But it's even more so when you're one of the most recognised people on the planet.
In little more than 36 hours, Catherine, the Princess of Wales, has shown what a courageous woman she is.
She's also, inadvertently, taught the world a valuable lesson: that gossip and rumour are often the furthest things from the truth.
After three months of swirling questions and endless speculation came the brutal truth on Friday night (Saturday morning AEDT).
The Princess of Wales, the shining star of the royal family, has cancer.
"For everyone facing this disease, in whatever form, please do not lose faith or hope. You are not alone," she said.
Ingrid Seward is a leading royal expert and biographer and editor in chief of Majesty Magazine.
She's still reeling from the simple explanation none of us wanted to hear.
"I was shocked. We knew something was coming, we knew there was going to be a big announcement," Seward said.
"I never ever thought it would be anything like that.
"She was so raw as well.
"This was very, very personal.
"And you could see that she was quite emotional and I think it was very brave."
Seward said it was a line in the sand moment for Kate, the future queen as the wife of Prince William, the heir to the throne.
"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," the princess said.
Seward said Kate released the message "because she felt there was no other way around".
"I mean, we still don't know what kind of cancer that Kate is suffering from, and obviously she doesn't feel that she has to tell us that.
"And why should she.
"There's not going to be any more bulletins.
"There's not going to be a bulletin from Kensington Palace telling us how she's getting on.
"There won't be bulletins talking about her chemo.
"This is it, I very much feel."
Seward said Kate has "obviously known for some time" but the timing of making the news public was important.
"You could see that she must have been under enormous pressure and strain and her big anxiety was to keep it from the kids until they finished their school term, which in the UK is now," Seward said.
"It's the beginning of the long Easter holidays."
Catherine's announcement came after months of innuendo, a firestorm of conspiracies that were still raging at the beginning of the week with a rare sighting of the royal whose last public duty was at Christmas.
The footage captured from inside a parked car at the Windsor Farm Shop did not satisfy doubters.
"So at the same time she's dealing with all these Kate conspiracies, all this storm around her, deep down she's a mother worried about how she's going to tell her kids that she's got cancer," Seward said.
"And it will hopefully teach the trolls on social media a lesson that maybe they'll take to heart and will stop making up things and making dreadful stories about people that they know nothing about."
Hysteria was whipped up by the photoshopping fiasco that saw a doctored image of Kate and the kids released to the public on Mother's Day in the UK.
It was a move that author and PR guru Mark Borkowski said was an unforgivable mistake.
"I've been commenting on PR failures, particularly with the royals, for many years," he said.
"I've never quite experienced such a feeding frenzy on this tale, on this crazy set of events.
"It's just been a catalogue of errors, and it shows a royal household that, frankly, has not really coped with the social media age."
Borkowski said internet trolls needed to pull their heads in.
"The killer is we live in an age not driven by legacy media," he said.
"We're in a media age, driven by the unregulated internet."
He said the photoshopping incident "just was idiotic".
"It was crazy," he said.
"And because if you can't offer up a proper photo, a real photo, authenticity is all in this day and age, then you've made one of the biggest errors.
"You've actually fed the conspiracy theory monsters."
Kate apologised for "confusion" about the photo after it was recalled by major photo agencies.
Borkowski said maybe the palace was in the dark too.
"Maybe the palace didn't know she was dealing with cancer," he said.
"I mean, not everyone in the palace knows exactly what's going on, which is something I've learned over the years."
Seward said with her two-minute video message yesterday, Catherine has clawed control back for the royals.
"Kate has clawed it all back because people love her and they were worried about her," she said.
"It was not everything that was said about her was unkind. People were genuinely concerned [when asking] 'where is she?'
"And I think that now there's a huge groundswell of sympathy for her, even bigger than there was before. And yes, she nailed it."
https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMicGh0dHBzOi8vOW5vdy5uaW5lLmNvbS5hdS82MC1taW51dGVzL3ByaW5jZXNzLW9mLXdhbGVzLWNhbmNlci1rYXRlLW1pZGRsZXRvbi83OTUxZTdkOS1lMmI5LTQwNGMtOWQ4Mi01NzI2ZjJiYmFlMWXSAURodHRwczovL2FtcC5uaW5lLmNvbS5hdS9hcnRpY2xlLzc5NTFlN2Q5LWUyYjktNDA0Yy05ZDgyLTU3MjZmMmJiYWUxZQ?oc=5
2024-03-24 09:41:20Z
CBMicGh0dHBzOi8vOW5vdy5uaW5lLmNvbS5hdS82MC1taW51dGVzL3ByaW5jZXNzLW9mLXdhbGVzLWNhbmNlci1rYXRlLW1pZGRsZXRvbi83OTUxZTdkOS1lMmI5LTQwNGMtOWQ4Mi01NzI2ZjJiYmFlMWXSAURodHRwczovL2FtcC5uaW5lLmNvbS5hdS9hcnRpY2xlLzc5NTFlN2Q5LWUyYjktNDA0Yy05ZDgyLTU3MjZmMmJiYWUxZQ
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