A new biography of Kate Middleton hits the shelves today — and it’s packed with tidbits about the woman who will one day be Queen of England.
There are no major bombshells in “Kate!” by Christopher Andersen, a veteran royal biographer with 18 New York Times bestsellers to his name. As one of his sources says, “what you see is what you get” with the Princess of Wales, and — in case the exclamation point didn’t tip you off — this is a largely flattering portrait of a shrewd, kind and brave woman navigating an extraordinarily strange life.
What Andersen does do is fill in some of the blanks in the broader story we know about the Princess of Wales. While he does have a frustrating habit of not always explicitly sourcing his information — and a penchant for writing scenes as though they’re from Kate’s perspective, presenting thoughts and feelings that he can’t possibly have had first-hand from her — there’s a long list of royal-adjacent names in the acknowledgments that nod to the calibre his potential sourcing.
From details about her cancer journey and how she really feels about Meghan, here are some of the most interesting takeaways from “Kate!”.
1. Kate was having “abdominal pain” for weeks before her surgery
While Andersen doesn’t claim to know exactly why the Princess of Wales was brought in for what the palace called “planned abdominal surgery” in January 2024, he does share that she had been experiencing “abdominal pain” for several weeks before.
According to Andersen, the surgeons who operated on Kate on Jan. 16, 2024, were “secretly flown in” from Italy, and had previously operated on Pope Francis. It’s not clear why the princess didn’t have British doctors at the London Clinic, but according to Andersen, she was initially told that the procedure went “swimmingly,” but within 72 hours was told that lab results revealed “cancerous cells” that required “preventive therapy.”
When she heard the news, according to a “friend” Andersen cites, Kate said, “It felt as if the bottom of my world suddenly fell out. It felt like I had literally been kicked in the stomach.”
2. She may have had bladder cancer
Andersen does not know the type of cancer that Kate had, although he shares speculation from the director of the cancer centre at the same Italian hospitals her doctors hailed from. According to Giampaolo Tortora, women like Kate who had suffered from extreme morning sickness were at higher risk for “several cancers, most notably bladder cancer.” He also “hypothesized” that ovarian, uterine or colon cancer were possibilities. The palace has never publicly shared the kind of cancer that Kate had.
3. Chemotherapy left her “wrung out” and barely able to stand with fatigue
Andersen also shares details of the princess’s treatment, which he says was “adjuvant therapy” to destroy “microscopic cancer cells” that might remain after her surgery. This entailed hour-long IV therapy in a private room — in fact, he says that to ensure her privacy, Kate’s visits weren’t even recorded in official hospital logs — twice a week for six months.
Kate has publicly spoken about the debilitating impact of chemotherapy; in this book, Andersen paints a fuller picture of what that may have meant. She felt “wrung out,” tired to the point where she could hardly stand, and, while trying to put on a normal front, would “collapse on the sofa” after her children went to school.
She also lost a significant amount of weight — Andersen notes that any claims of an eating disorder are unfounded — while undergoing treatment. In fact, he says that she specifically chose to wear a striped Erdem sweater in her cancer announcement video in order to disguise just how dramatic this had been.
And speaking of that video, which came after weeks of speculation about her whereabouts, Andersen says that Meghan and Harry found out about her cancer diagnosis at the same time as the rest of the world.
4. Kate had a major crush on Prince William as a teenager
One of the main beats of any story about Kate Middleton is how she and her mother did (or didn’t) plot her path to the throne. Andersen’s sources seem to suggest that, while not precisely Machiavellian, none of it was accidental. Her mother — who came from a working-class background and whose ambition saw her build a highly successful company — was apparently “laser-focused” on breaking her family into the upper class.
Kate, for her part, was infatuated with Prince William, like many other teenage girls in the late Nineties. Andersen says she had a life-size poster of him on her wall at boarding school, “inhaled” anything written about him and even monitored his official schedule on the palace website.
Still, Andersen says it was ultimately Carole who convinced Kate to switch universities when William announced he’d be at St. Andrews.
5. Kate had “reservations” about Meghan
Andersen claims that Kate didn’t know what to make of Meghan, although “her big sisterly instincts were telling her that the divorced American actress might not be the best fit for Harry,” and she “put off” meeting her for two months. She was also “suspicious” of Meghan’s compliments about her style and felt there was a “culture clash” between her American ways and how Brits did things, like talking about your hormones.
Kate apparently tried to get William to “intervene” when it became clear that Harry was on an accelerated path to ask Meghan to marry him.
6. Kate was “personally humiliated” by infidelity rumours
Andersen says that there are no grounds to the rumours that circulated a few years ago that Prince William was having an affair with Rose Hanbury, a friend and neighbour. But, he adds, Kate was always “personally humiliated” by these kinds of infidelity rumours.
7. Harry’s words about his father’s health were Kate’s final straw
While Kate apparently tried to play peacemaker long after her husband had written his brother off, even after Harry’s autobiography, “Spare,” she apparently could not tolerate his remark in 2025 that he wanted reconciliation with his family because “I don’t know how much longer my father has.”
The princess thought it was “insensitive” and “callous,” and per “a Sandringham staffer” whom Andersen cites, she is “the sweetest, most loving person you could ever know, but like everyone, she has her limits.”
8. Kate and Charles are close
While they’ve always gotten along, Andersen claims that Charles and Kate grew particularly close after their shared cancer journeys. They apparently speak on the phone multiple times a week. According to Andersen, his daughter-in-law actually has a unique ability to reach her father-in-law when no one else can. “No one can cheer Charles up like Catherine can,” he quotes Camilla — who said this “in earshot of an aide” — telling William. “They make each other laugh.”
9. She is “physically sickened” by Andrew’s behaviour
Once he was banished from royal public life following allegations of sexual assault by a then-teenager Virginia Giuffre, Kate apparently “banned” Andrew from all of her events and “refused to speak to him, even during family get-togethers.” Andersen quotes a “volunteer staffer” at her Christmas Carol event who says she denied a request for the disgraced royal to even sneak in a side door and watch. “She is a very kind and forgiving person but not when it comes to abusing children.” (Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor has strenuously denied any allegations.)
Camilla, Kate and William have all apparently lobbied the King to “banish Andrew from the Firm once and for all,” and she apparently told a friend that she was “physically ‘sickened’ by the damage Andrew’s actions were doing to the institution her children would one day inherit.”
