Princess Kate Middleton has now been nominated as one of the contenders for Time magazine’s prestigious Person of the Year title.
Since 1927, Time has selected the person, group or concept to make the biggest impact — whether positive or negative — over the past 12 months. Despite last year’s winner Taylor Swift enjoying a stand-out year, as she took the Eras tour global, the singer is surprisingly absent from the 2024 shortlist. Instead, Princess Kate is nominated for the honor alongside nine global figures from the worlds of politics and business like billionaire businessman Elon Musk, podcaster Joe Rogan, Meta magnate Mark Zuckerberg and incoming president Donald Trump.
The shortlist was revealed on NBC’s Today show this morning — Monday, December 9 — with the winner due to be announced on Thursday.
Ironically, 2024 was a year in which Kate was supposed to be out of the spotlight. She began the year behind closed doors, fuelling speculation that she was unwell. Later in January, Kensington Palace announced that she had undergone “planned abdominal surgery” and would be away from the public eye until Easter. However, the princess addressed the world earlier than planned, in March, to shut down ongoing speculation about her health, announcing on camera that she had been diagnosed with cancer.
Reexamining Kate Middleton’s Whirlwind 2024
Since then, she, husband Prince William and their children, Prince George, 11, Princess Charlotte, 9, and Prince Louis, 6, have appeared in public a number of times, most memorably in a moving video released in September to acknowledge the completion of the princess’s chemotherapy treatment. The family of five were filmed being affectionate and playful in nature on a beach in Norfolk, England.
The royal couple also appeared on video during the 2024 Olympics over the summer, wishing Team GB athletes well as they competed in Paris.
Kate Middleton Acknowledges Her Cancer Battle: An ‘Unplanned’ Year
Since then, the princess has returned to many of her usual public duties, most recently stepping out on Friday, December 6, at the annual Christmas carol service at London’s Westminster Abbey, dressed in a festive red peacoat.
“I didn’t know this year was going to be the year that I’ve just had,” she told singer Paloma Faith at the event. “The unplanned. But, I think lots of people this year have had such challenging times.”
Kate has been widely praised for how she has handled her shocking diagnosis and raised awareness of how cancer can affect anyone.
She previously appeared on the Time100 list of Most Influential People in 2013, as well as being a runner-up for Person of the Year in 2011, the year that she married Prince William.
