It’s been just over six months since Kate Middleton revealed that her cancer was in remission and returned to public duty. This week, the 43-year-old royal made rare and candid remarks about how she’s doing in her cancer recovery—and the challenges that she’s faced on her journey.

The Princess of Wales was at Essex’s Colchester Hospital, where she visited the centre’s well-being garden and spoke to patients and volunteers about her recovery. “You put on a sort of brave face, stoicism through treatment,” she said, according to People. Treatment’s done, then it’s like, ‘I can crack on, get back to normal,’ but actually, the phase afterwards is really, really difficult.”