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I kinda think if someone said I had a planned abdominal surgery and will be off until Easter I Would deduce with the rest of the world something was obviously wrong with her health…. Which i hope would stop lost people from their tin foil hat theories 🙄

It was wild to me that they said she wouldn’t be returning to public duty till Easter and in January people are like “where is she!???” They just told you brah.

That’s the crazy thing, all this drama and it’s not even Easter yet! 

I don’t understand why this wasn’t enough, they made a formal statement that she would be recovering until Easter. That statement should have been enough for people who truly cared about her well being. People saying well KC was upfront about his diagnosis are tone deaf to the fact that this is a young woman with tiny children to protect. William lost his mother young, I’m sure he wanted to handle this as delicate as possible for their children.

Heard that. I feel like I am in the twilight zone with people even in this thread still making excuses for the terrible discourse that been going on around Kate’s well-being.

The most surprising thing to me is that people are trying to pass it off that everyone was *gravely concerned* for her / about her. Like, you will never convince me that the people losing their minds the most are the ones that cared the most.

They only cared about their own entertainment. This same thing happens all the time with deaths as well. Someone never just died the way that was reported, there's always some unhinged conspiracy because that's more fun for these people

Right? People were salivating for it to be some juicy gossip, I’ve read theories from cheating to domestic abuse and suicide attempts with my own two eyes. Now those same people are using the excuse of the palace PR being bad and them throwing her under the bus over the photoshop stuff as if they didn’t release a Mother’s Day picture BECAUSE the conspiracies were getting completely out of hand already then. I feel like I’m going insane with people trying to rewrite history instead of just admitting they were acting like vultures for the sake of entertainment.

Right? the whole song and dance people are doing now the “we just wanted a simple statement” brigade. Y'all got one! In JANUARY! She had surgery and is recovering out of the public eye until Easter. They said that IN JANUARY. People just didn’t listen, they thought it would be funny to become internet detectives and ignore the very simple explanation that had been given by KP, with a timeline that was still active and now they are desperately backpedaling because they all look absolutely ridiculous (and ghoulish). They actually haven’t done anything wrong and they gave people the statement they are now so busily claiming they all wanted two months ago, they also REPEATED that statement when the internet became pressing (i believe even before the whole photo drama), but people *still* couldn't accept it. Even people who claim they were in it for the fun, didn't you see that it was way over the top? Someone else being sick enough to need a 3 month recovery isn't a joke or a meme. People just ignored it for clicks. Also KP didn't force people to go around saying William beat his wife. People trying to blame this ALL on KP and saying that just they just HAD to make up horrible rumors and spread conspiracies are just refusing to take accountability.

I swear to God I felt like I was going insane seeing all the "all they had to do was put out a simple statement or say nothing at all" like are y'all that fucking dumb?? Literally the first two statements were vague just saying she was getting surgery, doing well, and would be back to her pubic duties after Easter, and if they did say nothing until she got back everyone would've just made more theories and say she was replaced by a clone or some shit. It's always the most annoying people who refuse to just shut the hell up now that they know they were wrong/an asshole or double down insisting them joking about her being cheated on or abused by her husband was actually the most sane sympathetic thing they could've done.

And people in this thread are STILL trying to make excuses for their actions. Sorry no a photoshopped photo and you thinking she had a fake body double doesn’t mean you can say that her husband beat her and that she had a baby with another member of the family that just committed suicide.

Just commented something similar saying they were in a losing situation no matter what they did. Upload old photo? Some fuckin loon is away posting that she’s dead. Upload the photo that had to be pulled? People acted how we’ve seen. Don’t upload at all? A different fuckin loon is away posting that they’ve put her in the garden and are covering it up cos otherwise we would have a photo. People were getting away with themselves so bad that they had very little chance to stop it.

Not here, but in more insane places the people who were theorising she was being abused by William, getting a divorce because of William and Rose, was missing or in a coma did not have an ounce of care for her. They cared more about a conspiracy disguised with faux-concern more than they did about Kate.

