Factbox-Who is Kate, Britain's Princess of Wales?

Britain's Kate, the Princess of Wales joins a family portage session at the Orchards Centre, Multi Agency Service Hub, to highlight the importance of supporting children with special educational needs and disabilities and their families, in Sittingbourne, Kent, Britain, September 27, 2023. Paul Grover/File Photo

LONDON - Following are some facts about Kate, the Princess of Wales and wife of Britain's heir to the throne Prince William. She announced in a video message on Friday that she is undergoing preventative chemotherapy after cancer was found following an operation earlier this year.

EARLY LIFE:

* The eldest of three children, Catherine Elizabeth Middleton, 42, was born on Jan. 9, 1982, into a middle-class, rather than aristocratic, family from Berkshire, west of London.

* Her father Michael worked as a pilot and her mother Carole as an airline stewardess before setting up a mail order business selling party supplies.

* As a young child, she lived with her family in Amman in Jordan for more than two years before they returned to Britain.

A ROYAL ROMANCE:

* Kate attended Marlborough College, a private school in southwest England, and met her future husband at St Andrews University in Scotland in 2001, where she read History of Art. The pair lived together in a house shared with friends.

* By April 2004, their relationship became public, as she went skiing with William, his younger brother Harry and his father - now King Charles - on their annual trip to Switzerland.

* They briefly split up in 2007 after William was posted around the country as part of his military training, before rekindling their relationship.

* Their engagement was announced in November 2010, with William giving Kate his mother's ring featuring a blue sapphire, surrounded with diamonds. They married on April 29, 2011, in Westminster Abbey in a ceremony watched by a global audience.

ROYAL LIFE

* On her wedding day, Kate was made the Duchess of Cambridge after her husband was given a dukedom. On the death of Queen Elizabeth in September 2022, William was named Prince of Wales and she was given the title Princess of Wales.

* She spent four days in hospital with severe morning sickness in December 2012. The couple's first child, Prince George, was born on July 22, 2013, in a blaze of global publicity. Daughter Charlotte was born on May 2, 2015, and second son Louis arrived on April 23, 2018.

* Kate and William began their married life living in a cottage in a remote part of north Wales and later moved to Anmer Hall, their country mansion on the monarch's Sandringham estate in Norfolk, eastern England, to fit in with William's job as a helicopter ambulance pilot.

* They moved to live at Kensington Palace in central London when William took on royal duties full time in July 2017. The couple now mainly reside at a cottage on the Windsor estate to the west of London, close to where their children attend school.

* Kate had successful planned abdominal surgery in January and spent two weeks in hospital. No details were given but Kensington Palace had said the condition was non-cancerous.

CAMPAIGNS AND ACTIVITIES

* As a royal, her main campaigning focus has been around the experiences of early childhood, as well mental health issues.

* She is a keen amateur photographer, and pictures she has taken of her family have regularly been released to media to celebrate her children's' birthdays and other notable events.

* However, in March she had to apologise for "any confusion" caused by an edited photograph which had been issued by her office Kensington Palace, at a point when she hadn't been seen for weeks after her initial surgery.

* Kate is patron of the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club (AELTC) Wimbledon and the Lawn Tennis Association, and is patron of the England Rugby Football Union.

(Reporting by Michael HoldenEditing by Angus MacSwan and Frances Kerry)