by Two of the most senior members of the British royal family have been affected by health problems: Catherine, Princess of Wales and wife of Prince William, will undergo abdominal surgery in London on Tuesday, while King Charles III will receive treatment for an enlarged prostate. next week.
Catherine will be hospitalized for 10 to 14 days, according to the couple’s office at Kensington Palace, and will then convalesce for two to three months. The king’s recovery is expected to be quicker, according to Buckingham Palace, which described her treatment as a “corrective procedure” for a common, benign condition.
Kensington Palace offered no details about Catherine’s diagnosis or prognosis, other than to say that the surgery had been planned and was successful, and that her condition was “non-cancerous.” She said the princess, 42, would recover at home after leaving hospital and would not return to public functions until after Easter.
“Her Royal Highness The Princess of Wales was admitted to the London Clinic yesterday for planned abdominal surgery,” Kensington Palace said in a four-paragraph statement. Press release. She added: “She hopes the public understands her desire to maintain as much normality as possible for her children; and her desire that her personal medical information remain private.”
News of King Charles’ medical procedure came about an hour later. Buckingham Palace announced it would postpone its engagements for a “short recovery period.” He did not say which hospital Charles, 75, would be treated at. A palace official said the king had decided to reveal his treatment because he hoped it would encourage other men who may be experiencing symptoms similar to his to get checked.
Benign prostate enlargement is common in men over 50, according to the British Institute National Health Service. In those over 70 years of age, it can be found in up to 90 percent of men. It is not cancerous and does not usually pose a serious health threat. Treatment includes medication and changes in diet and lifestyle, as well as surgical procedures in some more serious cases to cut away excess tissue from the prostate gland.
Taken together, the medical announcements were a jolt to the British royal family, which was in a period of relative calm after a turbulent couple of years that included the death of Queen Elizabeth II in 2022 and her husband, the Prince Philip. in 2021.
At Catherine’s hospital, The London Clinic, an elite private institution in London’s Marylebone neighborhood, they have treated other members of the royal family, as well as celebrities such as actress Elizabeth Taylor and foreign leaders such as Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet. . John F. Kennedy, the future president, was told by doctors that he had Addison’s disease while he was a patient at the hospital in 1947.
In a royal family rocked by drama and scandal, Catherine, formerly known as Kate Middleton, has often been seen as a figure of stability. After being subjected to titillating media coverage of her affair with William, a classmate at St. Andrews University in Scotland, Catherine has carved out an identity as a mother, patron of charities, and companion of her husband on tours around the world. foreign.
She and Prince William, along with their three children, Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis, have come to the forefront of the family since the queen’s death and the rift between the family and Prince Harry, the younger brother of William, and his wife, Meghan.
The family played a prominent role in the queen’s state funeral, as well as Charles’s coronation last May, where Prince George held the royal robes as one of the pages. Her sister, Charlotte, wore an ivory silk crepe dress by designer Alexander McQueen, a miniature version of the one her mother wore.
Catherine has also become a familiar figure at events such as the Wimbledon tennis tournament, where she is a patron of the All England Lawn Tennis Club and has presented the trophy to the winner of the women’s singles competition.
In public opinion polls, Catherine is often among the most popular members of the family, although she occasionally continues to receive negative coverage for issues such as her relationship with her sister-in-law Meghan, which some British tabloids have described as frosty.
William and Catherine are known for protecting their privacy in medical matters. William suffered an attack of Covid-19 in April 2020, during one of the most intense phases of the pandemic, but the news did not become known for several months. Some suggested that he did not want to cause alarm, since his father, the then Prince Charles, had contracted the disease around the same time.
William, 41, heir to the throne, will also suspend his public duties while Catherine is in the hospital and immediately after she returns home, according to a palace official. He may postpone other commitments during the two or three months when his wife is expected to be convalescing.
Catherine will recover at Adelaide Cottage, a four-bedroom house in the grounds of Windsor Castle, which the couple moved into in 2022, after having lived in a large apartment at Kensington Palace.
