Kate Middleton's Timeless Christmas Concert Special 'Up in the Air' Due to Princess of Wales' Cancer Recovery
Catherine, Princess of Wales' annual "Together at Christmas" concert in Westminster Abbey has become a royal tradition. However, the festive holiday extravaganza may be postponed or even go on without its star when this December rolls around.
It has been reported that Catherine could decide to pre-record introductions to performers at the live event, so she could "in some way" take part in her creation. Another theory holds that Prince William and the couple's three children could attend in person along with Kate's pre-recorded bits airing.
Her Royal Highness' nearly year-long battle with an undisclosed type of cancer "drained her both physically and emotionally" before the future queen was able to conquer the illness in early September. The mother-of-three underwent chemotherapy treatments for "over six months" to ensure cells of the disease were "completely cleared" from the area of discovery.
The Princess of Wales created "Together at Christmas," also known as "Carols at Christmas," in December 2021, which allowed the late Queen Elizabeth II, in what became her final Christmas, to view the inaugural event she sanctioned from Windsor Castle. With the monarch's blessing and backing, the then-Duchess of Cambridge organized the carols to occur around live performances from stars of multiple music genres.
Airing on the ITV network each year, the special instantly became a hit and is always a showcase for royal watchers to see the entire Wales family and other senior and junior royals, celebrate "All things Christian" in the United Kingdom.
Royal expert and broadcaster Neil Sean told Fox News, "Whichever way you look at it, a lot is riding on the Princess of Wales pulling this together in the shortest space of time. Insiders tell me she’s very keen for this to continue as normal, but as they also pointed out, health and its restrictions are the ones really in control."
On a more promising note, Sean observed, "ITV have cleared the space and has no plans to replace it with anything else, yet check in weekly with any updates that they can assist with or simply take the pressure off, as they wait to see if Catherine's 'Carols at Christmas' will finally bring some normality back to what’s been a traumatic year for the British royal family and for their subjects the Commonwealth and the rest of the world."
The Princess of Wales also officially returned to her royal duties, albeit from Windsor Castle. The queen-in-waiting met with members of her team at the Centre for Early Childhood on Tuesday, September 17.
It is not clear when HRH plans to attend public-facing royal duties and/or engagements, but the future queen did reveal in her video announcing she was cancer-free that she "hoped" to attend some duties before the year is out.