The Princess of Wales has hugged and spoken with a cancer patient after attending the royal family’s traditional Christmas Day church service following her own “brutal” year with the disease.
Kate, alongside her husband the Prince of Wales and their children – Prince George, 11, Princess Charlotte, nine, and Prince Louis, six – joined the King and Queen as they walked the short distance from Sandringham House to St Mary Magdalene Church, past a crowd of well-wishers.
Some had camped overnight to catch a glimpse of the royals walking to church in Norfolk.
Following the service, which lasted about 45 minutes, Kate hugged 73-year-old Karen Maclean from North Lincolnshire, who said she had had “20 years of cancer”, as she spoke with both the princess and Charles about the disease.
Ms Maclean said: “We just had a little talk about cancer, really.
“I’ve met the King before. He said to me ‘I can remember you’, I’m thinking ‘what!’, like many years ago?”
She said that Charles and Kate seemed “very well actually, considering what they’re going through”.
She added after hugging Kate: “What a privilege.”
William walked hand in hand with Charlotte while Kate, who wore a green Sarah Burton for Alexander McQueen coat and hat, smiled at the crowds.
Also in the walking party was the Princess Royal and the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh.
Princess Beatrice and her husband Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi attended the service after she changed her travel plans due to medical advice during her pregnancy.
Absent was Beatrice’s father, the Duke of York, who has been dogged by links to an alleged Chinese spy.
Andrew, 64, had joined the family at church for the last two years but was expected to be spending Christmas Day with his ex-wife Sarah, Duchess of York this year at Royal Lodge, the home they share in Windsor Great Park, Berkshire.
The first people in a queue of well-wishers waiting to see members of the royal family walk to church on Christmas Day arrived on Tuesday and camped out overnight.
Retired chef John Loughrey, 69, from Wandsworth, south London, said he and Sky London travelled by train to King’s Lynn then took a bus, arriving at Sandringham at 7.30pm on Christmas Eve.
“We had sleeping bags with us and a heat pad,” Mr Loughrey said.
He continued: “It was a bit damp last night.
“We came here for Catherine. She’s been an inspiration the last year what she’s been through.”
Mr London, 64, from Paddington, central London, said: “If you’re a royalist and you love the royals you do anything.”
The royals who walked to the service were greeted at the steps to the church by the Reverend Canon Dr Paul Rhys Williams.
They headed inside and the national anthem was sung before the first hymn, O Come, All Ye Faithful.
William has described the past year, in which his wife and father were treated for cancer, as “brutal”.
He said 2024 has “probably been the hardest year in my life” and a “dreadful” experience.