Kate Middleton’s defiant performance at the Wimbledon Tennis Championships on Sunday has given her “food,” according to a report.
The 42-year-old Princess of Wales was greeted with a standing ovation at the annual grand slam, just four months after announcing her cancer diagnosis to the world in March.
“This is going to be what kept her alive,” a palace insider told People. “She went through something horrible and stressful, and it’s crucial to have small victories to look forward to or to give you the courage and energy to keep going. And this was it.”
Leading royal author Robert Jobson told the newspaper that Middleton “showed great courage and character because she knew the world was watching.”
The mother of three delighted fans as she arrived at the All England Lawn Tennis Club with her 9-year-old daughter, Princess Charlotte, and sister Pippa Middleton.
Photographer Karwai Tang, who captured the royal family’s entrance, said the moment was made extra special by Charlotte’s beaming pride.
“Usually she comes in, walks down and sits in her chair,” Tang told the outlet. “But she stood there for a while and took it all in. For her to acknowledge it and take in the applause was special.”
“Wimbledon had been waiting with bated breath for her return, and she was back,” he added.
After the match, in which Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz defeated Novak Djokovic in three sets, Princess Catherine presented the trophy to the reigning champion and the number two.
A lip-reading expert has now deciphered the beloved royal’s reaction to the thunderous applause she received upon arriving at Sunday’s match.
Her outing came a month after she celebrated King Charles’ birthday with the royal family on the balcony of Buckingham Palace during the Trooping the Colour ceremony.
In a pre-recorded clip shared on March 22, the princess revealed her health issues to the world, saying doctors discovered her cancer during a planned abdominal surgery in January.
She noted that she is now in the early stages of “a series of preventive chemotherapies.”