Princess Kate seen for the first time since hospitalization

Kate Middleton was seen in public on Monday for the first time since her hospitalization in mid-January, several British media outlets reported, and US media outlets published a photograph of the Princess of Wales in a car near London.

The 42-year-old princess was hospitalized on January 16 for abdominal surgery. The reasons for this intervention remain unknown, but according to British media, it is not cancer.

Publishing the photo and citing an eyewitness, American celebrity publication Entertainment Tonight said that Princess Kate was seen near London on Monday morning.

In the photo, which British media decided not to publish, the wife of the heir to the throne, wearing black sunglasses, is a passenger in a car driven by her mother.

According to the Daily Mail, the image was not released in the UK because Kensington Palace, the royal couple’s official residence, “insisted that she be allowed to recover privately.”

Recuperation at the family home in Windsor

During her hospitalization, the palace specified that it would last between 10 and 14 days, a relatively long period of time, which led to much speculation in the British tabloids, on whose front pages the princess often appears.

Hugely popular in the UK, Kate is recovering at the family home in Windsor, west London, and is not expected to return to action until Easter, March 31.

Prince William decided on Tuesday to attend a last-minute memorial ceremony for his godfather, King Constantine of Greece, at Windsor Castle for a “personal reason,” royal officials said.

The palace “did not wish to disclose further details” but noted that “the Princess of Wales, who is recovering from abdominal surgery, continues to feel well,” the British PA news agency reported.