Noddy Holder's wife shares support for Princess Kate over 'intrusion'

Suzan Holder, married to the Slade frontman, has expressed sympathy with Princess Kate over the “intrusion” that comes with being in the public eye.

It comes after Mrs Holder opened up about her 77-year-old husband’s cancer diagnosis in an issue of Cheshire Life last year, with the family having kept the matter private for five years until that point.

Kate underwent abdominal surgery at the London Clinic on January 16 but Kensington Palace has said she wishes to keep her personal medical information private.

 Speaking on Jeremy Vine’s Channel 5 show, Mrs Holder said she kept quiet over her husband’s diagnosis as they would have found the “intrusion and the focus and the questions very difficult to deal with”.

She said: “I’m married to Noddy Holder and five years ago, Noddy Holder was diagnosed with oesophageal cancer and was given six months to live.

“And we decided as a family to keep that very, very private. Now he’s doing well.

“And we decided to come out and speak about it only just before Christmas. We left it five years.

“Now, in that time, I have therefore seen – just at my level of ‘married to a national treasure status’ – which is nothing like what must happen in the royal family, how difficult it is to do that. And I also know why we did that.”

READ MORE: Cheshire resident Noddy Holder in secret cancer battle after given months to live

Noddy Holder was given 'six months to live' when diagnosed with oesophageal cancer over five years ago (Image: PA)

She added: “We kept it quiet because we had no idea what was going to happen.

“We would find the intrusion and the focus and the questions very difficult to deal with and it would be me dealing with that a lot … I could protect Noddy from that quite a bit, I suppose.

“But even so, we found it very difficult.

“There were very close members of family we didn’t tell, very close friends.

“I will never apologise to the people we didn’t tell.

“I will only apologise to the people we did.”

ALSO READ: Noddy Holder opens up on secret battle with cancer

Mrs Holder said the princess must feel a “colossal” responsibility in responding to the public’s questions.

“I have been inundated with people asking me questions, wanting to know more information, wanting to know about the treatment”, she said.

“And I have as much as I possibly can, answered every single question.”

She added: “I think they (William and Kate) do have a very great sense of duty and I think they enjoy a lot of what they do.

“But the sense of duty she would feel on having to respond to that would be colossal.”