After months of gradual reintroduction to public life following cancer treatment, Britain’s Princess Catherine has wrapped up her first official overseas visit since her 2024 cancer diagnosis, closing out the two-day trip to Italy with a hands-on pasta-making workshop in the scenic region around Reggio Emilia.
The 44-year-old Princess of Wales, who confirmed her cancer was in remission in January 2025, crafted traditional tortelli — a regional stuffed pasta comparable to ravioli — at a countryside farmhouse hotel outside the northern Italian city. Working alongside local chef Ivan Lampredi, the princess kneaded dough, added savory filling, and cut out the signature pasta shapes, joking at one point, “Sorry, I’m very slow,” to which the chef offered a reassuring response.
The entire trip centered on one of Catherine’s longstanding advocacy priorities: early childhood education, a cause deeply personal to her as the mother of three children — Prince George, 12, Princess Charlotte, 11, and Prince Louis, 8. On the morning before the pasta workshop, she visited a local preschool that employs nature-based learning methodologies, as well as an educational center designed to teach young children about sustainable recycling practices.
When Catherine arrived in Reggio Emilia on Wednesday, hundreds of enthusiastic local onlookers lined the streets to greet her with cheers, marking a warm welcome for the princess’s first foreign official outing in more than two years. Her previous overseas royal engagement came in December 2022, when she accompanied her husband Prince William, the heir to the British throne, to Boston for the annual Earthshot Prize awards ceremony focused on environmental innovation.
Catherine first shared her cancer diagnosis publicly in March 2024, announcing that she had begun a course of preventative chemotherapy while opting not to disclose the specific type of cancer. She stepped back from most public duties during her treatment, before revealing in early 2025 that her cancer was in remission. Since that announcement, she has slowly resumed public engagements, building up to this full overseas working visit.
A long-time champion for early childhood development, Catherine founded the Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood in 2021, an initiative dedicated to raising global awareness of how foundational early life experiences shape long-term health and outcomes for children.