Throughout this year, the American media has covered the Windsors’ health crises and conspiracies with a grim fascination. While this recent history is being rewritten as we speak, it was the international media’s interest in and focus on Prince William’s sudden withdrawal from his godfather’s memorial service which really amped up a month of speculation and conspiracies. I watched it unfold in real time – NBC, ABC, CBS, the New York Times, WaPo and dozens of other American outlets began reporting on William’s memorial absence, the missing princess and the mysterious messaging and fumbles from Kensington Palace. Over the weekend, the New York Times published several columns about the Princess of Wales, following her video reveal last Friday. One column was scolding, one column was basically like “remember when the palace didn’t do anything to protect the Duchess of Sussex,” and then there was Maureen Dowd’s column. Dowd’s focus was on the operations of the British media and how they’re the ones driving these Kate stories. Dowd also got exclusive comments from Sally Bedell Smith, who recently compared Meghan to Wallis Simpson.
I did a story on the British tabloid reporters and photographers in 1993 when I was covering Wimbledon and they were hot on the trail of rumors about a romance between Barbra Streisand and Andre Agassi. They proudly called themselves Rotters, after the tenacious German dogs Rottweilers.
I asked my go-to person on the monarchy, Sally Bedell Smith, who has written many books on the family and who writes the Royals Extra Substack, if the Rotters would keep going until they uncovered the type of cancer the wife of the future king of England has and what led her to the hospital in the first place.
“I think they’ll have to leave her alone,” Smith said. “The palace will make sure they leave her alone. It would be ghoulish if they followed her to treatment. I hope they will show common decency, which maybe they don’t have in great supply. I hope they will stop speculating on all sorts of dire and ludicrous things.”
She said the palace came down hard on the papers when William and Kate were dating and Rotters were following Kate everywhere and again when their son George was younger and the paps hid long-lens cameras in the trunks of cars.
Smith said that her palace sources had been “trying to come to grips to manage this maelstrom of opinions and speculation and vicious theories” and now, upon learning of Kate’s cancer diagnosis, they are “in a state of shock.” Smith noted that more than the tabloid press, the royal counselors are worried about social media, “which is much, much harder to control.” Internet sleuths, who doggedly investigated Kate’s doctored photo until she confessed, are not likely to be satisfied until they dig up all the intimate details.
I wondered if Harry and Meghan — who wished Kate “health and healing” in a statement — would now have to pitch in on royal duties.
“Kate doesn’t need Harry and Meghan to console her,” Smith said. “She has her parents and a sister, and she’s very close to King Charles.” Smith added that “Meghan has announced she is going down a very different road, starting a new brand with the most bizarre name” (American Riviera Orchard). Smith made headlines in London papers recently when she compared Meghan to Wallis Simpson, the Duchess of Windsor, saying the two women (American divorcées who upset the royal apple cart) were both “very narcissistic, very controlling, very dominating.”
Smith said that the heroine of this grim period for the royals is Camilla, the former scorned woman. “She’s been unbelievable,” the royal biographer said. “One day she’s on the Isle of Man, the next day Northern Ireland, looking cheerful, taking good wishes to Charles. Someone in the crowd noted that men were difficult patients, and Camilla laughed and said she was doing the best she could.”
“Kate doesn’t need Harry and Meghan to console her” – good. Done. The Sussexes weren’t going to do that anyway. And it’s hilarious that “will the Sussexes be asked to come back to work” is met with an argument that Kate and William are simply too angry and childish to make peace with the Sussexes. It’s not actually about the good of the institution or the work of public service. It’s about Will and Kate’s four-year-long tantrum. As for the issue of whether the British media will try to investigate anything about Kate’s medical situation… no, they won’t. They’re stenographers to power, remember. Currently, the British media is just “reporting” whatever they’re handed by the palace.
Photos courtesy of Cover Images.