Prince William’s former aide Jason Knauf told the story of how he almost accidentally tipped off the world’s press about key details surrounding Princess Charlotte’s birth
Prince William’s former aide almost made a gaffe surrounding the birth of Princess Charlotte (Image: Millie Pilkington/Kensington Pal)
A former aide to Prince William revealed how he made a huge error after the birth of Princess Charlotte.
William and Kate Middleton into the world in May 2015. One of the first people to find out was former advisor Jason Knauf, who was given some key details about the latest royal arrival on a piece of paper.
The plan wasn’t to announce the news for a couple of hours – but the ex-aide lost the piece of paper and was desperately searching for it at St Mary’s Hospital before a member of the press found it.
Speaking to 60 Minutes Australia, Mr Knauf said: “We weren’t going to announce it for another couple of hours, and I had this piece of paper to go and write this press release. I was still out there with hundreds of journalists trying to have a game face, and then I couldn’t find this piece of paper. I think I had dropped it somewhere on the street.
“Somewhere on that street the entire time was a piece of paper that said there had been a little princess born, what time and how much she weighed.
“It was one of those things where my heart was beating until we got to the announcement and I got through it. I never found it, and neither did any of the media, which is all that really mattered.”
Mr Knauf stepped down as the chief executive of William and Kate’s Royal Foundation in 2021, but he still works closely with the heir to the throne for his Earthshot Prize.
He spilled the beans on William’s reaction to find out Kate was suffering from cancer, calling it the ‘lowest’ he had ever seen the prince. Kate is now in remission while William’s dad King Charles is having ongoing treatment for the disease.
Mr Knauf said: “It was awful, absolutely awful. It’s the lowest I’ve ever seen him. Within a couple of weeks, if you’re Prince William, you find out that both your wife and your father have cancer. I couldn’t believe it.”
Kate’s diagnosis was made public in March last year, with Mr Knauf adding: “The problem was that all this crazy conspiracy theory stuff kicked off in the background, online. ‘Was she really ill?’
“But they didn’t want to say yet that she had cancer because they hadn’t told the children and they were still working through how to tell the children.”
