By all accounts, hugging a royal like Kate Middleton breaks royal protocol, but sometimes, emotions get the better of these strict considerations. Last Wednesday, ahead of the Royal Variety Performance, held at London’s Royal Albert Hall, pop star Jessie J, seemed to throw any unspoken rules out the window and hugged Middleton as she left the stage.
“Mum to mum, who has just recently gone through cancer, I just wanted to give her a hug,” Jessie later explained, per The Independent. “We acknowledged that it’s something that is not easy to go through, especially in the public eye,” she added.
Last June, the 37-year-old British singer revealed that she had breast cancer. At the same time, she expressed her wish to share her battle with the disease with her fans, because “selfishly, I don’t talk about it enough,” she said. “I can’t digest this experience because I’m working too hard. I also know how much sharing my story in the past has helped me, thanks to the love and support I’ve received from others, as well as their own testimonies.” The singer had undergone a mastectomy, which rid her of the cancer “completely,” and then returned to the stage. However, she had to slow down in the autumn to prepare for a second operation, the date of which has now been postponed.
For her part, the Princess of Wales had announced her complete remission last January, a year after undergoing a major abdominal operation following which it was determined that “the cancer was present”. A diagnosis she announced in March, after two months of intense speculation about her absence. She explained that she would have to withdraw from public life while undergoing “preventive chemotherapy” to combat her illness, the nature of which was never specified.
In September 2024, she announced that she had completed her treatment. “Above all, this period reminded William and me to reflect and be grateful for the simple but important things in life, which many of us often take for granted. The simple fact of loving and being loved,” she declared. “I’m now focusing on everything I can do to stay healthy. Even though I’ve completed my chemotherapy, the road to healing and full recovery is a long one, and I have to keep living day by day.”
Throughout 2025, Kate Middleton honored various engagements, gradually returning to her crowned head life. Her appearance at the Royal Albert Hall marked her first red-carpet outing on the arm of her husband for two years. On December 5, the future queen will no doubt offer another spectacular look when she visits Westminster Abbey for her traditional Christmas concert.
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