A former top aide has revealed Prince William’s deep distress following the Princess of Wales’ cancer diagnosis last year.
Jason Knauf, former chief executive of the Prince and Princess of Wales’s Royal Foundation, described William as being at his “lowest” during this period.
Both the King and the Princess of Wales underwent cancer treatment in 2022. While Kate has since entered remission, Charles continues to receive treatment.
Knauf, who also previously worked for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, stepped down from his role with William and Kate’s foundation at the end of 2021. His comments offer a rare glimpse into the personal struggles faced by the royal family during this challenging time.
In an interview with 60 Minutes Australia, Mr Knauf said: “Within a couple of weeks, if you’re Prince William, you find out that both your wife and your father have cancer. I couldn’t believe it.”
Describing a phone call with William about Kate’s diagnosis, which was made public in March last year, Mr Knauf said: “It was awful, absolutely awful. It’s the lowest I’ve ever seen him.
“But the problem was that all this crazy conspiracy theory stuff kicked off in the background, online. ‘Was she really ill?’.
“But they didn’t want to say yet that she had cancer because they hadn’t told the children and they were still working through how to tell the children.”
Mr Knauf said what he used to talk about the “most” in the past with William was “how he and the princess were going to prepare their children for life in the public eye”.
He added: “His childhood in front of the media was quite difficult at times, and he knew that he was going to be raising his kids to deal with social media and mobile phones and all of that stuff.”
In October 2018, while working for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex as their communications secretary, Mr Knauf made a bullying complaint against Meghan – emailing his concerns to William’s then private secretary, in an apparent attempt to force Buckingham Palace to protect staff.
The duchess’s legal team strenuously denied the allegation.
Discussing William’s relationship with Harry, Mr Knauf said: “It’s very difficult to have this stuff play out in the public eye, but he’s chosen to keep his thoughts on it private, and I think all of us who know him really have to respect that we should do the same.
“But I will say, of course, it’s been hard and sad, especially for all of us who know both of them.”
Mr Knauf was made a Lieutenant of the Royal Victorian Order (RVO) in the 2023 New Year Honours List.
Before joining the royal household the American-born former corporate affairs executive worked for a range of institutions, from the office of the New Zealand prime minister to HM Treasury and the Royal Bank of Scotland.
Mr Knauf led a review of the Royal Foundation’s role and structure from March 2019, before becoming its chief executive in September of that year.
He oversaw the launch of the Foundation’s Earthshot Prize – William’s £50 million environmental prize, now an independent charity, which recognises solutions, ideas and technologies that “repair the planet”.
