Stephen Colbert expressed a “heartfelt hope” that the Princess of Wales will make a “swift and thorough” recovery following her cancer diagnosis after the late night TV host received backlash for joking about her marriage earlier this month.
On a March 13 episode of The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, the host poked fun at Kate amidst a spike in online conspiracy theories about the royal and her family life during her absence from the public eye while recovering from abdominal surgery.
On-air, Colbert referenced historic rumors that Prince William had at one point conducted an extramarital affair. At the time the rumors first circulated in 2019, the Daily Beast reported that official Kensington Palace sources denied them as “totally wrong and false.”
Soon after the episode aired, Colbert faced backlash from royal fans and commentators who criticized him for magnifying and platforming speculation about the princess while she was recovering from surgery. It increased when, on March 22, Kate released a personal video statement to the world announcing that she had been diagnosed with cancer in February and is currently in the early stages of undergoing “preventative chemotherapy.”
“William and I have been doing everything we can to process and manage this privately for the sake of our young family,” she said.
Following the announcement, broadcaster Piers Morgan was among the voices on social media to criticize Colbert and the impact of his on-air jokes at the royal’s expense.
“The way certain American talk show hosts like @StephenAtHome mocked the Princess of Wales over her marriage in recent weeks now looks especially distasteful,” he said in a post on X, formerly Twitter.
On Monday night’s episode of The Late Show, Colbert’s first since Kate’s cancer announcement, he addressed the backlash he had received.
“I don’t know if you have noticed, but we do a lot of shows, and I tell a lot of jokes and I tell jokes about a lot of different things, mostly what everybody’s talking about,” he told his audience.
“And for the last six weeks to two months, everybody has been talking about the mystery of Kate Middleton’s disappearance from public life, and two weeks ago we did some jokes about that mystery and all the attendant froo-frah [sic] in the reporting about that.
“When I made those jokes that upset some people and, even before her diagnosis was revealed, and I can understand that,” he continued. “I mean, a lot of my jokes have upset people in the past, and I’m sure some of my jokes will upset people in the future. But, there’s a standard that I try to hold myself to, and that is I do not make light of somebody else’s tragedy.”
“Now, I don’t know whether her prognosis is a tragic one,” he said of Kate.
“She’s the future of Queen of England and I assume she’s going to get the best possible medical care. But regardless of what it is, I know, and I’m sure many of you, far too many of us, know that any cancer diagnosis of any kind is harrowing for the patient and for their family. And, though I’m sure they don’t need it from me, I and everyone here at the Late Show would like to extend our well wishes and heartfelt hope that her recovery is swift and thorough.”
Monica Schipper/WireImage/Max Mumby/Indigo/Getty Images
Kensington Palace declined to comment when contacted by Newsweek.
Colbert is not the only star to have addressed comments made about Kate during her surgery recovery with a different viewpoint after her cancer announcement.
Actress Blake Lively took to Instagram to say she was “mortified” at posting an image to her social media accounts, jokingly referencing the backlash Kate faced after it was revealed she had edited a portrait released of herself with her children celebrating Mother’s Day in Britain on March 10.
Panelists of The View, who had lengthy discussions about conspiracy theories regarding Kate prior to her announcement, also addressed their feelings now the princess’ medical condition was known.
“I’m guilty of having gotten into the fun of ‘Where’s Kate?’ and thinking it’s funny, sharing the memes, and playing into that,” former White House communications director Alyssa Farah Griffin told her co-hosts on Monday.
“And I forgot something fundamental that we all know, which is: Every person, whether they’re a princess, somebody in a high-privileged position, or just the person next to you, is dealing with personal struggles that we don’t know about. I send my love to her and strength to her.”
Kate is expected to remain out of the public eye while she undergoes treatment for her condition.
James Crawford-Smith is Newsweek‘s royal reporter, based in London. You can find him on X (formerly Twitter) at @jrcrawfordsmith and read his stories on Newsweek‘s The Royals Facebook page.
Do you have a question about King Charles III, William and Kate, Meghan and Harry, or their family that you would like our experienced royal correspondents to answer? Email [email protected]. We’d love to hear from you.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.