Breaking news:kate-middleton-prince-william-share-poignant-christmas-card-with-george-charlotte-louis-after-hardest-year

At her carol concert earlier this month, Kate said she “didn’t know this year was going to be the year that I’ve just had … the unplanned.”

“But I think lots of people this year have had such challenging times, and many who are here today.”

In November, Prince William said that 2024 has been “the hardest year in my life”: “It’s been dreadful. It’s probably been the hardest year in my life…I’m so proud of my wife, I’m proud of my father, for handling the things that they have done. But from a personal family point of view, it’s been brutal.”

Kate’s cancer diagnosis has reframed her life, both with her family at home and in her approach to her royal work. “Life-threatening illnesses bring a reconsideration of priorities,” a source close to the royal household told PEOPLE. “She and William have always made it clear that family is the most important thing.”

As 2025 looms, Kate “is very much in control of her return to public life,” royal biographer Sally Bedell Smith told PEOPLE. “She is doing what works best for her.”

A friend said, “She is focused on herself and her family right now, rightly,” adding that she has “not fully recovered.” An insider told PEOPLE, “She won’t be going back to work in the same way for a long time.”

A source said: “You can’t go through something like that and come out the other side unchanged. She is a different person now.”