Bond with King will help them both cope

THE royals have been through some tumultuous times in recent years, but none will be as personally testing as this.

Hospital admissions, test results and a dreaded cancer diagnosis for not one, but two, senior members of The Firm represent an unprecedented situation. But in the darkest of times it is the support and comfort of your loved ones that sees you through.

Whatever your view on them as a collective – or indeed the individuals, at times, given their various flaws – the Royal Family are people too.

People with lives that matter to those around them, and who – as we have seen – are no more immune than any one of us to the fragility of life.

Shock

The Princess of Wales’ cancer diagnosis, at the age of just 42, will have come as an immense shock to not only her, William and their three children, but so too to those around her.

That same shock was most certainly felt when the King had announced his own diagnosis just weeks earlier, before he embarked on his own journey to recovery.

While these events present their own challenges for the people at the centre, we can be sure there will be much love and support from those around them. In the wake of Kate’s video announcement on Friday, Buckingham Palace released a statement from the monarch in which he spoke of his pride in his “beloved daughter-in-law” for her “courage in speaking as she did”.

The message confirmed that the pair had remained “in the closest contact” since their shared time in the same hospital in January, while also confirming both Charles’ and Queen Camilla’s unending support for the road ahead.

For those who have observed Kate and Charles’ relationship grow through the years, there is an undeniable warmth and deep bond between them.

That will no doubt help them both immeasurably with their shared experience of this wretched disease.