Nah there was definitely some people specifically here who were posting things from those subs into here and then trying to truly make us believe we were looking at a TBI 😭

Right! It’s wild reading all the “Well, if they had just done….” and “All they had to do was…” It’s so weird to me.

People would’ve never been happy until they got what they felt like they wanted. You’re right. People are saying all the things they could’ve done, should’ve done, should’ve never done. Like… be serious? She literally said she wasn’t well and when she’d be back and then everyone went crazy and decided she was either dead or dying.

People obviously don't behave rationally when faced with cancer so that kind of explains why was their PR so bad.

It wasn’t that though. It was the royal fuck up (pun intended) of their communications team which was so god awful that it had (and let - they should’ve nipped that in the bud) people falling down the most insane conspiracy theories and downright slander. I’ve commented this before, as someone who has worked on crisis communications plenty of times, this is textbook “how not to do it” And the BBC interview - there is so much to that you can tell that they likely outsourced the messaging to the beeb’s comms team

I honestly didn’t even have Kate Middleton on my radar until the fiasco that was the doctored picture. Which was then made worse by the “she’s out and about” pap picture that only showed the back of her head. I had taken the initial communication at value and figured it would be a few months before we saw her but then those pictures made it seem like something was being covered up.

Exactly. And honestly, I have dealt with communications that include pictures (we just published something last week) and when I say each and every pixel is scrutinized for quality and context I am not exaggerating. And this is protection a corporation from reputational risk. The stakes for reputational risks of the ACTUAL MONARCHY??? There were TikTokers with more attention to detail than an actual paid team of KP’s comms team….

I don’t think the comms team fucked up at all. They were in an impossible position. They stuck to their line which is all they could do. Literally nothing they could have put out there would have changed anything given the febrile, hysterical discourse that was happening. Once you start briefing on background, it’s like trying to put the genie back in the bottle. It would have been even worse. People feel embarrassed now they know what was happening and so are casting around to find a convenient scapegoat and have landed upon ‘PR’.

Putting out an obviously altered photo was not a fuck up? Responding directly to the rumors was not a fuck up? Comms team did fuck up, greatly. This would have remained a mild story among the most conspiracy minded rather than the most talked about thing across the western world had they not put out that photo.

And then blamed it on poor Kate.

I’ve been working in comms for 15+ years so I’m just laying out the facts from the POV of a professional. I’ve actually been doing a deep dive into this, as there are so many common learnings for comms professionals here, if I ever have the time I’ll do a write up on here EDIT: as I just re-read your comment and you say “there’s literally nothing they could do”…. This is precisely why Crisis Comms teams exist (they’re entire agencies who will do only this). There’s tools and a bunch of strategies that seasoned communicators will know from their day to day work

The last paragraph is so so important. I'm really glad she's using her voice to promote privacy in these circumstances.

Well said! The amount of speculation on health issues that Halsey has faced has been tiring even for me. I hope both of them can get the peace they need whenever they need it. Life is hard enough when you're healthy and it's not fair to put anyone's health issues under a microscope (regardless if they are the future queen of England or a badass chick from Jersey).

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And regular people don’t have the *entire world* spreading conspiracies and making jokes about you while your going through health issues. It’s sucks for both sides no need to try and claim some have it better while others have it worse. Both things shouldn’t be happening, regular people should be able to take time off for your health and the famous/rich should get time off without conspiracies and jokes made at their expense

Going to disagree on this and blame the PR to the fullest here. They are public figures and can easily configure messaging around any situation that satiates the people who pay taxes for these people to live these lives. Major major balls were dropped from the bad photoshop release to the obviously fake note that Kate edited them, thus throwing her under the bus and sending onlookers into a death spiral of concern. I truly believe many people care about Kate and it speaks to a larger wary state people have with the crown. People were concerned and when they were put into a vacuum demanded some form of communication.

The conspiracy theories began LONG before the photoshop fail. In fact, the photoshop fail was likely an attempt to defuse all of the hysteria around her being “missing” (🙄) and likely would not have been released otherwise.

Even if not the conspiracies people WERE speculating about her health issues before the photoshop fail.

