How Kate Middleton Shamed the Internet

The morning after Catherine, the Princess of Wales, otherwise known as Kate Middleton, announced that she had cancer, the weather in London was bright and clear. After weeks of gray and rain, it felt like spring in the capital. (Later, it hailed.) It was as if the raging fever of speculation about the senior royal’s health since her disappearance from the public eye in January—some of it genuine, much of it gleeful and unhinged—had finally broken. At 6 p.m. last Friday, just as many were heading to the pub, Kensington Palace released a short video on X, formerly Twitter, in which Catherine sits alone on a bench surrounded by grass and daffodils, and calmly explains that she is undergoing treatment for cancer.

It has been an incredibly tough couple of months for our entire family,” Catherine says in the video. She’s wearing a striped sweater and jeans, and her hair is, as usual, immaculate. She looks a little tired. “In January, I underwent major abdominal surgery in London, and at the time it was thought that my condition was non-cancerous,” she says. “The surgery was successful—however, tests after the operation found cancer had been present.” Her medical team has recommended a course of “preventative chemotherapy,” and she is now in the “early stages” of that treatment. Here she pauses and presses her hands together, as if gathering strength. The news came as a “huge shock.” She and Prince William have been “doing everything we can to process and manage this privately for the sake of our young family.” “As you can imagine, this has taken time,” she continues. “It has taken me time to recover from major surgery in order to start my treatment. But, most importantly, it has taken us time to explain
everything to George, Charlotte, and Louis in a way that’s appropriate for them and to reassure them that I’m going to be O.K.”

The announcement followed a busy month of news, and non-news, about the Princess. The royal’s last official engagement was at Christmastime, when she waved to crowds while on the way to church with her family in Sandringham. On that occasion, she wore a long blue coat and looked the picture of health. Then, on January 17th, the palace revealed that she had been admitted to the hospital for an unspecified “abdominal surgery” and that she likely would not be appearing in public again until at least Easter. As the weeks ticked by, people on the Internet grew restless. “Where’s Kate?” became a weird parlor game and a goad to conspiracy theorists. Was the Princess in hiding because of a bad haircut? A breakdown? An affair?

Finally, on Mother’s Day in the U.K., the palace released a photograph, credited to William, of Catherine and the couple’s three children. Posted on Kensington Palace’s X account, the image is startlingly lovely. All three kids are smiling toward the camera (no small feat), and Catherine seems to exude happiness. Soon, however, discrepancies emerged. There was something odd about the zipper on the Princess’s jacket, and a strange blurriness around Charlotte’s sleeve. On TikTok, a user pointed out the similarities between the outfits in the photo and the clothing that the royals had worn at an earlier event. Not long after the image was posted, news agencies—including the A.P. and Reuters—issued kill notices for it, citing manipulation. Cue hysteria.

The people online who had claimed something was off felt vindicated. The people who had dismissed the people online claiming something was off had to admit: something was off. The revelation that the photo had been altered—and the further revelation that the palace would not be releasing the unedited photo—inflamed the situation to the point that a rare apology was issued, on March 11th. “Like many amateur photographers, I do occasionally experiment with editing,” a post on the palace’s X account read. “I wanted to express my apologies for any confusion the family photograph we shared yesterday caused.” It was signed “C,” for Catherine.

Godfrey said that she hoped the disclosure might bring William and Harry back together, “because sometimes something like this will heal rifts.” Did they think that the palace should have shared more? “At the end of the day, it’s her personal medical history. She shouldn’t have to tell us everything about it,” Godfrey said, adding, “They would usually say nothing at all.” She considered the video “a move from the past, but, then, people expect more now than the past.” Previously, “there was more reverence. There’s less reverence now. But, I think she’s said enough and people should just leave her alone