Kate Middleton Won’t Attend Traditional Trooping the Colour Practice Amid Cancer Battle

There will be a missing royal at Trooping the Colour’s dress rehearsal next month.

Princess Kate Middleton won’t carry out her role as Inspecting Officer this year, the palace confirmed on Thursday, May 30. Her role will be carried out by Lieutenant General James Bucknall, KCB, CBE. There’s no official word yet on whether Kate, 42, will attend the actual event, which will be held on June 15 and celebrates the official birthday of the British Sovereign.

Kate previously announced in March that she was diagnosed with an undisclosed form of cancer following her abdominal surgery earlier this year and is undergoing preventative treatment. Though she’s continuing some royal duties, including working with the Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood, a representative shared with the Daily Mail on May 20 that the princess is still on leave.

“This is a clear commitment she has made throughout her life of public service that this will be focus. That will continue when she returns to work,” a Kensington Palace spokesperson told the outlet. “But we have been really clear that she needs the space and the privacy to recover right now. She will return to work when she has had the green light from doctors.”

A Timeline of Kate Middleton’s Cancer Battle: From Surgery to Diagnosis Announcement

Prince William, for his part, has been continuing his public facing duties and offering updates on his wife’s health along the way. While traveling to St. Mary’s Community Hospital on the Isles of Scilly for a royal engagement on May 10, he was asked about Kate’s condition by administrator Tracy Smith. William, 41, responded that his wife is “doing well.”

Referring to kids Prince George, 10, Princess Charlotte, 9, and Prince Louis, 6, William joked, “The children are very jealous that I am here. Maybe we might come later in the year.”

The couple celebrated their 13th anniversary in April, with royal author Christopher Andersen exclusively telling Us Weekly that Kate remains a “ray of light” during these difficult times.

Prince William and Kate Middleton’s Relationship Timeline

Andersen — who penned Brothers and Wives: Inside the Private Lives of William, Kate, Harry, and Meghan — noted that William and Kate’s last year of marriage “has been tumultuous” following her cancer diagnosis

“More than ever, William and Kate have reason to include the children in everything and keep the prevailing mood as upbeat as possible,” he told Us, adding, “Despite her challenges, Kate is incapable of being anything but resolutely cheerful around George, Charlotte and Louis.”