Speaker 1: You can listen to the Front on your smart speaker
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Speaker 1: the news from the Australian. From the Australian, Here's what's
Speaker 1: on the Front. I'm Claire Harvey. It's Wednesday, September eleventh.
Speaker 1: Peter Dutton will launch an attack on Prime Minister Anthony
Speaker 1: Albanezi today, saying mining and resources will be obliterated if
Speaker 1: the Greens and Teal candidates help Labor win the next election.
Speaker 1: Queensland's opposition leader, David Chris a Fully has vound to
Speaker 1: appoint the whistleblower who exposed Australia's biggest ever forensics disaster
Speaker 1: to overhaul the state's troubled state run DNA lab if
Speaker 1: his party wins government next month. The bungle was exposed
Speaker 1: in The Australians podcast Share Story and you can read
Speaker 1: all about Chris Foley's ambitions for doctor Kirsty Wright now
Speaker 1: at The Australian dot com dot au. A slick video
Speaker 1: featuring unprecedented royal scenes of warmth and family love. It's
Speaker 1: how Catherine, Princess of Wales announced the end of her
Speaker 1: chemotherapy treatment and declared herself firmly in charge. That's today's story, Kate.
Speaker 1: People a obviously incredibly curious about you.
Speaker 2: So let's start with the obvious.
Speaker 1: It's late twenty ten and a nervous twenty eight year
Speaker 1: old Kate Middleton is sitting on a sofar, a giant
Speaker 1: sapphire engagement ring glinting in the light.
Speaker 2: That's a true romantic and yes, of course, yes, yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1: Weeks earlier, Kate had becoming gay to one of the
Speaker 1: world's most eligible bachelors, Prince William.
Speaker 2: We've been talking about marriage for a while, so it
Speaker 2: wasn't a massively big surprise, but I took her up
Speaker 2: somewhere nice and Kenya and unproposed.
Speaker 1: Before this ITV interview, she was a girl about London,
Speaker 1: frequently papped for the tabloids as William's very patient girlfriend.
Speaker 3: She's been dubbed weedy Katie, what is the girl waiting for?
Speaker 1: After it, and probably for the rest of her life,
Speaker 1: she became the most famous woman in the world and
Speaker 1: the embodiment of Britain's constitutional monarchy. The dress she wore
Speaker 1: for the photo call sold out within minutes. Pictures of
Speaker 1: her blow dry were carried into hair salons all over
Speaker 1: the globe. The Kate effect was on, and then Catherine retreated,
Speaker 1: raising her children, showing up at public events, giving me
Speaker 1: occasional very polite, very guard interview on radio about her
Speaker 1: work as an advocate for mental health or early childhood causes.
Speaker 1: She was enigmatic, a beautiful figurehead who managed to be
Speaker 1: immensely famous while revealing precisely nothing. In the meantime, the
Speaker 1: Meghan markele fame rockets soared and fell back to earth.
Speaker 1: The Duchess of Sussex flamed from joy and gratitude.
Speaker 4: Yes, his family has been so welcoming, and.
Speaker 1: A few of them I have to entitlement and despair.
Speaker 4: Yeah, well, I guess, And also thank you for asking,
Speaker 4: because not many people have asked if I'm okay to
Speaker 4: rage concerns and conversations about how dark his skin might
Speaker 4: be when he's born.
Speaker 1: What and now Meghan is making jam that nobody can buy,
Speaker 1: while Catherine has spent the year dealing with a cancer
Speaker 1: diagnosis that has turned her into a kind of saint
Speaker 1: in Britain.
Speaker 5: On the head, there's Saint Catherine, I call her. She
Speaker 5: has undergone such a significant battle and appears to be
Speaker 5: winning that battle, which is so pleasing to everybody.
Speaker 1: Jacqueline Magney is The Australian's europe correspondent.
Speaker 5: We've seen the Royals in a way we've never seen
Speaker 5: them before, to be so open and affectionate and very relaxed,
Speaker 5: and the message that Catherine really wanted to tell everybody
Speaker 5: that she was in control. And I thought it fascinating
Speaker 5: that we saw this picture of her driving the land
Speaker 5: Rover and to me, you know, that signifies she's back
Speaker 5: driving the ship.
Speaker 1: There was a lot of physical touching going on in
Speaker 1: the video. At one point William kissed her on the cheek.
