Catherine, 42, who has posed for photo ops looking flawless hours after giving birth, would remain hospitalized for up to two weeks, Kensington Palace said, and probably would not resume her official duties before April. The palace did not offer additional details about what procedure was performed, other than to say it was “planned” and the issue was “noncancerous.”
Soon after, Buckingham Palace announced that Charles, 75, would undergo a “corrective procedure” next week for an enlarged prostate and postpone his public engagements “for a short period of recuperation.”
The palaces are typically tight-lipped about the health of the royal family and the statement from Kensington Palace was largely in keeping with that custom. The Princess of Wales “appreciates the interest this statement will generate. She hopes that the public will understand her desire to maintain as much normality for her children as possible; and her wish that her personal medical information remains private,” Kensington Palace said, adding that it would only provide updates on her progress “when there is significant new information to share.”
Buckingham Palace, however, seemed aware that two health announcements in one day were extraordinary. A spokesman, speaking on the condition of anonymity in accordance with protocol, said the king’s procedure was being disclosed in anticipation of questions about why he was canceling events with foreign dignitaries and government officials that had been scheduled for later this week at his Dumfries House estate in Scotland.
The spokesman noted, too, that the king wanted to use the moment to encourage other men who may be experiencing symptoms to get checked.
The palace referred reporters to information from Britain’s National Health Service about benign prostate enlargement, which notes that it is common to men over 50, not usually a serious threat to health, and can affect urination.
In Britain, men over 50 are not routinely screened for prostate cancer by checking their prostate-specific antigen, or PSA levels, as is common in the United States. the NHS has concluded that the PSA tests produce too many false positives and unneeded biopsies and surgery. Instead, the NHS relies on physical exams and, if indicated, an MRI.
Royal correspondents rarely get many details about health conditions.
When Queen Elizabeth II died in September 2022 at 96, the official cause was described as “old age,” according to her death certificate. Before her death, the palace noted that the monarch was suffering from “mobility” issues to explain her use of a cane and her scaled-back schedule.
The queen’s husband, Prince Philip, also died of “old age” at 99. The palace did report on several of the prince’s earlier hospital visits — a bladder infection in 2012; exploratory abdominal surgery in 2013; and hip replacement surgery in 2018.
A month before he died in April 2021, Philip underwent “a successful procedure for his existing heart condition,” the palace said at the time.
When then-Prince Charles tested positive for the coronavirus in 2020, the palace issued a statement while he was in isolation. However, the public did not learn that his son William had also suffered from covid until six months after the fact — and then only because royal reporters found out.
The length of Catherine’s planned hospital stay raised questions on Wednesday. The overall average length of stay in an NHS hospital was 8.3 days in 2022, while length of stay for elective admissions was 5.1 days.
But in the public imagination, Catherine has never been seen as average when it comes to medical issues. She is known to treat giving birth as an outpatient procedure and leave the hospital perfectly coifed.
Catherine was last seen in public on Christmas Day with her family, attending church services near the royal estate in Sandringham.
