It seems that everyone has recently become fixated on one question: where in the world is the Princess of Wales?
We’ve long known the world is watching the royal family, but the visible absence of Catherine has sent social media and US news outlets into a tailspin – driving even those ordinarily not interested in the royals to pay attention.
The latest saga surrounding the royal family began when Kensington Palace announced on 17 January that the future queen consort was due for a mysterious abdominal surgery at the London Clinic. The world was told that she would be in the hospital and out of commission for “10 to 14 days” – therefore out of the public eye until Easter. Prince William postponed some engagements that same day.
Then a series of coincidences made internet sleuths suspicious.
Victoria Howard, a royal commentator and founder of a website devoted to the royal family called The Crown Chronicles, offered some clarity on the princess’s recent accidental entrance into the global spotlight.
“The length of Kate’s absence is unusual which suggests a significant procedure, but the lack of details is what is driving the rumor mill,” Howard said. “For those abroad, who don’t have a royal family and liken them more to celebrities, they can’t quite understand why the details aren’t being shared.”
Shortly after, on 5 February, it was announced that King Charles was diagnosed with cancer. Now, two leading figures in the royal family have health issues around the exact same time but only one of them has been seen.
“There is a bit of a vacuum in the royal family right now, because of both ongoing health issues, so this lack of news and public visibility of royals is driving some of this narrative,” Howard said. “The timing is unusual being so close together but for me it’s an example of how the offices do not communicate that well, and equally their different approaches with the level of detail provided.”
But Howard cautioned coincidences can happen and that “health often doesn’t align with your schedule”.
“As Kate is not monarch there is no cause for concern. Charles has counsellors of state who can be appointed and step in should he be incapacitated,” she said.
Still, rumors are swirling and many outside the UK, particularly in the US, have become obsessed with this Middleton mystery.
Theories, or “Katespiracies”, about the princess’s whereabouts range from Kate being revealed as the newest contestant on the TV gameshow The Masked Singer to getting a Brazilian butt lift (or some other cosmetic work).
Someone I know had a “where is Kate Middleton?” happy hour at their office, and I’m cackling pic.twitter.com/qjPYkPqp9U
— Alyssa 🌻 (@alyssaleann) March 15, 2024
Howard called some of these conspiracies “quite frankly ludicrous”.
“To not be away for so long due to real health issues would be highly risky and take advantage of public goodwill,” she said. “No sensible communications team would allow them to do that.”
Middleton was reportedly seen on 4 March in a car with her mother, but the poor quality of the photo has not convinced some of her fans.
On 10 March, things reached a bit of an apex when it was revealed that a family photo of Catherine and her three children posted by the princess on her Instagram account was Photoshopped. Various discrepancies in the image led to even more speculation, prompting major news agencies such as the Associated Press to pull the photo from distribution “because at closer inspection, it appears that the source had manipulated the image in a way that did not meet AP’s photo standards”.
This proved cataclysmic for gossip, which seemingly pushed the princess to issue a rare statement explaining the situation: “Like many amateur photographers, I 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”
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
— The Prince and Princess of Wales (@KensingtonRoyal) March 11, 2024
The metadata of the file shows that the image was processed in Photoshop first on 8 March at 9.54pm local time and again on 9 March at9.39am local time, per an ABC News report.
The very next day on 11 March, William and someone who appeared to be Catherine were seen leaving Windsor Castle together in a car. But faces were obstructed so it’s not clear if it was actually the princess.
Still, the princess’s spokesperson doubled down on Catherine’s perfectly normal condition: “We were very clear from the outset that the Princess of Wales was out until after Easter and Kensington Palace would only be providing updates when something was significant.”
The spokesperson underscored the princess was “doing well”.
The US, which has no royal family, is giving the princess the “celebrity-in-crisis” treatment previously seen with the likes of Britney Spears or Amanda Bynes. If not by those on social media like TikTok, the media coverage of Catherine’s every move has shown no signs of letting up.
US news outlets like the Washington Post, ABC News and NPR have even weighed in on the altered photo debacle. The Los Angeles Times likened Kate and sister-in-law Duchess of Sussex’s drama to that surrounding Diana, Princess of Wales, who dominated international news headlines in the late 80s and 90s.
The royals expert and former BuzzFeed News reporter Ellie Hall told Nieman Lab last week that she believed the obsession with Catherine stems from “distrust” people have of the royals – in no small part to Diana’s legacy.
“People have started to really distrust not just the royal family – as an institution/bureaucracy, not necessarily the individual members – but the reporters and outlets that cover the royal family,” Hall said, adding: “A lot of people still hold a grudge against the royals because of Princess Diana and wonder about the circumstances of her death. I also feel like a lot of this distrust stems from what Harry and Meghan have said since leaving working royal life. Their descriptions of a back-stabbing, machiavellian organization in interviews and Harry’s memoir Spare have definitely made an impact on the public’s perception of the monarchy and the royal reporting beat.”
So, what’s really going on and who has the answers?
Howard noted that “Kensington Palace has been very reactive”, which is unusual because they mostly don’t “comment or respond in other cases”. She says it’s “the wrong approach if they wanted to ease people’s worries” and “doing so shows real concern about the conversation and indicates their level of panic essentially”.
Perhaps the former Guardian editor-in-chief Alan Rusbridger said it best in 2020, pointing out: “It is unusually difficult to judge the reliability of most royal reporting because it is a world almost devoid of open or named sources.
“So, in order to believe what we’re being told, we have to take it on trust that there are currently legions of ‘aides’, ‘palace insiders’, ‘friends’ and ‘senior courtiers’ constantly WhatsApping their favourite reporters with the latest gossip. It has been known to happen. Maybe they are, maybe they aren’t. We just don’t know.”
