Prince William and Kate Middleton are experiencing better days one year out from the princess revealing her cancer diagnosis after intense public scrutiny following her highly publicized Photoshop scandal. Royal sources reveal that, at the time, the drama had a big impact on them as a couple.

“There was a real sense then that they felt bruised by it,” royal author Robert Hardman told People. “It was treated like some great fraud.”

After recovering from an abdominal surgery at the end of 2023, Middleton remained out of the public eye for several months, appearing mostly in images taken by herself or William that she later edited. After concerns grew from royal observers, Middleton revealed on March 22, 2024 that she had cancer and would be stepping back from royal duties as she tried to recover.

“It was like being on a roller coaster for them…undergoing chemotherapy and trying to protect your children,” Ailsa Anderson, former press secretary for Queen Elizabeth, told People. “It was like being in the middle of a tornado and not knowing when it was going to calm down.”

“If you’re Prince William, you find out that both your wife and your father have cancer,” the prince’s former private secretary Jason Knauf said in an interview with 60 Minutes Australia, referring to both Kate and King Charles’s cancer diagnoses. “[It was] absolutely awful…the lowest I’ve ever seen him.”

Royal biographer Sally Bedell Smith added that the Prince and Princess of Wales “were besieged by ugly speculation and intrusion, with Kate having to make an announcement that was very worrying and uncertain.”

Now, with a turbulent year behind her, Middleton is back to work, recently visiting cancer hospitals and attending the Irish Guard’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade. “She is the MVP of the royal family, and no one knew when she was going to come back,” royal historian Amanda Foreman explained, to which Hardman added, “There is definitely a feeling of resetting the dial—of being back.”