Loss of control in the palace
How Kate’s illness is overwhelming the royals
The situation was made significantly worse by the clumsy attempt to allay concerns about Kate with a family photo of the princess and her children. photo
© Paul Grover/Press Association/dpa
The palace in London is struggling to communicate about Princess Kate, who is recovering from abdominal surgery. In times of social media and fake news, facts would probably be more important than ever.
Speculation and conspiracy theories are rampant. But a clear answer from the palace has so far been a long time coming. Kate does not want to reveal her diagnosis or details about her recovery process to the public and is expected to avoid public appearances until after the Easter holidays. And while many recognize the Princess of Wales’s right to privacy, there are significant doubts about whether this strategy is wise.
Conspiracy theorists suspect something scandalous
Even serious media outlets now pick up on every statement about Kate. When William made a casual remark about his wife while visiting a project he founded for the homeless on Tuesday, it became a lead story for major news portals. And this despite the fact that nothing was said about her health.
The BBC, meanwhile, dedicated an analysis on its news homepage to refuting the latest conspiracy theory on Tiktok and Twitter – which, of course, mainly revolve around crude claims that the palace has something scandalous to hide or that Kate is actually doing much worse than she thought. Not to mention the supposed conclusions that can be drawn from a missing wedding ring.
Sinking to the level of the Kardashians
Royal expert Tina Brown has already confirmed that the British royal family has sunk to the level of the US celebrity clan of the Kardashians in view of the debate that has gotten out of control. “I definitely think there’s a loss of stature that this has become because it all feels ridiculous and scandalous,” the British-American journalist and former Vanity Fair editor told LBC radio.
The journalist and author of several royals books, Rob Jobson, speaks of a “collapse of royal communication” that is damaging the reputation of the entire royal family, as he tells journalists in London. It was downright naive to believe that Kate could simply disappear from the scene for several months. Buckingham Palace has become much wiser after King Charles III’s cancer diagnosis. behaved by showing the 75-year-old reading well wishes. He suspects that the fact that press work for the royal couple and the heir to the throne is not in the same hands as before, but that William and Kate run their own press office in Kensington Palace, is possibly one of the reasons for the difficulties.
Photo affair soon became known as “Kategate”.
The situation was made significantly worse by the clumsy attempt to allay concerns about Kate with a family photo of the princess and her children: the image, released by Kensington Palace on Britain’s Mother’s Day, was withdrawn within hours by international news agencies. The reasoning was that it had been manipulated.
After initial hesitation, the palace published a post on the X platform (formerly Twitter) in which Kate herself commented on the photo affair, which quickly became known as “Kategate”. She had, “like many amateur photographers, occasionally experimented with image editing” and apologized for any confusion the image had caused. But the photo was not published in its original form.
Established press is viewed as unnecessary
The case fueled distrust in the palace’s communications and was grist to the conspiracy theorists’ mill. For Jobson, the episode is evidence of the failure of the royal press work – but also a consequence of the tendency for many institutions and celebrities in the social media age to believe that the established press is superfluous. More and more often, people are communicating directly with their subjects via Twitter, Instagram and YouTube in order to convey their own self-image to the public in an unfiltered manner. “It’s a lot easier because you don’t have to ask any questions,” Jobson says. But an institution that spends public money must put up with the legitimate questions of the free press.
When the tabloid “The Sun” published a cell phone video that supposedly showed Kate and William shopping in a farm shop near their home near Windsor Castle last weekend, that didn’t end the speculation. And that despite the fact that Kate was apparently fit and in a good mood strolling past parked cars with a white shopping bag. Jobson estimates that the shaky video cost the “Sun” tens of thousands of euros. Where this development will lead is uncertain. Meanwhile, the tabloid “Mirror” reported that an investigation had been launched at the private London clinic where Kate was treated: an employee allegedly tried to get Kate’s medical records.