LONDON — Shaken by a scandal that saw King Charles III heckled in the streets before banishing his brother, the British royal family finally has some good news: Princess Kate is back.
Consistently rated one of Britain’s most popular royals, Kate appears to have eased into a fuller return to public duties this week.
She made her first in-person speech Monday since she shared her cancer diagnosis 18 months ago.
“The love we feel in our earliest years fundamentally shapes who we become and how we thrive as adults,” Kate said, addressing business leaders at the Future Workforce Summit in London about the importance of early childhood, a cause she has championed for years.
“Love is the first and most essential bond.”
The princess has made a growing number of public appearances since she announced this year that her cancer was in remission, but the speech appears to bring her back into the royal fold more permanently.
"Welcome back, Princess," beamed the Daily Telegraph front page.
She drew more positive coverage after a further appearance Wednesday evening for one of the most joyful events on the royal calendar, the annual Royal Variety Performance, telling well-wishers it was “so nice to be back” at the event, according to British media.
She returns after weeks of torrid headlines for the family, with the king stripping his brother Andrew of his princely title last month amid growing scrutiny over his ties to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
“What you see and hear about Catherine is the monarchy doing the sort of work that it should be doing today,” said Craig Prescott, who teaches law at Royal Holloway, University of London, and specializes in the constitutional and political role of the monarchy.
He told NBC News that the speech focusing on early childhood was a “good moment” for the family, reflective of its role taking on “interesting but not directly political causes.”
The focus has been on anything but the family’s normal load of public engagements and ribbon cutting in recent years as the royals have endured a stream of uncertainty and upheaval since Queen Elizabeth II's death in 2022.
The royal family was shaken early last year by the announcement that Charles, then 75, had been diagnosed with cancer after just two years on the throne, for which he is still undergoing treatment.
Relations with the media were then undercut by a damaging saga when Kate, then largely absent from the public eye, admitted having altered a family photo released by the palace. Weeks later, Kate announced her diagnosis and said she was undergoing chemotherapy.
The king has also been working to heal a rift with his son Prince Harry, who stepped down from his royal duties in 2020. They met for a private tea in September, their first meeting in almost two years; William was not present.
It was the king’s younger brother Andrew who generated what Prescott called the first significant crisis of Charles’ reign, with fresh revelations about his ties to Epstein last month spurring the king to strip his royal titles and eject him from his home in Windsor.
Earlier this month, 16 Democrats on the House Oversight Committee wrote to ask the former prince, now Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, to cooperate with their inquiry into Epstein. Thursday is the deadline for Andrew to respond.
Now, with Kate seemingly back on the royal front line, there appears to be an opportunity to refocus, royal observers said.
“This was Kate’s first speech in two years, and she looked very polished, very calm and confident, and she is clearly in a really good place,” said Emily Nash, royal editor at HELLO! Magazine. “We can expect to see a lot more of this going forward.”
Kate regularly polls as one of the most popular members of the royal family.
Her favorability rating stood at 73% in October, according to a poll by YouGov, just below that of her husband, Prince William, at 76%. The royal family in general had a 59% favorability rating.
“There’s a feeling that she’s never put a foot wrong,” Prescott said. A sense of affection and support for William after his mother, Princess Diana, died in a car crash extended to Kate after she married into the royal family and “gave her a good platform from which to build,” he added.
Like the late queen, she is someone who takes her role as a member of the royal family very seriously and understands the concept of duty, Prescott said.
