I haven’t been the only one to notice – and admire – the subtle shift in approach taken by the Prince and Princess of Wales since 2024. In the past, royal health matters were rarely commented on, but Kate bravely made her cancer diagnosis public.
Earlier this year she confirmed that she was in remission and although she and Prince William have been undertaking plenty of engagements, they’re also focusing more than ever on their family. This is something that King Charles reportedly urged them to do, to avoid making the “same mistake” he did as a parent.
Speaking in the Channel 5 documentary, William and Catherine: Putting Family First, Ingrid Seward (Editor of Majesty Magazine) claimed that His Majesty and his oldest son had an emotional conversation about priorities.
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According to OK!, the royal expert declared, “Charles said to William, ‘Please don’t make the mistake that I made’ and ‘I want you to enjoy your family life.'”
Ingrid alleged that the King “was very insistent about that”, supposedly because he said “‘I was so dedicated to duty, I couldn’t make way for family life in the way that I should’ve done'”. In her view, Prince William and Kate definitely took his advice.
King Charles’s former butler Grant Harrold agreed with her, saying he could “absolutely see” that the challenges in the past year have marked a “turning point” for the Prince of Wales.
“I think for the first time ever you’ve got a King, who I think deep down if his boys need him, he would probably put them before the crown,” he speculated. “That’s what I believe, and that’s the first time that would have ever happened in the history of the monarchy.”
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For a lot of the time Kate was undergoing treatment, Prince William either paused or significantly reduced the number of engagements he was doing. It’s thought that this was so he could be there for his beloved wife and Prince George, Charlotte and Louis during a year he’s gone on to describe as the “hardest” of his life.
The couple have continued to take time off during the school holidays, have only been on an overnight engagement once in 2025 and several of Kate’s personal messages have mentioned her family. In the Will Warr video released when she completed treatment, the future Queen also acknowledged that she’s got a “new perspective on everything”.
“This time has above all reminded William and me to reflect and be grateful for the simple yet important things in life, which so many of us often take for granted. Of simply loving and being loved,” she declared.
She and Prince William seem to have taken King Charles’s supposed advice about making way for family life deeply to heart. Even before this, they were known as hands-on parents, who didn’t rely on a huge team of nannies.
As Prince of Wales, King Charles was exceptionally busy during his sons’ childhoods and although he’s likely even more so now, the BBC’s former royal correspondent believes that he loves spending as much time as he can with George, Charlotte and Louis.
“For all his serious ponderings on the state of the world and in spite of his heavy workload, Charles is quite a soppy old thing really and I’m sure he hugely values the time he has available to spend with his grandchildren,” she claimed previously to OK!.
