In 2024, Prince William spoke out about the experience of both his father and wife being diagnosed with cancer, calling last year "the hardest year in my life." Now in a new 60 Minutes Australia episode, former royal aide Jason Knauf shared what it was really like behind the scenes as the Prince of Wales dealt with two family health crises.
Knauf—who served as a royal communications secretary and later CEO of Prince William and Princess Kate’s Royal Foundation—opened up about working for the family during a Sunday, Feb. 23 episode of the show. In his interview, Knauf said that William found out about The King and Kate’s cancer news “within a couple weeks” of each other.
"If you're Prince William, you find out that both your wife and your father have cancer…and that is…I mean, I couldn’t believe it,” Knauf said. The former aide admitted that the conversation he had with William at the time was “awful.”
"Absolutely awful. It's the lowest I've ever seen him," Knauf said in the clip.
He also addressed the wild rumors surrounding Kate’s health and temporary disappearance from public life, adding, “the problem was that all this crazy sort-of conspiracy theory stuff kicked off in the background online—'Was she really ill?'”
He continued that Kate and William “didn't want to say yet that she had cancer, because they hadn't told the children and were still working through how to tell the children.”
Knauf—who worked for the royals for seven years—also shared some more lighthearted stories, like the time he accidentally misplaced a paper containing the news of Princess Charlotte’s birth. He was actually told the happy news before members of the Royal Family were, per the program, but ended up losing the note paper.
“I think I had dropped it somewhere on the street,” he said with a laugh.
When Knauf was asked if there were king lessons of sorts, the former press secretary said, “I think it’s much more personal than that,” adding that there were “private family conversations.”
