Originally appeared on E! Online
The brother of the late Princess Diana has expressed his support for Kate Middleton amid her cancer battle.
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One day after the Princess of Wales revealed in a video released by Kensington Palace that she had been diagnosed with cancer and is undergoing treatment, Charles Spencer, her husband Prince William's uncle, praised her on social media.
Alongside a screenshot of Middleton in the clip, the ninth Earl Spencer, wrote on Instagram, "Incredible poise and strength."
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In recording the video, Diana's daughter-in-law had broken her silence about her health journey amid weeks of public speculation online and in the media about her well-being. The rumors began after Kensington Palace announced in January that Middleton had undergone abdominal surgery and would be taking a break from her royal duties.
In the video, which BBC Studios filmed at Windsor March 20, Middleton revealed that she was diagnosed with cancer after undergoing the operation, which she described as "major."
"At the time, it was thought that my condition was non-cancerous," she added. "The surgery was successful. However, tests after the operation found cancer had been present. My medical team therefore advised that I should undergo a course of preventative chemotherapy and I am now in the early stages of that treatment."
Middleton, who shares kids Prince George, 10, Princess Charlotte, 8, and Prince Louis, 5, with Prince William, added, "This of course came as a huge shock, and William and I have been doing everything we can to process and manage this privately for the sake of our young family." The screenshot of her video that Spenser posted included a caption of part of her statement that read, "to process and manage this privately."
The 59-year-old had recently compared the media scrutiny of Middleton to that of his late sister—mother of both Prince William and Prince Harry — prior to her death.
When asked about his thoughts on the recent rumors about Kate, Spencer told BBC's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, in an interview released March 17, "I do worry about what happened to the truth."
Princess Diana, ex-wife of King Charles III and one of the most beloved philanthropists in the world, died in 1997 at age 36 in a car crash in Paris after being pursued on the road by paparazzi. Prince William and Harry, then 15 and 12 years old respectively, were not with her at the time of the accident.
"I think it was more dangerous back in the day," Spencer said about the media scrutiny of his sister. "If I look back to '97 and Diana's death, I think that was so shocking, the circumstance of her death was so shocking, that it did make the industry that supports the paparazzi really consider more carefully what it could and couldn't do. Not because they had a moral judgment, but because it was unacceptable to the public."
