The Princess of Wales’s Decision to Share Her Cancer Diagnosis Represents a Powerful Break From Royal Tradition

Elizabeth’s approach was very much in keeping with the royal default, namely to remain stoic, dignified, and silent—in other words, to “never complain, never explain,” The death of her father, King George VI, at the age of 56, was a shock to the nation, despite having suffered from a variety of ailments related to having been a heavy smoker throughout his life. In fact, the King’s lung cancer diagnosis was even hidden from the monarch by his doctors, who euphemistically referred to his left lung as having “structural abnormalities” rather than a carcinoma when they removed it.

“It seems baffling to us now that even George VI’s wife Elizabeth wasn’t kept informed of his condition, and that there were conversations in Parliament about how much he should be told of it,” shares Russell. “But at the time doctors often withheld a serious cancer diagnosis. It explains why the then Princess Elizabeth went to Kenya just before his death—it came as a huge shock to them all.”

When King George died on February 6, 1952, it was widely assumed that the cause of death was coronary thrombosis, as he had suffered from vascular disease, but it has since been speculated that his cancer had spread. His mother, Queen Mary, and his brother, the Duke of Windsor, both died of lung cancer, a fact similarly kept hidden until long after the fact.

After her death at the age of 101 in 2002, it was revealed that the Queen Mother had battled cancer privately, too—first, in 1966, when she had a tumor removed from her colon, and then again in 1984, when she had an operation to remove one from her breast. Her condition was kept hidden on both occasions. “Even today the details of her cancer are unclear because she wished to keep it private,” shares Russell.

Non-senior members of the royal family have often been more open about their health battles, however. In 2002, Princess Michael of Kent revealed that she had been treated for skin cancer, while her husband, Prince Michael of Kent, confirmed in 2014 that he had been successfully treated for prostate cancer. Recently, Sarah, Duchess of York confirmed she had undergone a mastectomy following breast cancer, while at the beginning of this year, she was successfully treated for skin cancer.