Will Kate be the Baftas’ comeback of the year? Princess of Wales set to return to royal working life with show-stopping appearance at star-studded awards
The Princess of Wales is set to make her biggest comeback to royal professional life with a breathtaking performance at the Bafta film awards next month.
Insiders at the awards say they are ‘pulling out all the stops’ to ensure the ceremony marks Kate’s triumphant return to the red carpet after her cancer ordeal. Anna Higgs, chair of the Bafta film committee, says she is ‘very hopeful’ that Kate will join her husband William, the academy’s president, at the Royal Festival Hall in London on February 16.
An insider adds that Bafta is doing everything it can to secure Kate’s presence, aware of the global fuss her arrival will herald.
Kate missed the awards for weeks last year before revealing in a video message on March 22 that she was suffering from cancer. Before her video, the public only knew that she had been hospitalized for a planned abdominal surgery.
William walked the red carpet alone at the Baftas.
Kate finished chemotherapy in September and said she would focus on staying ‘cancer-free’.
Since then she has met families of the girls killed in the Southport knife attack, marked Remembrance Sunday and led her annual carols at Westminster Abbey.
But she has yet to return to the glamor of the red carpet.
Insiders at the awards say they are ‘pulling out all the stops’ to ensure the ceremony marks Kate’s triumphant return to the red carpet after her cancer ordeal. She last appeared at the event in 2023
In previous years, Kate’s appearances have helped draw attention to the British fashion brands she has patronized (pictured on Christmas Day 2024)
Kate missed the awards for weeks last year before revealing in a video message on March 22 that she was suffering from cancer
In 2018, Kate even attended the Baftas while heavily pregnant with Prince Louis, who was born two months later
The well-placed insider said: ‘Bafta has close ties with William and Kate and is pulling out all the stops to secure Kate’s attendance at this year’s awards.
“It sent her warmest wishes as she revealed her cancer diagnosis and hoped to appear by her side
William in what will be her big return to showbiz since recovering. Anything Bafta can do to get around Kate, it will.
‘William and Kate like to watch the nominated films in advance and we know that Kate enjoys meeting people from the film industry.
“We’re told she doesn’t want to miss it, so she’s hoping to be there with William.”
In previous years, Kate’s appearances have helped draw attention to the British fashion brands she frequents.
She first attended the event in 2017. The couple took a break in 2021, just before Prince Philip died, and again in 2022, due to calendar restrictions, before making a triumphant return in 2023 as the ceremony paid tribute to the late queen .
In 2018, Kate even attended the Baftas while heavily pregnant with Prince Louis, who was born two months later.