Prince William and Princess Kate are “under enormous pressure” within the monarchy

The Prince and Princess of Wales have been front and centre this season, with Princess Kate making a triumphant return to duty following her cancer recovery.

The 42-year-old mother of three is gradually scaling up her workload having completed her chemotherapy treatment. And with two consecutive royal engagements under her belt this month, and plans to host her annual carol service in December, she is seemingly going from strength to strength.

This, according to royal experts, couldn't have come at a better time, with Princess Kate and Prince William needed more than ever to rehabilitate the royal family's image.

2024 has been a particularly turbulent year for the Mountbatten-Windsors. And with both King Charles and Princess Kate diagnosed with cancer, a stretched scaled-down monarchy, and the recent investigation into royal finances, 2024 will undoubtedly go down as an "annus horribilis".

With royal commentators describing it as the "biggest royal crisis" for the Mountbatten-Windsors since 1936, there is reportedly panic behind palace doors, and it is said to have fallen to the popular Wales family to bolster a positive public opinion.

According to sources via In Touch, Prince William and Princess Kate are working hard to carry the royal family through, with the popular couple "under enormous pressure to represent a positive image of the monarchy.”

Royal expert Robert Hardman weighed in recently, reporting that the pressure has particularly fallen upon Prince William, who has described his past year as "brutal".

"Honestly, it’s been dreadful," Prince William recently explained of the challenges of 2024. "It’s probably been the hardest year in my life. Trying to get through everything else and keep everything on track has been really difficult.

"But I’m so proud of my wife, I’m proud of my father, for handling the things that they have done. But from a personal family point of view, it’s been, yeah, it’s been brutal."

"He has lost his mother, he’s effectively lost his brother, his wife’s got cancer, his father’s got cancer, and he’s trying to keep the show on the road," Hardman reported in a new chapter of his book, Charles III: New King. New Court. "It could hardly be more stressful."

We will continue to update this story.