Catherine, the Princess of Wales, announced in a video message released Friday that cancer was discovered following her January abdominal surgery and she is undergoing preventative chemotherapy on the advice of her medical team. The announcement came after months of widespread speculation about the 42-year-old princess’ health and controversy over doctored images released by Kensington Palace.

Kate said that the cancer was discovered during tests conducted after her surgery, which had gone well. She did not say what kind of cancer it was or share additional details about her diagnosis. 

“This of course came as a huge shock, and William and I have been doing everything we can to process and manage this privately for the sake of our young family,” Kate said in the video message. “As you can imagine, this has taken time. It has taken me time to recover from major surgery in order to start my treatment.