Kate Middleton will tonight attend the prestigious BBC Sports Personality of the Year Awards – the first sign that she is slowly recovering from the severe morning sickness that has plagued her first few weeks of pregnancy.

The Duchess of Cambridge is only likely to be at the event in London for around 45 minutes and she is keen to pay tribute to the nation’s sportsmen and women in what has been an incredible year.

Sources say Kate Middleton will be going on her own as husband Prince William is back at work as an RAF search and rescue pilot on Anglesey.

A St James’s Palace spokesman said: “The Duchess of Cambridge will tonight attend the BBC’s Sports Personality of the Year Awards at the ExCeL London, where Her Royal Highness will present the Lifetime Achievement and the main Sports Personality of the Year Awards.

“The Duchess will attend the event in response to a longstanding invitation from the BBC.‪‪”

Along with her husband and brother in law Prince Harry, Kate Middleton was a Team GB Ambassador at the Olympics this summer.

The hockey player is known to love sport and was pictured at London 2012, hugging Prince William at the Velodrome in August as Sir Chris Hoy, Philip Hindes and Jason Kenny stormed to success.

Tonight will be the first time Kate Middleton has been seen in public since she left hospital.

Kate Middleton will tonight attend the prestigious BBC Sports Personality of the Year Awards

Reports had suggested she could miss Christmas at Sandringham and instead choose to spend the festive period with her own family in a bid to recover.

Kate Middleton’s prolonged vomiting could continue for much of her pregnancy and she may need to take anti-sickness medication for months to come.

She was regularly visited by Prince William and younger siblings Pippa and James Middleton during her stay in hospital.

A royal source said: “While the Duchess does not feel ready to attend a four hour engagement, she is keen to show her support to the UK’s sportsmen and women at this prestigious event which caps a momentous year for British sport.”

The Duchess has been resting at Nottingham Cottage, the London home she shares with Prince William in the grounds of Kensington Palace.

Kate Middleton, 30, who is around nine weeks pregnant, has been told by doctors to rest and, as a result, had cancelled all her upcoming engagements.

She was taken to hospital earlier this month by her concerned husband after falling ill at her parents’ house in Bucklebury, Berkshire.

Doctors at King Edward VII Hospital in London diagnosed her with hyperemesis gravidarum, an acute form of morning sickness that causes the patient to vomit uncontrollably and become dehydrated.

She was immediately put on a drip to introduce fluids and nutrients into her body and spent three nights in hospital.