The one detail we missed in Kate Middleton's 'cancer free' video.

'Astonishingly intimate' and 'unprecedented in its personal nature' are just some of the phrases being splashed across headlines today as Catherine, Princess of Wales has shared a three-minute video announcing her completion of chemotherapy treatment for cancer, nine months on from her diagnosis.

The video, shot by filmmaker Will Warr in the woods around the Cambridges' Norfolk home, Anmer Hall, indeed marks a stark departure from the formal, slightly wooden communiqués that have come before. 

It is, in many ways, the antithesis of the controversial and seemingly hastily-orchestrated Mother's Day image the couple shared to their official Instagram account earlier this year. It led to several international image agencies taking the rare step of warning clients about using the images, due to their belief it had been manipulated.

The video, which shows William, Kate and their children displaying a level of warmth and affection to which we're rarely granted access, features narration by the princess herself, thanking the public for its ongoing support and revealing that the past year has been "incredibly tough".

Shots of the children laughing and playing around with their parents are interspersed with footage of Will and Kate embracing, lying affectionately on a picnic rug together, her head on his shoulder, hands entwined.

Prince William and Kate Middleton with their children. Image: YouTube/The Prince and Princess of Wales.

When Kate pulls George in for a hug, it's not the warm-yet-official, hand-on-shoulder squeeze we're used to seeing as the family stands on a balcony, but the two-armed, full-body embrace of a mum cradling her firstborn into her like she did when he was much smaller - so breathtakingly familiar to any mother who frequently finds herself shocked that her baby is now a gangly Grade-sixer.

Kate Middleton hugging her first-born, Prince George. Image: YouTube/The Prince and Princess of Wales.

Yet it's one tiny detail in the film - a shot that lasts only four seconds - that perhaps marks the biggest change in the Cambridge's PR strategy since Kate's diagnosis.

A vignette of Kate, Will and the children playing a raucous card game with her parents, Carol and Michael Middleton, takes up a tiny amount of airtime in the video, but is striking in its symbolism.

The family clusters around a small dining table, light streaming in the windows in buttery ribbons. The kids have thrown off their well-behaved-royal personas and are enthusiastically yelling over the game; a tiny glimpse into the slow, gentle family life that might have taken place at moments during Kate's convalescence. 

We know that Kate's recovery has been largely aided by her birth family, who rallied around her from the moment she was diagnosed, with Kate spending a lot of time after her surgery recovering at Bucklebury Manor, the Middleton family home.

That she would choose this moment - and a film where each shot has clearly been very intentionally included - to honour her parents' role in her life and that of her family, is meaningful.

It in many ways signals a return to the woman we knew before that royal wedding captured the hearts and minds of the world - a woman very much grounded in family, a woman who was not only a future queen, but a daughter and sister too.

The intervening years since Catherine married William have brought with them a marked change in the couple's public demeanour, their behaviour increasingly polished and official, as befitting the future monarchs.

In recent years, Kate and Wills have formed the natural binary to Harry and Megs' laidback, anti-royal approach, and - rightly or wrongly - have come off looking much more wooden and less affectionate than their stateside in-laws. 

The negative press, first centred on the feud between Will and Harry, then on the vacuum of information that coloured reporting on Kate's long absence from public life before her diagnosis was announced, further cemented this idea of the couple as somewhat inaccessible 

The venom with which the world spiralled into conspiracy theories about the true nature of Catherine's illness must have come as an added shock in the midst of the horrific health news the family was dealing with. But it also served as an opportunity for the kind of global market research that can't be bought. 

Listen to Mamamia Out Loud where Mia, Holly, and Jessie talks about the conspiracy theories about Princess Kate. Post continues after podcast.

The goodwill they once enjoyed had been replaced quite unexpectedly by cynicism and distrust from the public - and the usually accommodating media had withdrawn its protection.

Every tiny detail in the film is imbued with symbolism - from the new eternity ring on Kate's finger that replaces the sapphire engagement ring that once belonged to Diana, to the music used (the film finishes off with Ireland by Ben Winwood as the backing track, a musician based in Northern Wales, which many believe is a nod to Kate's role as the Princess of Wales).

If, as she shares in her narration, Kate indeed has a new appreciation for the world and her place in it, it's fair to assume that this video is a debut of this renewed outlook.

And just maybe, it also indicates the hard-won realisation of The Firm that allowing Kate to step into the full embodiment of her life, not just as a future queen but as a three-dimensional woman, is the only way forward if the crown is to retain any relevance at all.

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Feature image: YouTube/The Prince and Princess of Wales.