Speaker 1: They're cuddling their children, very affectionate family. Those are behaviors
Speaker 1: that we haven't seen in public from the Wales as before.
Speaker 1: Are they No?
Speaker 5: Usually they always kind of are very carefully not holding
Speaker 5: hands at public engagements. There are no public signs of affection.
Speaker 5: So this shows that they're letting the world into their
Speaker 5: private family time and they're trying to show a very
Speaker 5: effectively show that they are a normal family with much
Speaker 5: love and very close bonds between them all, including Kate's
Speaker 5: mother and father. I think that the Royals are seeing
Speaker 5: that in this world of social media that they need
Speaker 5: to show more of themselves because it's about being seen
Speaker 5: and even showing that vulnerability and that affection. It's winning
Speaker 5: over a lot of people, and people are strongly resonating
Speaker 5: now with the Waleses.
Speaker 1: Catherine has executed a masterful cementing of her authority from
Speaker 1: the moment she announced in March she had cancer.
Speaker 2: We hope that you'll understand that as a family, we
Speaker 2: now need some time space and privacy while I complete
Speaker 2: my treatment.
Speaker 1: On Tuesday, Catherine, now Princess of Wales, released a new video.
Speaker 2: As a summer comes to an end. I cannot tell
Speaker 2: you what a relief it is to have finally completed
Speaker 2: my chemotherapy treatment. The last nine months have been incredibly
Speaker 2: tough for us as a family.
Speaker 1: It's a sleek production. There's beautiful slow motion shots of
Speaker 1: the gorgeous family of five as they frolic in a
Speaker 1: field set to an emotive music track.
Speaker 2: Life, as you know, it can change in an instant
Speaker 2: and we've had to find a way to navigate the
Speaker 2: stormy waters and road unknown.
Speaker 5: It was only just earlier this year, the beginning of
Speaker 5: the year, where we didn't know how sick she was,
Speaker 5: but at the time when she released that photo using
Speaker 5: photoshop of her with the children, and that was released
Speaker 5: to reassure everybody that all was well and all wasn't well.
Speaker 1: The photo was released in an attempt to quell misinformation
Speaker 1: about Catherine's disappearance over the earth early months of twenty
Speaker 1: twenty four, after what the Palace called planned abdominal surgery.
Speaker 1: She retreated from public life with no explanation. Where is Keen?
Speaker 5: We haven't seen her in three months?
Speaker 1: He was.
Speaker 5: Catherine in a deal done between the Palace and all
Speaker 5: of the media organizations that she would release certain photos
Speaker 5: at certain stages in return for basically a hands off
Speaker 5: approach by the media in this country, and she kind
Speaker 5: of broke that trust because she released an image that
Speaker 5: wasn't true, and so that's why there was such this
Speaker 5: huge furor about it at the time. I think there
Speaker 5: would have been a little bit more sympathy if they'd
Speaker 5: have known how sick she was at the time, and
Speaker 5: certainly there's been some hasty revisions of opinion about what
Speaker 5: went on then. I think the Palace has learned a
Speaker 5: lot from that incident because they've stage managed it very
Speaker 5: well ever since that they've taken back control they've released
Speaker 5: information at a time when they fear that there were
Speaker 5: certain updates that they could provide, and then now to
Speaker 5: provide this very slick video is them taking it another
Speaker 5: step further to kind of show the public that they
Speaker 5: are with the public, that they understand and appreciate the
Speaker 5: public support, and in return, they are going to let
Speaker 5: them in with a little window into their life to
Speaker 5: show them that they are happy and that they're a
Speaker 5: very happy family.
Speaker 1: There's still a boundary, though there isn't there, Jack. We
Speaker 1: don't know what sort of cancer Catherine has or had,
Speaker 1: and she's not obviously going to tell us.
Speaker 5: No, she wants to keep that private, and she hasn't
Speaker 5: released the cancer, but neither has King Charles. We knew
Speaker 5: that he had prostate issues, but that the cancer is
Speaker 5: not prostate cancer. So he also has a cancer that
Speaker 5: we don't know about what the details are, and we
Speaker 5: don't really know the extent of their treatment and what
Speaker 5: it entails.
Speaker 1: Coming out. Why Catherine's candid cancer journey is just what
Speaker 1: the doctor ordered. Don't forget. You can join our subscribers
Speaker 1: right now at the Australian dot com dot au and
Speaker 1: we'll be back after this break.
