UK’s Catherine, Princess of Wales, pulls out of Royal Ascot race meeting
LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — Britain’s Catherine, Princess of Wales, who is recovering from cancer, has pulled out of attending the Royal Ascot race meeting, her Kensington Palace office said on Wednesday. The famed sporting event in Berkshire in southern England is a key event in the royal calendar. Catherine, also known as Kate, would not be attending Royal Ascot with her husband Prince William, King Charles III and Queen Camilla as she continued to “find the right balance following her battle with cancer” the domestic Press Association news agency added.
The 43-year-old future queen has been making a gradual return to public duties since she announced she was cancer-free in September 2024. In March that year, the mother-of-three revealed she was undergoing a course of “preventative chemotherapy” for an undisclosed cancer. Kate, who in January revealed she was in remission, was said to be disappointed not to able to attend Royal Ascot, a renowned social and sporting occasion for which the royal family comes out in force.
The annual five-day race meeting was said to be the late Queen Elizabeth II’s favourite sporting event. Royal Ascot begins each day of the week with the Royal Procession, a historic tradition in which the monarch and various accompanying members of the royal family arrive along the track in horse-drawn carriages.
They then watch the racing from the exclusive Royal Enclosure. The enclosure operates a strict dress code of top hats and morning coats, jackets with a long “tail” for men and hats and knee-length or longer dresses or skirts for women. Charles, 76, has also faced his own cancer battle. The king announced in early 2024 that he too had been diagnosed with an unspecified cancer.
He has since returned to public duties, but is still undergoing treatment.
Catherine on Saturday appeared on the balcony of Buckingham Palace with the rest of the royal family following Charles’s annual birthday parade. On Monday she was photographed attending an official royal event at St George’s Chapel on the royal family’s Windsor estate, west of London.