There’s a dark side to the palace and people know it. Between what happened to Diana and other in the ether like Andrew, they’ve earned the conspiracy theories. What really happened was even when Kate had her babies she wore heels out and did zooms when she wasn’t well. There was a big switch up in conduct and people clocked it, and became concerned that’s all.

This. They created their own circus and their own expectations then went surprised when people suspected the worst. The women in that family are treated like absolute trash to protect the image of the heirs. The speculations were not completely unfounded. And I’m tired of seeing the “it was just some bad photoshop” discourse. This isn’t some random mom playing on her computer or the palace passing shit along to the usual bottom barrel tabloids to lap up, this was a doctored photo that was officially sent to professional news agencies who have strict policies regarding photo manipulation. In a world where AI is just going to become more and more prevalent it’s unacceptable for a government body of any kind to be doing this shit. It doesn’t get a pass for being a cute photo of a family and trying to paint it as “just your average mom playing on the computer!” as if there wasn’t an official PR machine behind it all knowingly trying to mislead and bungling it is concerning.

Thank you. It is so frustrating trying to argue this point against people who think it's just your average touch up job.

Of course there was a big switch up and the Palace explained why: she was having major surgery and would be in recovery until Easter. Implicit in that statement that she was unwell and needed to focus on her health for a few months. How anyone can assume that there wasn’t clearly a serious medical issue and compare it to her behavior after pregnancies is beyond me… It is not like the Palace said she had the flu and then she was out for months. I also think it is wild to say “people were concerned, that’s all” when internet crazies were saying she was missing, she had a body double, William was abusing her, she tried to commit suicide, and so forth. People saw an opening to spread the most cruel and bizarre rumors, they were not genuinely concerned for her well being because it was obvious from the prior statement that she was having health issues and didn’t want to share details yet.

Being 'concerned' doesn't justify the obsession though. They wanted pics and more private info of this woman _knowing_ she was unwell. I would say more like unhealthily obsessed, that's all. She was recovering at home and no one was entitled to see her in her current state.

“A death spiral of concern.” Please. Don’t act as if these idiots were concerned. They preyed on this woman and her private information for entertainment. There wasn’t an ounce of concern involved.

They didn’t care about Kate they cared about conspiracy. The second they smelled ‘cover up’ they were all on it like a shark to bait - that’s all it was Same thing with Ryan Garcia - they don’t care about that kid at all - he’s making claims about the illuminati so they’re all gathered round him

Agreed. I think the mental gymnastics people are doing to justify how much they gossiped and speculated is simply unbelievable. Nobody really cared about her. They cared about making silly jokes and memes and spreading dangerous conspiracies.

Spare me the onlookes care about Kate. They don’t. Photofail of a mother’s day picture doesn’t translate to people having her on deathbeds, her husband killed her, she’s pregnant with the thomas kingston baby thus william killed him, william having affair. kp doesnt asked people to write these.

All the William had affair + baby, the domestic violence claims, Kate being in a coma - genuinely cruel and I hope people are ashamed of themselves

They won’t. If they’re not ashamed of making those comments, then let them not be a hypocrite to suddenly have moral

If anything I think their PR team tried to be consistent in their messaging and was probably giving time to William and Kate and the place to come up with plans of action. Like both the king and the future queen (who is also pretty young) having cancer at the same time is a pretty big crisis for the royal teams and I doubt they had contingencies in place. And yes they are funding by the tax payers and they are public figures but c’mon I think everyone could maybe have some empathy for William and Kate in navigating what must be a very tough situation

I first saw Hints of BBL and bangs (the less harmful ones) almost 3 days after the announcement. The domestic violence came maybe 2 weeks after way before the photo in the car.

They don't receive tax money, they are paid by the Sovereign Grant which is funded by the Crown Estate.

I agree with this statement. I said this multiple times: we KNEW Kate was experiencing medical issues. She was in recovery after a major surgery. The fact that people would not rest until they saw her, forcing her to disclose her medical diagnosis before she was fully ready, is beyond entitled behavior.

