The Princess of Wales is set to make her biggest comeback to royal working life with a show- stopping appearance at next month’s Bafta film awards.
Insiders at the awards say they are ‘pulling out all the stops’ to ensure the ceremony marks Kate’s triumphant return to the red carpet after her cancer ordeal. Bafta film committee chairman Anna Higgs says she is ‘very hopeful’ Kate will accompany husband William, the academy’s president, at London‘s Royal Festival Hall on February 16.
An insider adds Bafta is ‘throwing everything at securing’ Kate’s presence, aware of the worldwide fanfare her arrival will herald.
Kate missed the awards last year weeks before she revealed in a video message on March 22 that she was suffering from cancer. Before her video, the public merely knew she had been admitted to hospital for planned abdominal surgery.
William walked the red carpet alone at the Baftas.
Kate finished chemotherapy in September and said that she would focus on staying ‘cancer-free‘.
Since then she has met families of the girls killed in the Southport knife attack, marked Remembrance Sunday and led her annual carol service at Westminster Abbey.
But she has yet to return to the glamour of the red carpet.
Insiders at the awards say they are ‘pulling out all the stops’ to ensure the ceremony marks Kate’s triumphant return to the red carpet after her cancer ordeal. She last appeared at the event in 2023
In previous years Kate’s appearances have helped to throw a spotlight on British fashion brands she has patronised (Pictured on Christmas Day 2024)
Kate missed the awards last year weeks before she revealed in a video message on March 22 that she was suffering from cancer
In 2018 Kate even attended the Baftas while heavily pregnant with Prince Louis, who was born two months later
The well-placed insider said: ‘Bafta has close ties with William and Kate and is pulling out all the stops to try to secure Kate’s presence at this year’s awards.
‘It sent her warmest wishes when she revealed her cancer diagnosis and hopes she will appear alongside
William in what will be her big showbiz return since she’s been in recovery. Anything Bafta can do to work around Kate, it will do.
‘William and Kate love to watch the nominated films beforehand and we know Kate enjoys meeting those working in the film industry.
‘We have been told that she wouldn’t want to miss it, so she’s hoping to be there with William.’
In previous years Kate’s appearances have helped to throw a spotlight on British fashion brands she has patronised.
She first attended the event in 2017. The couple took a break in 2021, just before Prince Philip died, and again in 2022, due to diary constraints, before a triumphant return in 2023 when the ceremony paid tribute to the late Queen.
In 2018 Kate even attended the Baftas while heavily pregnant with Prince Louis, who was born two months later.