Over the past year of battling cancer, the Princess of Wales has come to rely on her mother Carole Middleton perhaps more than at any other time in her life.
When Kate posted her heartwarming three-minute family video revealing that she had finished her preventive chemotherapy treatment in September, Carole stood out a lot.
And although the normally very healthy princess had avoided the hospital for most of her life until recently, she had a previous health problem that reportedly made her mother “very worried.”
When Kate was boarding at the elite £42,900-a-year private school Marlborough College, she discovered a mysterious lump on the left side of her head.
After being called by concerned school staff, Carole took her daughter to see her GP, who deemed the lump “potentially serious”, according to royal author Katie Nicholl.
The future princess underwent surgery a few days later, but the surgery left a three-inch scar on Kate’s head.
A teacher at the school during Kate’s time there, Ann Patching, told Nicholl: “I can remember the incident and her having surgery.”
“I don’t remember anything that happened on the hockey field that had anything to do with the lump,” he said after media reported that the health problem could have been the result of a sports accident.
Carole Middleton, pictured with Kate while shopping in south-west London in 2006, has always enjoyed a close relationship with her daughter.
The scar on Kate’s temple was first seen when she wore her hair up at a dinner at Clarence House in 2011.
An official statement at the time explained that the scar, which is usually hidden since the princess usually wears her hair down in public, was the result of an operation when she was a child.
Kate and her sister Pippa playing hockey at Marlborough College in 2000. The operation on her head took place while she was studying at a boarding school in Wiltshire.
Kate had become hockey captain while at school in Wiltshire.
Nicholl writes in her 2013 book, Kate: The Future Queen, that the operation was her “only unhappy period” at school, as it caused her to stop playing sport.
Mrs Patching told him: ‘Catherine had the operation during term time. Shortly afterward he returned to school.
‘As always, nothing was too important to her. Catherine could never be accused of being a drama queen, but Carole was very worried, as any mother would be.
A former student told Nicholl that the operation “was quite serious” and alarmed everyone, as it had occurred shortly after another student, Hugo McDermott, died from a brain tumor.
But after the operation, Kate’s scar began to fade and is usually hidden as she tends to wear her hair down.
The stain was first detected in 2011, when the princess was carrying out her first solo royal engagement at a private gala dinner at Clarence House.
An official statement explained that “the scar is related to a childhood operation,” but said the details of the surgery were a private matter.
Carole Middleton appeared alongside the Prince and Princess of Wales and their three children, in the touching three-minute family video which revealed that Kate had finished her chemotherapy treatment in September.
Marlborough College, where textile designer William Morris, poets John Betjeman and Siegfried Sassoon, and Samantha Cameron, the wife of former Prime Minister David, also studied.
Carole and Kate share a joke while visiting the Spirit Of Christmas shopping festival at London’s Olympia exhibition center in 2005.
Kate and Carole enjoy a day at the Royal Ascot races in 2017
The Princess of Wales revealed in a video published in September that she had completed her chemotherapy treatment after being diagnosed with cancer.
Kate’s father, Michael Middleton, also appeared in the video playing cards with the Prince and Princess of Wales and their children.
Royal sources confirmed it had been “a very serious operation” but declined to comment further.
John Scurr, a consultant surgeon at Lister Hospital in south-west London, said at the time it was unlikely the scar had been the result of a tumour.
“I really doubt it was any serious medical condition and I would say it is the result of the removal of an arteriovenous malformation, a birthmark,” he said.
“It’s surprising, given the dimensions, that no one noticed it before.”
Kate isn’t the only one with a prominent childhood scar on her head. Her husband William has a large zigzag mark on his forehead as a result of being hit with a golf club when he was 13.
Privately, the couple is said to refer to their injuries as “Harry Potter scars,” according to Nicholl.
According Hello! magazine, suffered the injury in 1991 while playing golf with friends at school in Wokingham.
The eight-year-old prince suffered a fractured skull and underwent surgery at London’s Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital. The scar becomes inflamed when you play sports.
Prince William suffered a fractured skull in a golfing accident as a child and underwent surgery at Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital. His mother, Diana, spent the night with him.
Prince William was left scarred after a golfing accident when he was eight years old. He calls it his ‘Harry Potter scar’, like the one on movie star Daniel Radcliffe’s forehead.
Kate’s scar could also be seen while she enjoyed a walk with Prince William. He also has a scar on the left side of his head.
William told the story of the injury during an interview in 2009, saying, “Yeah, we were on a putting green and the next thing you know a seven iron came out of nowhere and hit me in the head.”
Over the years that he has been married to Kate, William has come to trust Carole and she is now a close friend of his.
One expert previously commented on how she taught her son-in-law “how a loving, caring family works.”
She has provided a “real sense of normality in the midst of any chaos” to the prince since he married Kate in 2011, said royal biographer Angela Levin. the sun in 2021.
Carole, along with her husband Michael, continues to support the future king and queen behind the scenes.