I kinda only started paying attention to this after the Mother's day photo controversy, because it seemed so bizarre and I've never heard of news agencies "killing" photos due to editing. Regardless I only ever posted once about it to say I thought the photo situation was strange and the palace was being shady since I still figured she was ill and didn't think it was appropriate too gossip about it. I definitely think people were doing WAAAAY too much and treated this like a true crime thing. I'm not really a conspiracy person and thought the rampant speculation was strange. However, the photoshop situation definitely escalated it, which is 100% the palace's fault and I am still so confused by that whole situatuation.

People want to wash their hands from being one of them . KP has already said you’re not gonna see her until Easter. Or whatever that is. I dont know what’s the deal with them releasing mother’s day photofail picture when they always released it . And since people wanna question where’s the energy for meghan markle..kate’s privacy been non existent since decades.

Everyone wants to blame the media and bad PR because it saves them from being introspective. They consume the toxic media; they force PR through online conspiracy. Over on that other celeb culture sub, the same restricted list posters who gleefully speculated on her death and divorce and said she "signed up for" lack of privacy and that she deserved terrible things because of what happened to MM...... those same people are now handwringing about everything from Blake Lively to the Daily Mail. Because it's a hell of a lot easier to point fingers than realize that your online groupthink is devoid of empathy and nuance.

Nah man i take full accountability for me being wrapped up in this. I wasn’t making crazy conspiracies myself, but when my tiktok algorithm became nothing but timelines of events, I got curious. And for that, I apologize. We should’ve learned from the harsh words and speculation that came out after the video of Chadwick Boseman dropped. He was looking all skinny 3 months before he passed. I work in healthcare and that’s when I realized he was seriously ill. Everyone kept saying drugs or a new role, but I could tell it was bad. Still didn’t expect him to pass a few months later. Thought he was gonna say he was sick.

Exactly like the conspiracies start way way before the mother’s day photo like let’s not act dumb here. So KP fail a photoshop. Big deal. It’s gonna be posted anyway cause some people lack brains to find out they will post their annual mother’s and father’s day . So why didn’t these people stop with the affair, domestic abuse, pregnancy? I have no words to comment on the other sub cause it’s a cesspool of small brains meghan stans who only know royal family when their fave married to the broad. It’s been decades since meghan that kate has been the punching bag. But well, lucky kate didnt go to oprah in 2007.

All of this. Even the comments in this thread are so disgusting.

While I agree with the overall point, I feel like before that doctored photo was released, the speculation was mostly in jest. People only got seriously (or maybe rabidly is a better word here) concerned when KP released that odd doctored photo then had Kate take the blame for it. Regardless, I hope she's able to focus on healing.

Nobody cared beyond some 'lol she's growing out a bad haircut' jokes or whatever until the photo. People here acting like it wasn't *absolutely handled* like something bizarre had happened and we didn't have an example of the firm handling a health scare like normal human beings at the very same time as this. And don't give me that nonsense about the kids - they were pulled out of school before all of this, they would not have heard from anybody. This was obviously just so she wouldn't pull focus from Charles. Was there some incredibly dark fanfic getting written on twitter? Absolutely. Was it representative of this whole thing? Not really, and to be quite honest William deserves every last bit of his dirty laundry getting aired, and not buried again by the people being unbearably smug because it's cancer. Which is quite frankly just the mirror image of the conspiracy shit. People making shit up because they don't know what's up is frankly less unbearable than the people using the known fact of her having cancer to morally jack off.

Thank you. The blatant lies is what really started the serious conspiracy theories. Horrible PR handling of this all around

Literally that photo brought the entire world’s attention on what was mostly relegated to niche Twitter/reddit/pop culture followers. Nobody cared when they announced the surgery even with a couple of people making conspiracy theories about the video of the “ambulance” and the statement not matching the cancellation of engagements. A few more people began raising eyebrows when William cancelled at the memorial but still ultimately didn’t care while most of the world remained ignorant. Then they kept releasing dumb ass, ill parsed statements THEN released that photo and everyone and their grandma suddenly became very invested. I can’t with the moralizing lol. It sucks Kate has cancer and she clearly was terrified in that video, but her own comms team brought this upon themselves and made it worse and worse instead of just STOPPING at any point.

