Prince William's former aide, Jason Knauf, stated that Prince William's spirits plummeted to an "all-time low" after the Princess of Wales was diagnosed with cancer. Knauf, who previously served as the CEO of the Royal Foundation for Prince William and Princess Kate, has a deep understanding of the royal family's situation.
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02-24, 2025Knauf said in an interview with Australia's "60 Minutes," "It was awful, absolutely awful. I had never seen him so low. Within a few weeks, if you're Prince William, you find out your wife has cancer and your father has cancer. I just couldn't believe it." Last year, both the King and the Princess of Wales underwent cancer treatment. Kate is currently in remission, and King Charles is still receiving treatment.
Knauf also revealed that various wild conspiracy theories emerged online after Kate's diagnosis was made public last March. "Was she really sick?" Knauf said, "The problem was, all these crazy conspiracy theories were spreading online. But they didn't want to say she had cancer at the time because they hadn't told the children yet, and they were still figuring out how to tell the children."
Prince William told reporters at the end of a visit to South Africa last year that he had been struggling to cope after both his wife and father were diagnosed with cancer, describing the past year as "the toughest year of my life." He said, "It's been pretty rough. It's probably been the toughest year of my life. So, trying to juggle that and keep everything moving has been exceptionally challenging."
Knauf also previously worked for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. In October 2018, while serving as Harry and Meghan's communications secretary, Knauf filed a bullying complaint against Meghan. He wrote to William's then-private secretary, expressing his concerns, apparently trying to compel Buckingham Palace to protect staff. However, the Duchess's legal team has strongly denied the allegations.
Speaking about William's relationship with Harry, Knauf said, "It's very difficult to have these things play out in the public eye, but he has chosen to keep those thoughts private, and I think all of us who know him have to respect that, and we should do so. But I would say, of course, it's difficult and sad, especially for all of us who know both of them. I worked closely with both of them, and we had many great times."
Knauf has previously stated that he regrets not providing evidence in the Duchess of Sussex's lawsuit against the publisher of the "Mail on Sunday." Meghan won a privacy lawsuit against Associated Newspapers Limited (ANL) in 2021, with the High Court ruling that its publication of a letter she wrote to her father in August 2018 was unlawful.
Knauf was appointed a Lieutenant of the Royal Victorian Order (RVO) in the 2023 New Year Honours List. Before joining the royal family, the American-born corporate affairs executive worked in various institutions, from the New Zealand Prime Minister's Office to the UK Treasury and the Royal Bank of Scotland. Knauf led a review of the Royal Foundation's role and structure from March 2019 and became its CEO in September of the same year. He was responsible for launching the foundation's Earthshot Prize – Prince William's £50 million environmental prize, which is now an independent charity that aims to recognize solutions, ideas, and technologies that "repair the Earth."