Speaker 3: I was diagnosed with breast cancer. Let's put it simply,
Speaker 3: and as you can imagine, it was a bit of
Speaker 3: a shock.
Speaker 1: That's supermodel Elle McPherson. She's speaking with journalist Tracy Grimshaw
Speaker 1: about her new autobiography in an episode of sixty Minutes.
Speaker 1: In the memoir, McPherson revealed she's in remission from breast cancer.
Speaker 3: What were you told needed to happen? Mastect to me? Chemotherapy,
Speaker 3: radiation and hormone replacement.
Speaker 1: Macpherson said she refused those conventional therapies recommended by doctors
Speaker 1: in favor of what she called an intuitive, heart led,
Speaker 1: holistic approach.
Speaker 3: I made a choice to go a more natural root
Speaker 3: in my treatment because that's what really resonated with me.
Speaker 3: I had been really looking at the body as in
Speaker 3: a holistic way, so looking at emotional, mental, spiritual and
Speaker 3: physical well being, and I believe in the body has
Speaker 3: the infinite capacity to heal.
Speaker 1: El McPherson's claim she effectively healed her own cancer was
Speaker 1: met with despair from medical experts and outrage from survivors.
Speaker 1: On cologist said McPherson had, in fact had a lumpectomy,
Speaker 1: a completely conventional treatment, and the chemo would not be
Speaker 1: recommended for her type of cancer anyway. Australian TV legend
Speaker 1: and breast cancer survivor carry Anne Kennelly told The Australian
Speaker 1: she feared McPherson's influences such that someone will die trying
Speaker 1: to replicate her supposed medical success.
Speaker 5: With Catherine. You've seen the shock, the horror, the fear,
Speaker 5: the vulnerability, and then her progress through it. We got
Speaker 5: an update at one point where she said she has
Speaker 5: good days and bad It's a very honest acknowledgment of
Speaker 5: the trauma that she was going through at the time
Speaker 5: and what other people go through.
Speaker 2: Doing what I can to stay cancer free is now
Speaker 2: my focus. Although I have finished chemotherapy, my paths are
Speaker 2: healing and full. Recovery is long and I must continue
Speaker 2: to take each day as it comes.
Speaker 5: And she took a very conventional path, and certainly El
Speaker 5: McPherson took an unconventional path. We just assumed, don't we,
Speaker 5: that she's got the best doctors in the land. She
Speaker 5: can afford the best doctors in the land. She hasn't
Speaker 5: had to go through the NHS system. She's been able
Speaker 5: to afford to go private and so I'm sure she's
Speaker 5: taken the best advice as possibly El McPherson has as well,
Speaker 5: but come to very different decisions.
Speaker 2: To all those who are continuing their own cancer journey.
Speaker 2: I remain with you, side by side, hand in hand.
Speaker 2: Out of darkness can come late, so let that light shine. Right.
Speaker 1: Do you think in any way Harry and Meghan have
Speaker 1: been the catalyst for this change in the Waleses that
Speaker 1: they've let the public in a bit more because they
Speaker 1: saw a different way or were criticized for the way
Speaker 1: that they were doing things.
Speaker 5: I think that some of that is true. I used
Speaker 5: to go and watch the royals, especially at Christmas time,
Speaker 5: and Catherine knew exactly where all the photographers were, and
Speaker 5: she would never look at them. She would always look away.
Speaker 5: And I remember one year we saw Katherine and Meghan,
Speaker 5: the whole family, the four of them, walk in and
Speaker 5: none of the photographers got a photo. The only photo
Speaker 5: of the four looking at the camera was by a
Speaker 5: member of the public. And that's because at that stage
Speaker 5: they didn't like the publicity. Since then we've had, of course,
Speaker 5: Meghan and Harry's very public and very different way of
Speaker 5: talking to the world, and so I think that the
Speaker 5: Waleses have really understood that they need to engage more
Speaker 5: with the public and they've taken a different way of
Speaker 5: doing that. But I think that what Meghan and Harry
Speaker 5: have been doing has definitely influenced how the Palace has
Speaker 5: reacted to this.
Speaker 1: Jacqueline Magnae is the Australians europe correspondent. All eyes will
Speaker 1: be on the debate between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris
Speaker 1: today in the United States. You can follow it live
Speaker 1: and read all our analysis at the Australian dot com.
Speaker 1: Dou