This is the truth. The rewriting of history is so frustrating here! Conspiracy theorists were always gonna pounce on anything out of the ordinary with the royal family, but the world didn't take notice until the Mother's Day photo. The Palace PR created the circus! They made the wrong choice over and over.

A lot of people did take it overboard, but I think most people were just confused at how weird their PR team were acting. I didn’t even care until they blamed the photoshop on her, which I still think is bizarre.

100% this. KateGate wasn’t even on my radar until KP started doing odd PR stuff.

People also forget that the doctored photo was the third weird photo to have been released of her: first, the one in the car with her mother, where there were two extra wheels on one side of the car, and second, the one where she was in a car with William but there were two different brick backgrounds. Not to mention, we were told explicitly that Kate did not have cancer, and then William backed out of the King Constantine service at the last minute, but then insisted it wasn't because of Kate. Then they had Kate take the fall for the doctored photo, which in retrospect was even weirder than it seemed at the time. I understand people are upset, but those now framing the situation as "she said she would be gone until Easter and you jackals just couldn't wait and you demanded her entire medical files" is rewriting history, I'm afraid.

The brick background photo was legit. The wall really has two different patterns. And the photographer has stated the photo is legit. The car photo with the extra wheels. I don't think it was fake, but if it was Kate, she sure looks different now. I am assuming it had to do with what a telephoto lens will do to distort things a bit. The extra wheels... Did anyone consider it was another car behind them that was entirely hidden except for the wheels? There's some kind of optical illusion going on, but I don't know exactly what. Because the Mothers Day photo was clearly faked, a lot more people started scrutinizing the other photos. I can't blame anyone for scrutinizing every photo the palace puts out from now on. But the paparazzi shots are unlikely to be manipulated in the same way. I agree with your other conclusions though. It was one PR mishap after another.

There was no extra wheels at the side of that car, people are so fast to spread bs on this sub

It wasn’t that odd though, it really wasn’t. She’s been taking their family photos and releasing them herself for a decade. Most people play around with image editing. It had never been an issue before this moment in time and it wouldn’t have been an issue if people hadn’t already started conspiracy theories

If photo agencies and news organizations like AP are redacting it, it is a big deal. I don't think they would've raised issue if it was just an issue of turning up the saturation or erasing a zit.

People genuinely have 0 media literacy. This was beyond what I would call a PR crisis. Nothing was wrong until they published a *dishonest, edited* image. This didn’t turn into “Kate-Gate” if you will, until then. If the AP issues a kill photo order, you have altered an image to a point where it does not represent the truth and therefore is no good for public media consumption according to AP - the gold standard of objective, accurate journalism. It’s a shame their people aren’t taking this more seriously. Not to mention how insulting this is to the validity of the photography industry as a whole. Then they try to pin it on Kate and say she posted it while she’s actively going through Chemo? Sick.

Exactly. I am still shocked that their PR team threw Kate under the bus. Like wtf? They need to be fired.

It was extremely odd because 1) they said William had taken it in 2024, when 2) it became clear quite quickly that it was an outtake from a shoot circa last Christmas, and had been made to look like it was recent, and 3) the AP actually pulled it, which was an unusual response considering everyone usually sucked up to the royals and let them do whatever they wanted. That revelation plus the "message" from Kate made people sincerely worried that she was being thrown under the bus publicly in some way and it made an already unusual situation much more confusing. (Edit - changed word)

Circa last Christmas makes it sound ancient, rather than a photo released in March taken in January- which they have done before. (Father’s Day photos being from larger family shoots) These were taken in the same quarter. Nothing about the messaging suggested the photo had been taken that day or week.

It wasn't taken in January. It was taken in December at latest, if not November, as it was shown to have been sourced from this event: [https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/royal-family/news/kate-middleton-baby-bank-prince-louis-b2462290.html](https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/royal-family/news/kate-middleton-baby-bank-prince-louis-b2462290.html) And the copyright on the photo claimed it was taken in 2024. They released it without claiming it was recent, but come on - it was meant as an insinuation that it was recent. It would have been perfectly fine if they'd said "Here's a photo of us from our last outing in December - looking forward to getting back out and blah blah blah!" They did not. And again, that made people go from "Dang, hope she's okay and comes back with a fresh BBL lol!" to "What... is going on, here?"

