For three months, the mysterious disappearance of the Princess of Wales grew into a major international story and it brought out some pretty wild conspiracies. Up until March 22, the social media speculation and international interest were driving the story of Kate’s disappearance. Without social media and the international press, the British media would have happily carried water for a palace with zero credibility, a palace which arrogantly fed their domestic press lie after lie. Then Kate’s cancer video came out and suddenly all of the speculation and rumormongering came to a halt. For five weeks now, Kate has still been missing, but no one is even attempting to call the palace to account for their brazen lies or for their clownish behavior for months. It’s all been quiet, with a vague undercurrent of “so are we ever going to see Kate again or what.” Now that King Charles has announced his first public event (a visit to a cancer center on Tuesday), the Telegraph has a piece about how Charles’s good news will help “take some of the pressure off the Princess of Wales.” What pressure? No one has put any pressure on Kensington Palace in more than a month.
This latest update, that the King’s treatment is going well enough for him to return to public duties, will therefore be all the more welcomed with delight and relief by followers of the Royal family, who have missed the stars of the show. It will also have one additional happy side effect: taking some of the pressure off the Princess of Wales as she navigates her own recovery.
For the Princess, whose own absence caused such extraordinary public speculation earlier this year, there are hopes that the bolstered ranks of senior royals will buy her more of the peace and quiet she needs. While Buckingham Palace has issued a tentative road map for the King’s return to public duties, there are no such plans at Kensington Palace.
The Princess’s candid video, in which she shared the news she was having preventative chemotherapy and spoke movingly about her children, was issued only a month ago. Since then, she has been at home with her young family as they try to keep their lives as stable as they can.
In keeping with the family’s plea for privacy, there have been no hints as to when or how the Princess will make a return to the high profile public duties she has so excelled at since joining the Royal family. Now, with the return of the King, the Trooping the Colour balcony will feel a lot fuller; the opening of the Buckingham Palace garden party more regal.
That his headline-grabbing presence could act as a shield for questions about the Princess’s health and return would be a happy by-product for a father-in-law who has shared such an unexpected and unusual health journey with the woman the newspapers like to call the “daughter he never had”.
Since the Princess authorised the release of her personal video message on March 22, the public and elements of the press have examined their consciences and the frenzied speculation has dissolved. The Princess, as she wishes, has been left to the care of her doctors and loved ones in peace. But as the summer season approaches, so too do the events at which she would ordinarily be a fixture: Chelsea Flower Show, Wimbledon, Royal Ascot, Trooping the Colour and at least one palace garden party. Her absence will still be keenly felt.
The palace has said she will return to official duties only when she is cleared by doctors, and that advice still stands. She “may be keen to attend events as and when she feels able to”, her spokesman has said, but “any initial public events will not necessarily signal a return to a regular public schedule”. It is enough to give hope to her admirers that she may feel able to follow in the King’s public footsteps, even briefly, before too long.
So in lieu of actually putting pressure on Kensington Palace to answer some questions about Kate’s condition, a recovery timeline and even basic housekeeping about “when/where photos and videos were taken,” the Telegraph is just going full throttle with: thank God the king is doing better, we have something to write about because we can’t write about Kate, we’ve been boxed in. Meanwhile, this open-ended absence is growing more and more weird. Also weird: everything that came before the cancer video, and the palace’s very strange attempts to convince people that Kate was up and around in those weeks before the video. All of those “sightings” in cars and the Windsor Farm Store.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid, Cover Images.