The wife of Slade frontman Noddy Holder has expressed sympathy with the Princess of Wales over the “intrusion” that comes with being in the public eye, as she spoke about the family’s decision to keep the singer’s cancer diagnosis private.
Writing last year in Cheshire Life magazine, Mrs Holder revealed that her husband, 77, had been diagnosed with oesophageal cancer five years before, and was told he “only had six months to live”.
Kate underwent planned abdominal surgery at the London Clinic on January 16, but details of her condition have been kept private and she is not expected to return to official duties until after Easter.
"5 years ago Noddy was diagnosed with cancer and given 6 months to live."
"We decided as a family to keep that private."@HolderSuzan sympathises with Kate Middleton's silence over surgery because of overbearing intrusion.@theblackfarmer | @theJeremyVine | #JeremyVine pic.twitter.com/H6Jz9DMNBD
— Jeremy Vine On 5 (@JeremyVineOn5) March 18, 2024
It comes as Kate and the Prince of Wales were reportedly spotted on Sunday morning watching Prince George, Princess Charlotte, and Prince Louis taking part in a sporting event, according to The Sun.
Kensington Palace said previously that Kate’s surgery was not cancer-related and that she wished her personal medical information to remain private.
Speaking on Jeremy Vine’s Channel 5 show, Mrs Holder said she kept quiet over her husband’s diagnosis as they would have found the “intrusion and the focus and the questions very difficult to deal with”.
She said: “I’m married to Noddy Holder and five years ago, Noddy Holder was diagnosed with oesophageal cancer and was given six months to live.
“And we decided as a family to keep that very, very private. Now he’s doing well.
“And we decided to come out and speak about it only just before Christmas. We left it five years.
“Now, in that time, I have therefore seen – just at my level of ‘married to a national treasure status’ – which is nothing like what must happen in the royal family, how difficult it is to do that. And I also know why we did that.”
She added: “We kept it quiet because we had no idea what was going to happen.
“We would find the intrusion and the focus and the questions very difficult to deal with and it would be me dealing with that a lot … I could protect Noddy from that quite a bit, I suppose.
“But even so, we found it very difficult.
“There were very close members of family we didn’t tell, very close friends.
“I will never apologise to the people we didn’t tell.
“I will only apologise to the people we did.”
Mrs Holder said the princess must feel a “colossal” responsibility in responding to the public’s questions.
“I have been inundated with people asking me questions, wanting to know more information, wanting to know about the treatment”, she said.
“And I have as much as I possibly can, answered every single question.”
She added: “I think they (William and Kate) do have a very great sense of duty and I think they enjoy a lot of what they do.
“But the sense of duty she would feel on having to respond to that would be colossal.”
Musician and actor Holder fronted glam rock band Slade, known for singles Merry Xmas Everybody and Far Far Away, until his departure in 1992.
In her article, published last year, Mrs Holder revealed that her husband was treated at The Christie NHS Foundation Trust in Manchester where he “agreed to a gruelling course of experimental treatment as part of a brand-new trial of intense chemotherapy”.
She also said she was “completely in awe” of the strength he had shown.
The Jeremy Vine Show, also referred to as Jeremy Vine On 5, airs weekdays at 9.15am on Channel 5.