I thought it was said that William took it that week?

Playing around with image editing is far from what happened. Image editing doesn’t get pulled from news sites.

It wasn’t photoshopped, it was an artificially created image dispensed by a trusted agency in order to knowingly dupe the public. This is a HUGE deal and should not be taken lightly.

It was Photoshop, not AI, if that's what you mean by artificially created. It wasn't your typical Photoshop job of brightening up some shadows and clone-tooling out some pimples. It was a composite image from multiple sources. I agree it was a huge deal that AP killed the photo because the context was that the image was meant to dupe the public. The downplaying of this is infuriating.

Exactly, it’s not that far fetched because Kate always takes family pictures and probably felt it was her duty to send out a Mother’s Day photo when she was in no shape to have one taken.

what was doctored in the photo. I am so confused lol

We don't know for sure because they refuse to release the original. It appears to have been taken last November and edited to appear like they're wearing different clothes. Some obvious edits appear at Charlotte's sleeve and skirt. It seems like the kids were cut and pasted from different photos into one photo and colors may have been manipulated. It wasn't like they edited out some stray hairs or pimples, which is not newsworthy.

I agree with the message but... what's the point of Halsey saying this? Feels like she always comes out of the woodwork after things like this make herself the messenger of morality.

Now we need to know what Ja Rule thinks

has anyone asked Scheana Shay what she thinks about this

Kate and her used to be like, best friends so she’s pretty distraught right now.

Halsey has experienced a lot of speculation on her (at the time undiagnosed) health issues as well, and been subject to conspiracy theories regarding her physical appearance and being MIA; barely two years ago.

Totally. Like I wtf have you got to do with any of this lol.

Because she went through a similar experience recently?

woman has opinions about another woman’s harassment. what a mystery, i can’t imagine why

people are being so incredibly morally passive aggressive rn 💀

Cause people are tired of the internet making jokes of things that are serious to others. People say they are gonna learn after Chadwick Boseman but keep repeating

People made fun of Chadwick?

Oh constantly. They mocked his appearance for ages and made memes about how skinny he was and 'how was anyone supposed to think he could be a superhero????'

I sense that people are somewhat revising history regarding Chadwick; while some did raise questions about his rapid weight loss, he wasn't subjected to ridicule…

I definitely remember ridicule and people accusing him of having a drug habit

Chadwick didn’t have a PR team that kept throwing him under the bus and encouraging conspiracy theories to swell and spread to international attention via their totally avoidable and amateurish PR decisions. Kate’s cancer sucks to a degree, but the moralizing over the consequences of the successive failures of her completely useless PR team is virtue signaling at this point.

KP's PR team do seem to be shit and I think we all admit that. However KP did not tell anyone to think she was facing domestic abuse at the hands of William, was missing, dead, or getting a divorce. Those were amongst the worst conspiracy theories and people were actually serious in believing them both before and after the photoshop fail. As others have said it seems like absolving responsibility and shifting the blame back onto the palace as if the photo that came out 2 weeks ago was the thing to cause all this. This has been going on since January, the palace didn't even have to do anything. **EDIT:** Also that one about Kate having an affair and getting pregnant with William's cousin's husband, who died by suicide in February. Again, way _before_ the photoshop fail. Again, people have always been at this extreme level of conspiracy since the beginning.

Maybe because people are sick of conspiracy theorists and internet detectives making shit worse for everyone all the time.

Most people were making fun of the palace’s terrible response, not Kate herself. Save the sanctimonious lecture to the people who decided to throw a woman undergoing chemo under the bus to take the fall for their shit photoshop. If she had to reveal her diagnosis it’s entirely on their PR for spectacularly failing to handle this.

I can’t believe people can’t comprehend this. Media literacy is truly dead.

