The British press is barely mentioning the Princess of Wales at this point. The Daily Mail writes about Kate like she’s still up and around, and they’re doing “placeholder stories” about her fashion or jeans or hair or whatever. The other outlets have barely devoted any energy to her recovery or a possible timetable for when anyone might see her again. Then something curious started happening in the past week with the Times of London’s royal coverage. They started burying information about Kate in stories about King Charles. You’d think that if Roya Nikkhah or other Times reporters were being told by Kensington Palace that Kate will be out of view for most of the year, they would dedicate an article to it. Instead, this has the feel of “Kate’s never coming back” being soft-launched and simultaneously buried. How long can they get away with doing this before the international media really presses them to do their f–king jobs?
So, several days ago, in the Times’ coverage of King Charles’s visit to a cancer center, the paper noted this: “Kate is expected to be away from public duties for some time.” A one-off assumption, perhaps, lightly added as a comparison to how Charles and Kate are handling their cancer treatments? Then Roya Nikkhah buried this information in a larger story about King Charles’s schedule for the next two months:
While the King will be increasingly visible in the coming weeks and months, the Princess of Wales will not, as she continues with her course of preventative chemotherapy and recuperation at home in Windsor. William, who has prioritised caring for his wife and three young children, will increase his diary of public engagements over the next two months, before the Waleses break for their children’s summer school holidays in July and August.
On Wednesday, it is understood he has no plans to see his brother, and will instead be in Windsor to conduct an investiture. On Thursday and Friday, he will head to Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly.
Those close to William say that despite the strain of recent months, his “humour is always there” and “he’s been on good form”, more so since the speculative storm around Kate largely subsided after her public announcement in March that she was receiving cancer treatment. A source close to the Waleses says: “There is a huge sense of relief that the family have been given the privacy and peace they asked for. He continues to do his best to try to balance supporting his wife, family and father with his public duty as the Prince of Wales. But of course from the start of the year, the focus of his family has been at the forefront of his mind.”
A friend of William reflects on the weeks before Kate revealed she was undergoing cancer treatment, when William, still also processing his father’s illness, attended several public engagements while wild rumours and speculation whirled on social media about his wife. “I don’t know how he managed to keep doing all of that, knowing what he was going through, while the world was ridiculing and throwing sh-t at his wife while she was having chemotherapy. That speaks to his character, grit and determination to go out there and do the job that is expected of him. He has taken most of it on the chin and got on with it.”
That last paragraph is one of the most insane things I’ve ever read, especially given that we all witnessed what really happened. This is Kensington Palace trying to rewrite and reimagine history before our eyes. All of those weird-ass “sightings” of “Kate” trotting along at the Windsor Farm Store and being chauffeured around Windsor, all while Kensington Palace furiously lied to everyone about Kate’s condition AND blamed Kate for manipulating the Mother’s Day photo? And now all of that clownery is being rewritten as “William was so brave and gritty to weather the sh-tstorm of his own creation.” No one was throwing sh-t at his wife either – we were asking where the hell she was and why the palace was lying constantly and why everything was so f–king chaotic. And again, nothing of how Kate is actually doing. Nothing about her gritty bravery, nothing about how she’s just getting on with it. There’s something extremely unsettling happening here and I sincerely hope the international media continues to press this situation so that we can get some answers.
Photos courtesy of Kensington Palace.