an enlarged prostate at the beginning of 2024 and he spent time at the London Clinic at the same time as Kate recovered from her major surgery. As their stays in hospital overlapped, sources revealed the King would ‘toddle’ down the hospital corridors to check in on his recovering daughter-in-law to offer encouragement and support.
And after Kate received her cancer diagnosis, the King is believed to have had an emotional heart-to-heart lunch with her to lend his support yet again ahead of her sharing her cancer news with the world.
Meanwhile, their shared humour has also been evident, no more so than on the King’s birthday last year, when Kate’s official Prince and Princess of Wales account shared a fun photo of the monarch to mark his birthday. The cheeky image showed the King wearing a trendy pair of sunglasses and smiling with a garland around his neck.
And Jennie said: “In this, they have both had the full support of King Charles – and I think Catherine has very much appreciated this attitude from her father-in-law. Their shared cancer journey has also brought them closer together and I think there’s genuine affection between them.
“He refers to her as his beloved daughter-in-law and, in some ways, I think she is the daughter he always wanted. I remember Diana telling me about how much Charles had hoped their second child would be a girl.”
Father’s Day comes for the King as he is still estranged from his son and Kate’s brother-in-law, Prince Harry. Last month, he claimed the King will not speak to him because of his legal fight over his UK security, but that he does want a ‘reconciliation’ with his family. The revelations came in a bombshell interview the Duke of Sussex gave to the BBC after losing his Court of Appeal case.
And now, it seems highly unlikely that the rift between Harry and the rest of the royals will thaw before Father’s Day, as Jennie added: “This bombshell of an interview is unlikely to bring that invitation any closer. And that’s because at the root of the rift is the question of trust.
“Harry’s father and brother do not trust him to keep conversations private. And this loudspeaker of a diatribe against them is not going to make them change their minds.”
But for Kate, the Father’s Day celebration will also honour one of her non-royal relatives – her own father Michael Middleton. Both Michael and Kate’s mum Carole have also been ever-present at her and her children’s side as they navigated her ill health. The pair are also said to have helped out with the school run and entertained their energetic grandchildren when their parents were unable to.
The Middleton’s approach to supporting their eldest daughter was believed to be characterised by the 3 Rs – rescue, reassurance and rock – with them also described as being the driving force in keeping the family together.
Kate’s close bond with her parents was highlighted when they were the only non-royals to appear in her deeply personal video from last year when she revealed her chemotherapy treatment was over.
Their fleeting appearance showed them all sitting around the kitchen table of William and Kate’s Amner Hall home, having a game of cards. Not only that, the children’s affection for their maternal grandparents was there for all to see at Kate’s Christmas carol concert last year when Prince Louis hung a note on a kindness tree thanking his ‘Granny and Grandpa’ for ‘playing games with me’.
And Jennie added: “Kate will want to show her love and gratitude not only to William but also to her father. Her parents have been the most incredible support through the trauma of her illness, providing solace and comfort and shoulders to cry on – as well as all the practical help of looking after the children and doing the school run.
“I think they will have much to celebrate on Father’s Day this year, and the men in the family can sit back and enjoy being fussed over.”