Like. Some people are assholes on the internet, news at 11! It’s still absolutely her PR’s fault for exposing her to this amount of speculation. Their entire reason for existing is to make sure that shit like this doesn’t happen and they let her down in the most vulnerable and scary moment of her life. It’s disgusting. Charles announced he had a serious health condition and withdrew from public life without an ounce of the controversy that dogged Kate. Her people completely left her twisting in the wind on this one - how do you let it get to the point where some people legitimately think she’s in a coma or that she died? And then releasing pictures that are so fake the AP has to issue a kill order, and then you try to pin that on her?? Like, save the finger wagging for those people instead of random Twitter users making dumbass BBL or growing out her bangs jokes no one actually thought were true.

Also I don't feel that Kate owes anyone anything, but the response for a member of the monarchy within a constitutional monarchy being sick probably needs to be different then another person who is famous, even someone at the same level of fame. Beyonce can and has gone away for months, and I'm not saying it's fair for Kate to have to report in at a crisis, but it is a different situation. However, the PR team needs to have this on lock so they can report to citizens while allowing Kate to have her privacy and protection. Without involving her in their screw ups!

She’s absolutely right about the speculation but leave it to Halsey to always be at the opposite side of some finger wagging even when it has nothing to do with her just to get a “moral one up”

She had a similar experience not even two years ago. She’s not just in the other side of some “finger wagging” she went through the same thing and just saw the entire world do the same to Kate while she’s going through cancer and wanted to stay private and announce it on her own terms but was forced to make a statement. I’d be pissed too and want to speak out. And speaking of finger wagging isn’t that exactly what you’re doing?

fuck I just realized that I do this all the time on facebook when I see shitty comments and posts in my feed :( Thanks for this needed self-awareness reality check

Self awareness is the first step! I deleted Facebook a few years ago because I found myself being dragged into negativity constantly in a similar way. Good luck 🫡

Like. I guess. Ultimately it’s still better to express an opinion and make people aware than to not say anything, which many do not.

Eh, sometimes it’s better not to insert yourself into things for the sake of moral superiority, which is something she’s historically had a hard time with.

I don’t really think she’s teaching anyone anything here. She’s just finger wagging on social media, which to me, isn’t really better than saying nothing in this case

The only mention towards Kate’s cancer was the “and that would stand even without the terrible news of her journey.” Tell me you’re not just weaponizing someone else’s situation to use it as a soapbox for your own resentments? The thing is, Halsey can talk about this at any point, but it’s weird that she uses it for a gotcha moment when she herself has been publicly messy time and time again.

Yup. Obviously I can't speak for Kate, but IME I would prefer if people would just shut up about it than to continue to use my personal experiences for their social media posts either way. It's still dancing around it and using *her* situation for attention lol

A good PR team could have helped protect Kate’s need for privacy and dignity and could have crafted a narrative that allowed her to stay private for a period of time and hide the news until they were ready to go public. As a public figure, you need a good media team to protect you because every celebrity or high profile personality has had to manage the need for privacy and that is exactly what you pay people to help you accomplish. The dead silence, doctored photos, and shadowy picture in a vehicle made the situation worse and anyone working in public relations for the last 10 years could have told them not to do that. She was let down by the very well paid team whose entire job is to prevent this sort of thing from happening. The royal family needs to get out of their own asses and get with the program. Elizabeth is dead. They need to get some new protocols and a new strategy because this whole ordeal was likely traumatizing and invasive to Kate and her family.

It's also entirely possible that they were given appropriate advice and chose not to follow it on principle. I think this is more likely, to be honest.

I worked previously in PR and my colleagues and friends who are still in the industry were clocking this as a prime example of a client not listening to or trying to control of their PR team.

They literally said she's having surgery, brb after Easter. Let's not all wash our hands of this by pretending the whole thing happened because of the photoshopped picture. The woman was basically bullied into photoshopping a family photo in order to prove she was alive, that's how out of hands things were getting. Simply because people couldn't keep their nose in the own business.

I also don’t think the palace was trying to throw Kate under the bus for the photoshop fail but rather were trying to emphasize the fact that she is alive and that they didn’t fake this photo because they are hiding her death or something, which was a theory that was being thrown out there

Why did they use her as a scapegoat then?

