Stephen Colbert seemed repentant on last night’s The Late Show as he discussed Kate Middleton’s recent cancer diagnosis. The late-night host responded to criticism he faced for making jokes about Middleton’s location a few weeks before the Princess of Wales publicly announced her diagnosis.
“We do a lot of shows, and I tell a lot of jokes, and I tell jokes about a lot of different things — mostly what everybody’s talking about,” Colbert explained on Monday’s Late Show. “And for the last six weeks to two months, everybody has been talking about the mystery of Kate Middleton’s disappearance from public life.”
Colbert added, “And two weeks ago, we did some jokes about that mystery and all the attendant fru-fra in the reporting about that, and when I made those jokes, that upset some people, even before her diagnosis was revealed, and I can understand that.”
“Some of my jokes will upset people in the future,” he admitted. “But there’s a standard that I try to hold myself to, and that is I do not make light of somebody else’s tragedy.”
“I don’t know if her prognosis is a tragic one. Regardless of what it is, far too many of us know that any cancer diagnosis of any kind is harrowing for the patient and for their family,” Colbert noted.
Stephen Colbert Stopped Short of a Full-Fledged Apology to Kate Middleton
However, in closing, the comedian stopped short of an actual apology. “Though I’m sure they don’t need it from me, I and everyone here at ‘The Late Show’ would like to extend our well-wishes and heartfelt hope that her recovery is swift and thorough.”
Colbert seemed to be referring to the jokes he made on the March 13 episode of The Late Show. He humorously suggested that Middleton’s retreat from public view was connected to rumors of her husband’s infidelity.
“The Kingdom has been all a flutter about the seeming disappearance of Kate Middleton,” Colbert quipped on the episode. “Well now, internet sleuths are guessing that Kate’s absence may be related to her husband, and the future King of England, William, having an affair.”
“According to tabloids, when Kate supposedly confronted him about it, he laughed it off, saying there was nothing to it. Always a good response when your wife accuses you of cheating.”
Middleton revealed her cancer diagnosis in a video released on March 22. Following this, many internet users and celebrities have publicly expressed remorse for joking about her whereabouts in the preceding weeks.