After months of confusion about Kate Middleton’s whereabouts, there has finally been some clarity. Catherine, the Princess of Wales, Prince William’s wife and a mother of three, piqued the internet’s interest after being absent from the public eye since her planned abdominal surgery at the London Clinic in December. The Royal Family is no stranger to controversy or bad publicity, but this scandal took over social media, filling timelines with one conspiracy theory after another. The details of the operation were kept very quiet in the interest of privacy, but this raised more suspicion the longer Kate skipped out on her public duties; the rumors have now been dubbed as “Katespiracies.”
Many theories were circulating, ranging in extremity, debating if the Princess got a facelift, was in a coma or was dead and the palace was covering it up. Social media, especially X, formerly known as Twitter, spun out of control with possibilities and jokes about what happened to the Princess. Instead of putting an end to the rumors, when the first photo of Kate post-surgery was released, it only made matters worse. On March 4, Kate was seen in the passenger’s seat of a car driven by her mother, but the photo was extremely grainy, driving the internet’s belief that the palace is using a body double for Kate. Then, on Mother’s Day, Kate’s own X account shared a photo of her and her three children, but it quickly sparked even more controversy because it was proven to be photoshopped; some even went as far as to say the image was entirely AI-generated, but there is no proof of that. Soon after, Kate and William were seen strolling at a farmers market, smiling and looking healthy, which quieted most rumors, but not all. The small sphere of online rumors that existed then went mainstream and had the public questioning if the Princess was truly missing.
On March 22, Kensington Palace released a video on the situation and silence the conspiracies once and for all. Kate remained calm, cool and collected as she explained that these past few months have been extremely hard on her and her family. Although the palace originally stated that the planned surgery was non-cancerous, this unfortunately did not end up being the case. Unexpectedly, the surgery revealed that cancer was present, and it was recommended that she begin a preventative chemotherapy treatment as soon as possible.
On top of recovery from her abdominal surgery, Kate healed just to get thrown right back into the ringer of chemotherapy. In her statement, she also placed emphasis on the sensitivity of sharing the subject with her children and reassuring them that she is well. Despite this heavy news, Kate seems to be hopeful and said in the video that she is looking forward to getting back to her work after she has made a successful recovery. To close out, Kate empathized with other families who have dealt with the chaos that is cancer and reminded them they are not alone, reminding viewers that at the end of the day, not even royals are immune from this cruel disease.
What at first was genuine concern for the Princess became an internet-wide joke that got far too carried away. It now seems insensitive to think about all the ridiculous Katespiricies, but it was certainly odd that the Palace took so long to silence the rumors. It raises the question of how much privacy the royals deserve, especially in tumultuous situations such as this one. Do their people deserve to know? Should the Princess be able to keep something like this in the family? Perhaps they waited so long because of King Charles III’s recent cancer diagnosis, not wanting to bombard the public with so much bad news at once. All this fuss about Kate’s whereabouts got out of control very quickly and proves that the public still holds the Royal family with high importance. Whether you think the royals deserve privacy or not, I think we can all agree that we wish the best for Kate and her family during this difficult chapter, and wish her nothing but a speedy recovery.