The Wales family offered a display of togetherness as they attended the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow on Saturday, with William and Catherine joined by all three of their children for the penultimate day of action.
The Prince and Princess of Wales, both 44, took their seats in the stands alongside Prince George, 13, Princess Charlotte, 11, and Prince Louis, eight, presenting what royal biographer Robert Jobson described as a “snapshot of family happiness.”
The family clearly enjoyed themselves. Whether it was Louis beaming in a bucket hat, Charlotte telling her younger sibling he isn’t very good at handstands, or George revealing how his dad embarrasses him – they were a picture of an idyllic family.
This, in Mr Jobson’s view, shows they have “come out the other side” following the Princess of Wales’s cancer treatment.
Known as the Duke and Duchess of Rothesay north of the border, the couple and their children were joined by the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh to watch a packed programme of world-class competition.
Later that day, as the family left the velodrome after watching the cycling, Catherine was spotted in a warm and prolonged discussion with Sir Chris Hoy.
The exchange was so friendly that it resulted in Catherine keeping William and the children, who had entered their car, waiting until she had finished their chat, with the princess absorbed in conversation, understood to be a discussion touching on cancer, his wellbeing and his family.
Both the princess and former cyclist have endured very public battles with cancer – the six-time Olympic gold medallist living with a terminal stage four prostate cancer diagnosis, and the future Queen having completed half a year of preventative chemotherapy two years ago.
The two share a genuine friendship. The princess invited Sir Chris to her annual Together at Christmas carol concert in 2024, shortly after announcing she had finished her course of treatment.
Sir Chris, widely regarded as Britain’s finest ever cyclist, received his devastating diagnosis in 2024, when the disease was found to have spread to his bones. He has publicly stated that doctors gave him between two and four years to live.
Mr Jobson, whose biography of the princess topped the Sunday Times bestseller list, told The Daily Mail that the encounter demonstrated her authentic character.
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“She asks the second question, the one that proves she heard the answer to the first,” he said.
The author observed that Catherine consistently makes time for genuine dialogue with people, especially those facing a cancer diagnosis, noting that “there is nothing ordinary about Catherine and every room knows it.”
For Mr Jobson, the most telling evidence of how well the family has weathered Catherine’s health ordeal was visible in the children themselves.
“George is easy in a crowd. Charlotte talks to strangers and means it. Louis behaves like an eight-year-old, which is the healthiest thing in the picture,” he said.
“None of them carries the wariness you would expect. That is not luck. Their parents did it, and they did it while one of them was ill.”
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