The speculations of journalists, citizens, fans and gossipers were all silenced after viewing a video message posted on March 22 by Kate, Princess of Wales, revealing her cancer diagnosis.
Kate’s disappearance sent the media into a frenzy. Despite the royal palace notifying the public that she would not be seen until Easter, they would not take that for an answer.
When the palace announced that Kate underwent a successful surgery on Jan. 16, she asked for privacy, attempting to ensure normalcy for her kids.
However, conspiracies began flying around in February after Kate had not been seen or heard from for two months. This prompted the princess to return to her Instagram on March 10 to celebrate the U.K.’s Mother’s Day.
If you saw the photo, you may not have noticed anything upon a quick glance. However, people — who frankly have too much time on their hands — observed that the photo had been altered and took to social media platforms to discuss.
The Instagram post pictured Kate hugging her children, who were beside her as she sat in a chair. When the photo is zoomed in, editing errors are evident in multiple spots of the picture.
After being called out by virtually everyone, Kate apologized for the post on X, formerly known as Twitter, and removed it from Instagram the next day.
The post read, “Like many amateur photographers, I do occasionally experiment with editing. I wanted to express my apologies for any confusion the family photograph we shared yesterday caused. I hope everyone celebrating had a very happy Mother’s Day. C.”
I definitely found the message to be weird and convenient and began to wonder what could have happened to Kate for the family to post a heavily altered photo.
It was especially strange because a photo of Kate allegedly driving with her mother was released by TMZ a week earlier. The photo also appeared to be edited and caused watchers of the royal family to suggest that it wasn’t actually the princess in the photo.
On March 16, Kate and Prince William were seen running errands together. The video from TMZ furthered the conspiracy that it was a doppelganger impersonating Kate.
With all this evidence piling up, people began to assume the worst. Many brought up Prince William’s alleged affair with British model and marchioness Rose Hanbury and thought that this was going to be another “Princess Diana situation” — who many believe was murdered by the royal palace.
The photo shared on March 10 showed Kate without her wedding ring, making people assume she was finally “fed up” with her marriage.
Hanbury responded to the rumors through her lawyer and stated that they were false.
If the royals were trying to silence conspiracy theorists, why would they release a photo that shows Kate without her wedding ring? With King Charles’ past of cheating on his wife, I would think that the palace would be more intentional about their actions regarding an alleged affair.
Despite the palace dismissing many of the rumors, the public continued to question where the princess was.
After months of being hounded by the media and concerned fans, the palace released a video message from Kate on March 22. In the video, she stated that she had been diagnosed with cancer after undergoing abdominal surgery.
She also added that she is receiving preventive chemotherapy treatment.
Kate doesn’t owe anyone an explanation as to why she was absent for so long, but it’s odd that the palace released all of these clearly edited photos.
When I watched the video, I sympathized with Kate as she shouldn’t have had to share her private life to end rumors. I noticed that a lot of people switched their stances after she revealed her diagnosis, saying she deserves privacy and to be left alone.
This entire issue could have been avoided if either people minded their own business or if the palace had been more careful about the media it released. Since people will never mind their own business, the latter was a more plausible solution.
Don’t be a royal pain in the ass. Kate deserves time to heal from her surgery and spend time with family, and she doesn’t need people constantly invading her privacy.
