Kate Middleton has mainly avoided public life in 2024, prioritizing her health following her cancer diagnosis.
With that in mind, it made sense that when the Princess of Wales, 42, joined other members of the royal family for their customary Christmas Day walkabout following a morning church service at St. Mary Magdalene on the Sandringham estate, members of the public wanted to speak with her personally. Kate had a number of meaningful chats during the walkabout, including one with a woman who had previously battled illness, and emotional exchanges like that naturally take longer than a simple “Hello.”
During the Dec. 25 walkabout, Kate casually joked with a well-wisher, “I seem to have lost my family!” as her husband, Prince William, and their children, Prince George, 11, Princess Charlotte, 9, and Prince Louis, 6, were significantly ahead of her on the road. According to The Daily Mail, William, 42, and the children waited feet away, patiently waiting for Kate to finish conversing with the audience.
Princess Kate donned a forest green Alexander McQueen cloak that she had previously worn on a visit to Leeds in 2023. Queen Camilla, who led the royal entourage on the walk alongside her husband, King Charles, matched it with a matching fascinator and scarf, as well as black gloves and boots.
Kate beamed from ear to ear as she collected armfuls of flowers, crouched down to chat with little children, and met members of the public who were anxious to speak with her, including John Loughrey, who told Sky News of seeing the future queen, “I’m on top of the world.”
“I told Catherine she was an inspiration,” he joked.
Karen Maclean, who has been fighting cancer for over 20 years, had a conversation with Princess Kate and King Charles, who both received cancer diagnoses earlier this year. (The sorts and stages of both of their malignancies are undisclosed to the public; however, Kate stated on Sept. 9 that she had finished her chemotherapy treatment, and the palace revealed Dec. 20 that the King’s treatment will continue until 2025 but is progressing well.)
“We just had a little talk about cancer,” Maclean said about her conversation with the Princess of Wales, adding that Kate and Charles were actually doing very well, considering what they’re going through.
After hugging Kate, Maclean said, “What a privilege.”
Louis Beauchamp talked with Kate on December 25, having previously met her in May 2023 prior to King Charles’ coronation.
“I had an unforgettable interaction with Catherine,” Beauchamp told PEOPLE of his Christmas Day discussion.
Beauchamp, who is from France, continued, “Unfortunately, when she disclosed she had cancer, I knew we wouldn’t see her in public for a long time. Sandringham represented the finest opportunity for me. So I planned a vacation and went there to demonstrate that I was still there to support her and always would.”
Beauchamp sent Kate a note thanking her for the “positive impact she has had on my life over the years” and presented her with a scarf he had sewn in Morocco.
“She thanked me very much and said it was wonderful and so kind of me to have come again,” he told the newspaper. “She was just as sincere and connected to everyone as I recalled. She appeared overjoyed to be with us again. You could see her genuine emotion.”
Kate previously discussed her tendency to become talkative during walkabouts in a video celebrating Queen Elizabeth on her 90th birthday in 2016. “There’s a real art to walkabouts,” she remarked. “Everyone in the family teases me for conversing for too long. I still need to study a little more and pick up a few more pointers, I think.”
She underwent scheduled stomach surgery in January and remained out of public view until June’s Trooping the Colour, following her March video revelation of her cancer diagnosis. She appeared at Wimbledon in July with her daughter, Princess Charlotte, and her sister, Pippa Middleton, and since her September video announcement that she had completed therapy, she has been gradually returning to royal duty, including a visit to Southport, England, with Prince William in October, participation in Remembrance events in November, and hosting her annual Together at Christmas carol concert at Westminster Abbey on December 6.
Kate said at the carol concert that she had no idea this year would be so special. The unplanned.”
“But I think lots of people this year have had such challenging times, including many who are here today,” she continued.
Though the December 25 walkabout was a familiar sight, a source told PEOPLE that “she won’t be going back to work in the same way for a long time.”
Kate “is very much in control of her return to public life,” royal historian Sally Bedell Smith told PEOPLE. “She is doing what works best for her.” “She is focusing on herself and her family right now, rightly,” a colleague said.
“You can’t go through something like that and come out the other side unchanged,” someone told me. “She is a different person now.”