Yanks, Brits, and tourists alike sent get-well wishes to Princess Kate from the rain-drenched Big Apple Saturday — with some fearing that the video revealing her cancer diagnosis could presage a round of public hounding like that suffered by Princess Diana.
“I was shocked, definitely shocked, and a little aggravated that she had to make that video in the first place,” said Shirley Carley, 60, of Queens.
“I know she’s a royal and I know she signed up for all that, but still,” Carley said as she sipped the traditional British beverage at Tea and Sympathy, an English-style tea house in Manhattan. “That she had to make that video and explain her health to somebody or anybody — I feel like enough, they’re doing Diana again.”
Nicky Perry, the shop’s British-born owner, who lost her husband to brain cancer last year, said that for any family, a cancer diagnosis is “shocking … like a deer in the headlights.”
“I just really worry about William,” she said, speaking of Kate’s husband, the Prince of Wales and heir to the throne.
“He’s got three small children. His dad’s got cancer. His wife’s got cancer. He’s supposed to be stepping into the big shoes. That is such a lot for one young man to deal with … I just hope to goodness that she’s going to be all right.”
Julieta Petterson, 85, a tourist from Mexico, said she felt “very sorry and very sad” on hearing the news.
“It’s terrible, the whole thing,” Petterson said.
“It’s her business what she does. She doesn’t have to tell people what she has. It’s private. Please let her and her family suffer, leave publicity alone.”
