Princess of Wales Says Nature Was Her “Sanctuary” During Cancer Recovery
Catherine, Princess of Wales, said in an interview published November 10 that hospital staff warned her cancer recovery would not be linear. She described nature as her sanctuary and spoke of good days and bad days after treatment.
Catherine, Princess of Wales, said in an interview published on November 10 that the hospital told Kate cancer recovery would not be linear. She described nature as her "sanctuary" during the months after treatment.
Kate has been in remission for more than a year. She has shared little about receiving the diagnosis or coping with it, and she stepped back from public life while she was ill.
"Good days and bad days"
Speaking about her "recovery from illness", Kate said nature had been a place she instinctively wanted to go. "It really has been my sanctuary," she said.
She then recalled what clinicians told her. "I was told in hospital that my recovery would not be linear. There will be good days and bad days, that it will take time. This is the same in Nature."
Why nature helped
Kate said serious illness brings physical challenges, but also touches a deeper part of a person. "Nature has allowed me to find a deeper connection to my mind, body and spirit," she said.
She explained why she thinks the outdoors works that way. "It doesn't ask anything of us. It doesn't judge us or expect us to perform."
Treatment and remission
Kate was treated for an undisclosed form of cancer in 2024 and underwent chemotherapy. She announced in January 2025 that she was in remission.
She has spoken about the aftermath before, in a talk with NHS patients and staff. The period after treatment ends, she said then, is "really, really difficult".
"You put on a sort of brave face, stoicism through treatment," she said at the time. Once treatment is done, she added, the thinking becomes: "I can crack on, get back to normal."
The reality was different. "You're not necessarily under the clinical team any longer, but you're not able to function normally at home as you perhaps once used to," Kate explained.
She said patients must "find your new normal and that takes time". It is "a roller coaster, it's not smooth, like you expect it to be", she said, and "the reality is you go through hard times".
The latest comments are among her most direct first-hand descriptions of that stage. Kate has not disclosed the type of cancer she was treated for.
