The Princess of Wales told Gabriela Dabrowski at Wimbledon on Saturday afternoon that it was amazing, and inspirational, that the 34-year-old was still playing while undergoing cancer treatment. Dabrowski, who was due to play in the ladies' doubles final on Centre Court on Sunday, said the exchange left her emotional.
Dabrowski was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2024 and has kept competing through treatment, making her meeting with Kate one of the most pointed moments of the championships so far. The Princess of Wales has also spoken publicly about cancer this year after revealing in 2024 that she was being treated for the disease, which gave the conversation a resonance that went beyond a routine sporting greeting.
For Dabrowski, the praise landed as something more personal than ceremony. She said Kate told her that sport shows a body can still be strong, and that she understood why the moment felt beautiful. In her telling, it was also unexpectedly moving: she said she had not expected to be emotional, but described the encounter as a very strange feeling.
That is where the story gets more complicated. Dabrowski was being celebrated for continuing to play through treatment, yet she also said she still has a few more years of hormone therapy ahead of her. That means the conversation at Wimbledon was not a neat finish line but a reminder that her competition and her treatment are unfolding at the same time, with the final on Sunday sitting right in the middle of both.
The Princess of Wales had already linked her own recovery to the sport earlier in the year, taking on the Three Peaks Challenge at the end of June in aid of the Royal Marsden Cancer Charity. At Wimbledon, she made the same point in a different setting: that sport can be a measure of resilience as much as result. Dabrowski now carries that message into Sunday’s match, with the harder part of her treatment still ahead.
