Kate Middleton’s Surprise Work Meeting Is Significant

It’s no surprise that the first official meeting Kate Middleton held since her chemotherapy ended would be for her key mission of early years work.

If her personal focus is one of being a present parent alongside Prince William for her three children Prince George, 11, Princess Charlotte, 9, and Prince Louis, 6, her key public mission is one that promotes the best conditions possible for parents, carers and children in those first years of life. It “will be a golden thread throughout her working life,” her spokesman told PEOPLE in 2023.

When the Princess of Wales, 42, revealed that her chemotherapy was over in an emotional video alongside her family on Sept. 9, she said she was “looking forward to undertaking a few more public engagements in the coming months.” At the time, those close to her said that she was likely to undertake a light program of work and that she has continued working from home, taking meetings, reading up on important happenings and making calls.

Her first official meeting, though, took place on Sept. 17. It was recorded in the Court Circular, which is printed in The Times and The Daily Telegraph newspapers, with the entry reading simply, “The Princess of Wales, Joint Patron, the Royal Foundation of The Prince and Princess of Wales, this afternoon held an Early Years Meeting at Windsor Castle.” The meeting marked the first Court Circular entry in all of 2024.

This meeting marked another significant step forward for her. So far, since Kate said she was undergoing cancer treatment in a March 22 video message, she has undertaken two public outings — the first to support King Charles at his official birthday parade, Trooping the Colour, in June, and the second at Wimbledon alongside her daughter, Princess Charlotte, and her sister, Pippa Middleton Matthews, in July.

In her meeting at Windsor Castle on Sept. 17, Kate is understood to have met with her key aides and those who run her Centre for Early Childhood, a branch of The Royal Foundation she shares with her husband William. In normal times, she regularly meets with them.

Kate’s focus on the early years is a cause that has been a mainstay of her public work throughout her more than 13 years as a working royal. When she launched her own branch of the foundation in January 2023, it was the latest accomplishment in an ongoing learning journey she has been on for around a decade, building up knowledge about the subject matter and gathering expertise to both advise her and take her projects further. Last year, she took a new campaign, Shaping Us, on the road, promoting it around the U.K., including in Leeds, meeting moms and babies and others in the city’s market and, crucially, spending time with students at the city’s university who are focusing on the early years.

Her reappearance in the Court Circular, that official rundown of royal appearances, will be welcomed as a signal that her health is improving — but it doesn’t mean that meetings will start cropping up on her calendar on a daily basis. In her powerful video alongside her family released on Sept. 9, Kate said that there was still some way to go: “My path to healing and full recovery is long, and I must continue to take each day as it comes,” she said in the clip.

William, 42, appeared to reiterate that message when he told well-wishers in Llanelli, Wales on Sept. 10 that, while Kate’s progress was “good news,” there was “still a long way to go.”

It is known that Kate started working from home in the early summer, around the time that she attended Trooping the Colour, one of her only public appearances this year. Since then, she has been holding meetings with her senior staff, including her new private secretary Tom White, assistant private secretary Natalie Barrows and communications chief Lee Thompson.

She does, though, hope to attend the Remembrance Day service on Nov. 10, which takes place shortly after Prince William returns from Cape Town, South Africa for the Earthshot Prize Awards. Kate is not joining him for that trip.

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Kate will then turn her attention to her annual carol concert in December, which celebrates many of the causes she has championed throughout the year. Crucial to that, always, are those people who work around the early years sector.

Meanwhile, she wasn’t the only surprise in the Court Circular on Sept. 17: Kensington Palace revealed that William, too, had a behind-the-scenes visit that day, going to see the special forces in Hereford. According to the entry, “The Prince of Wales this morning visited 22 Special Air Service Regiment, Stirling Lines, Credenhill, Herefordshire,” the announcement read.