Kate Middleton Is Serene in New Birthday Photo as Prince William Says, 'We Love You'

Prince William is celebrating his love and admiration for Kate Middleton as she marks her 43rd birthday.

In a message the couple posted on social media, William, 42, paid tribute to Kate after a year of major surgery, a cancer diagnosis and grueling chemotherapy.

“To the most amazing wife and mother,” he wrote on Thursday, January 9. “The strength you’ve shown over the past year has been incredible. George, Charlotte, Louis and I are so proud of you. Happy birthday, Catherine.”

“We love you. W,” he closed the message.

It was linked to a stunning never-before-seen portrait of the princess, taken by Matt Porteous in Windsor last summer.

William and Kate don’t often post personal messages on their social media and this marked a rare public statement of William’s love and support for his wife who has been through so much since her last birthday.

She is spending the day at home at Adelaide Cottage in Windsor with husband Prince William and children Prince George, 11, Princess Charlotte, nine, and Prince Louis, six, who returned to school after the Christmas break on January 8.

Kate Middleton ‘looks after herself’ as she marks 43rd birthday, family friend says (Exclusive)

Princess Kate on Christmas Day at Sandringham, Norfolk, December 25, 2024.

Samir Hussein/WireImage

Princess Kate was last seen on Christmas Day as she and the royal family led by King Charles walked to and from church in Sandringham, Norfolk. She was in her element as she chatted with well-wishers, and many of her meaningful conversations with the crowd were about cancer.

In March 2024, Princess Kate announced that she was being treated for cancer, and in September she announced that she had completed chemotherapy. In a rare discovery at her place Together at Christmas in December, Kate said: “I didn’t know this year was going to be the year I just had.”

Since announcing the end of her chemotherapy treatment in a touching and intimate family video in September 2024, she has continued her gradual recovery. In November, Kate appeared at the Remembrance Weekend in honor of fallen members of the British Commonwealth Armed Forces.

Princess Kate with Prince George, left, and Princess Charlotte as they leave church on Christmas Day, December 25, 2024.

Jordan Peck/Getty

Kate Middleton goes for a Christmas walk with her family, marking the end of the ‘toughest’ year

Robert Hardman, author The Making of a King: Charles III and the Modern Monarchy, tells PEOPLE that the princess is still recovering after all.

“They encourage us not to look at this as a chapter that’s over and then back to normal, because that’s not how cancer works,” Hardman tells PEOPLE. “The details remain secret, but we cannot get over the fact that it is an unpredictable disease.”

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Prince William, Prince Louis (front), Prince George, Princess Kate and Princess Charlotte on December 25, 2024.

OLI SCARFF/AFP via Getty

“The clue is in her phrase ‘one at a time’ — that’s how she’s going to approach it,” Hardman adds, referring to a line in her Sept. 9 post about finishing chemotherapy.

The Princess of Wales said in that video message: “Doing everything I can to stay cancer free is my focus now. Although I’m done with chemotherapy, my road to healing and full recovery is long and I have to keep going every day as it comes.”

Adds the source: “She’s been allowed to go back to her own way. She’s been able to do it and do it her way, and that’s great.”

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Source: HIS Education