The Princess of Wales will spend two days in Italy learning about her mission to help children, marking her first trip abroad since announcing her cancer diagnosis in 2024

Kate Middleton at a Buckingham Palace garden party on May 8, 2026.Credit : Aaron Chown / POOL / AFP via Getty

Kate Middleton is feeling “energized,” “enthused” and “excited” as she gets ready to kick off a global mission to widen her work to help children and those who nurture them.

The Princess of Wales, 44, arrives in Italy on May 13 for a two-day visit that sees her back on the world stage for the first time since her cancer diagnosis, a time said by aides to be a “really significant moment for her.”

Princess Kate is focusing on her long-term work to help spread the philosophy of care and education for children under 5. Making the trip to Reggio Emilia, a city in northern Italy that has pioneered new thinking in education and raising children, she is using it as a moment to both learn and take it “up a gear” to make the issue a worldwide conversation similar to that around climate change.

“[This visit] is an important step in the princess’s recovery journey. She takes great joy from this work,” a royal aide said. “I think it is only right that her first international trip since her illness is one that is focused on an issue that is committed to championing for decades to come and is a real issue that she wants to shine a spotlight on.”

Princess Kate announced her cancer diagnosis in March 2024 and spent much of that year out of the public eye amid her treatment and recovery. She announced she was “in remission” in early 2025 but commented that the phase after treatment is “really, really difficult” as well.

“You put on a sort of brave face, stoicism through treatment,” she said during a hospital visit in July 2025. “Treatment’s done, then it’s like, ‘I can crack on, get back to normal,’ but actually, the phase afterwards is really, really difficult.”

Kate Middleton visits Royal Marsden Hospital in January 2025.Chris Jackson/Getty

Those close to her have noted how she has become more laser-focused since her recovery from cancer. The sources remarked that there is a different pace and gear compared to pre-2024 when it comes to the early childhood sphere.

“She’s looking forward to being here, she’s energized, she’s enthused, she’s excited to see Reggio Emilia in action and meet the people here too,” the source said.

It is likely that she will take the mission further, too. Asked where this new global mission is going next, her team was tight-lipped but stressed this is the first of other trips of its kind. “She wants to look at other models around the world and really create a global conversation.”

“She wants to look at other models around the world and really create a global conversation,” an aide said. “This is a huge moment for the princess. There will be many highlights of 2026, but this being her first international visit post her recovery…this is a really significant moment for her.”

Kate Middleton visits a forest school in Hereford, England, in September 2023.DAVID ROSE/POOL/AFP via Getty Images

The trip builds on the work of her Centre for Early Childhood and her Shaping Us campaign in the U.K. That has introduced initiatives to give educators and health and family support professionals the tools to guide their work, and encourage businesses to take steps to support parents and carers in their raising of children.

A Kensington Palace spokesman told a briefing before the visit, “For more than a decade, the Princess of Wales has placed early childhood at the center of her work, recognizing its importance in shaping long-term well-being and wider societal outcomes.”

“Since establishing the Centre in 2021, she has driven a program that brings together research, partnerships and practical action, with an increasing focus on the importance of relationships and environments in early childhood.”

Christian Guy, director of the Centre for Early Childhood, added that Princess Kate wants “to transform the way we think and act as a society in supporting babies, children and those raising them, and particularly the Shaping Us Framework, which identifies the social and emotional skills that form the bedrock of lifelong well-being.”

“This has all been driven by the Princess of Wales’s leadership over more than a decade, and her commitment to elevating early childhood as one of the most important issues facing society today,” he said, adding that the royal mom of three believes in the need to “focus on early brain development and nurturing the whole child with the same urgency and sense of mission as other global challenges like climate change — if we truly want to get ahead of these challenges in the future. This is about genuine prevention.”

Kate Middleton visits Windsor Family Hub on June 6, 2023.Chris Jackson – WPA Pool/Getty

Now, Princess Kate is keen to explore further how globally we can identify positive, hopeful solutions to address some of today’s toughest social challenges by investing in the extraordinary impact of early childhood and prioritizing the early years with the same urgency as climate change.

Talking about “a growing focus on international collaboration — bringing together expertise, evidence and practice from across the world to better understand how these principles can be applied across different systems and cultures,” the spokesperson said that Princess Kate wants to build “a global alliance to develop a blueprint for the holistic development of the whole child.”

Kate studied in Florence, Italy, during her gap year ahead of her time at St. Andrews University, where she fell in love with Prince William and studied art history. When she returns home after her two-day visit, she is said to be excited to share her latest experience of the country. “This was something that she personally wanted to come and see,” said the aide.

“She’s had many conversations with her husband and her children about this trip, and they’re looking forward to hearing about it on her return to the United Kingdom.”