Welcome back. It is just about 10:00 AM on the
East Coast,
3:00 PM in London, England where Kate Middleton,
the Princess of Wales is in the hospital right now
after undergoing abdominal surgery in London.
The 42 year old Royal will remain in the hospital,
we understand for 10 to 14 days according to Kensington
Palace.
Our MTS Tayyab is following the story for us from
our London Bureau.
MTS. What are you learning?
Hey Nancy, I'm Marie. Well,
this information is really just coming in in the last
hour,
but we're hearing that the Princess of Wales has undergone
successful abdominal surgery and won't be resuming public duties until
after Easter.
Now this is coming from Kensington Palace who said the
42 year old Princess was admitted to the London Clinic
yesterday for the planned procedure.
The future Queen is expected to remain in hospital for
10 to 14 days before returning home to continue her
recovery,
and in a statement, she said she wishes to apologize
for any upcoming engagements that she has had to postpone.
The Palace did refuse, however,
to confirm what Kate was being treated for,
but confirmed that the condition was non cancerous.
That's good and hopefully it's nothing too major.
I mean, when I think of Kate Middleton,
she really does appear to be the picture of health.
You know, like she's physically active.
She's, she's strong, she's lean.
Generally, her health has been pretty good.
Absolutely. And she's very young.
In fact, we have to remember that the last time
we saw Kate Middleton was about 3 weeks ago.
It was Christmas. We saw her at Sandringham.
And you're right, she was the picture of health.
She was with her family
again. They were meeting with the public as they do
on Christmas Day.
But now we have the news that she is going
to be
in hospital again for for a number of days and
she will be essentially recuperating for a number of months
again till Easter.
And we understand that the
rather the Princess of Will understands that there will be
a lot of interest in this statement and she has
said that she hopes that the public will understand her
desire to maintain as much normalcy for her children as
possible.
She also said that her wishes that her personal medical
information remain private.
In a statement from Kensington Palace,
it said it will only provide updates on Her Royal
Highnesses progress when there is significant new information to share.
Guys, and that's understandable. MJ As you had mentioned,
she hasn't been seen now in public since that Christmas
appearance.
It is a long time that she hasn't had any
of those public engagements considering it's January 17th,
because she does keep a rather busy schedule.
I imagine some of it has to do with the
children going back to school,
but it's been a while.
We understand that Prince William also is possibly going to
be cutting back on his public duties in order to
support Princess Kate at this point.
That's right. We understand that the
future king will also be by his wife's side as
she recuperates from this procedure.
They had, as we understood,
had many things planned in the coming months.
They were going to attend the BAFTA awards
together, which is an event they go to quite often.
They were also planning trip to Italy as well,
an overseas trip and obviously that has been cancelled too.
And again the Princess in that statement by Kensington Palace
apologizing for the fact that she will not be able
to make those events,
but again saying that they will not be making any
statements unless there is significant quote,
significant information to share. You know,
MTS, I actually find that second paragraph in the statement
kind of the most interesting where she,
you know, acknowledges and appreciates that there will be significant
interest in this statement but asks for privacy.
And I just thought to myself,
you know, we've had those recent settlements with the media
and and the Royal family and it kind of it
reads like a very firm stay out of my business
in the most polite way.
Yeah, that's that's very good reading of it.
Look, I think the the British press will likely be
very respectful of it,
but there's going to be a great deal of hunger,
for lack of a better phrase.
As for information as to what exactly is the reason
behind
the the woman who will eventually become Queen spending so
much time in hospital.
But again, this is her private medical health and everybody
deserves privacy when it comes to the health,
including someone as public facing
as Princess Kate. In saying that,
it is unusual for members of the royal family to
announce that they have had procedures.
And that is why I think we are getting this
statement as worded the way that it has,
making it very clear that they understand the level of
interest.
But again, would like that privacy,
guys. All right. MTS, thank you so much.
Now for a little more analysis,
we want to bring in CBS News Royal contributor Amanda
Foreman.
Hey, Amanda. It's great to see you.
Jesus, it's been so long.
Amanda used to be a regular fixture here when we
were doing so much news about the Royals.
Amanda, what
what do you make of the statement?
I I mean, I had said that I thought the
second paragraph was quite interesting because she's kind of clearly
clarifying the boundaries that yes,
the public is interest interested.
Yes, the public is invested,
but she's also a mother and a wife and,
you know, and would like some privacy.
What do you make of the statement and what have
you been hearing about?
We know what's going on with her?
Well, in terms of the statement,
this reflects the fact that,
as you say, she's always put herself as a mother
1st and she doesn't want her children to be exposed
to any kind of speculation or intrusion.
And so this very, very crafty statement was put out
100% with a mind to protecting those three children.
Yeah. You know, I'm also curious because I when we
talk about those three children,
I remember she was very open or at least
they came out pretty early on in her pregnancy when
she had hyperemesis,
gravidirum and and was in the hospital or in bed
because of that.
There is that argument of of how much is the
public owed in terms of that medical information.
It's an interesting conversation to have.
It is an interesting conversation to have,
but when when it involves young children,
the the tradition has always been to
err on the side of caution and in particular with
the royal family.
As we know there were instances in
the young Princess growing up where they were incredibly scarred
by media speculation about their mother and so that mindfulness
is why they have gone in this direction.
That's an interesting point and
in in looking at this statement also the statement saying
that she won't return to royal duties until after Easter,
Reading into that, that does seem to be a long
recovery process.
How significant is that?
Well, it is very significant but don't forget there are
procedures that can require very long recovery time.
For example, a hysterectomy can take weeks to recover and
it doesn't mean it's a life threatening situation by any
means.
But there are lots of procedures people don't want to
have discussed.
It is personal to them and they wouldn't.
So this, this makes a lot of sense
within the framework of what we're hearing.
What sort of engagements does the Princess of Wales usually
participate in?
What's she? What's she going to be missing out on?
Well, I mean, this is an incredibly busy time
for the Princess of Wales.
There are there there in the Christian calendar in the
United Kingdom,
there are, you know, Lent,
Maundy Thursday, Ash Wednesday.
There's a lot that goes on around now.
And, you know, and the royal family plays a big
role in that.
And as, you know, as an ambassador for her mental
health and for children,
the big thing is that she has a very physical
role now.
She's always bending up. She's always standing up,
sitting down, nearly picking up.
And that's where she has to be particularly careful.
Yeah, that makes a lot of sense.
Amanda Foreman, thank you very much.
You're welcome.