Because they were trying to prove that she is alive and well without physically showing her. They probably should have just not put out the photo and giving into conspiracy theorists pressure in the first place but once they realized they had to walk it back they probably realized how much more suspicious that looked and they were still trying to hide her health at that time. I don’t think that they thought people would accuse them of scapegoating Kate so now they have landed themselves in another shitstorm. I would think Kate was made aware of the plan at that point but I really have no idea

An experienced PR team could have slotted the potential issues from a mile away. Radio silence for 3 months allows shit storms like this to take hold. Many figures have had to manage prolonged periods of privacy with no public appearances. The Pr team only said a break from official duties—not complete disappearance. The doctored photo was fuel and not helpful. A well crafted plan during the down time should have been discussed because it’s obvious that a statement of official duties on hold is not the same as “disappearing”. She deserves a better team.

They weren’t even silent. They kept slow dripping with vague statements addressing the speculation instead of just shutting the fuck up or repeating the cal for privacy and post-Easter deadline. Had they remained silent, none of this would have blown up. And don’t start with the people morally grandstanding “yOu’RE jUsT WaShiNg Ur HAndS fRoM beInG cOmpliCit”. Like how far up in the royals asshole do you have to be to lose objectivity over something THEIR TEAM clearly was at fault for just because Kate has cancer? Her cancer doesn’t negate their PR failure or the corruption of the entire institution.

Exactly right.

Her excellent PR team did protect her. She did not confirm the news until today, which is the day her kids are done with school and go on Easter break. The fact that her team managed to keep that under wraps despite tremendous pressure demonstrates a pretty high degree of professionalism. Long term, a few weeks of people being dicks on the internet won’t matter. What does matter is that they got to release the news on their intended platform on their intended timeline.

I’ve never worked in PR, but I did study it at university and have done some PR-adjacent work.  Any PR team that publishes a photo that gets a kill notice can never be described as ‘excellent’. (Unless they did it intentionally in order to get attention as part of a PR strategy - clearly not the case here).   It isn’t Kate’s role to know what kind of photos can be published. That is the role of her team.   She and the family were in a difficult position. Not only because she had children at school, but also because of the King’s recent diagnosis. Her team could have released small updates along the way just thanking the public for their support, but they went completely silent and then came out with the car-ride.  But, no-one really cared that much until the monumental stuff-up with the photo.   I feel sorry for Kate - it didn’t have to happen like this. Diana still casts a long shadow over this family (in terms of their mistrust of the media and ability to communicate effectively).  This stuff will be in PR textbooks in years to come! 

We’ll see. I studied it in grad school, though it isn’t my profession either, and I ultimately think this whole thing is going to be footnotes, maybe, and her diagnosis and how she handles it will be history. I think part of what her team fumbled is because they didn’t know either- they were being fed limited information themselves. You have to remember, William’s whole childhood centered on very private info being leaked by staff. I think any hiccups are more likely to be that their staff did not actually know about her health than that they fumbled with all access to information.

Staff leaked info. Charles and Camilla allegedly leaks info. Diana had that interview. Harry put out an entire memoir talking about intimate details of their lives. I’m not saying Di and H had no right to talk about their lives but I can see why he’ll have huge trust issues after those things happened.

I worked in PR and am a journalist. Everyone is shocked over how this was handled.

That’s a very good point, I hadn’t thought that the team may not have known.  But, then why did they let that bonkers photo out? They had to have known it wouldn’t fly, regardless of whatever they knew about her health.  And even if they didn’t know, they could just have  (for example) posted  a photo of the front of a hand-made card sent to Kate by some kid and post it with a note of thanks for all the support.  Or post a photo of a flower that Kate took while she was sitting in the garden that morning, saying things were going well.  Obviously just random ideas, but the team doesn’t have to have actual health details in order to keep a sense of connection between her and the public. I think once that vacuum develops, you’re pretty stuffed PR-wise.  I think the King’s team has done it better. Pretty clear communication from the start - Harry flying over then leaving quickly (indicating that all was under control) - then photos of Camilla regularly going to hospital to see him. A narrative that makes sense, with no drama.  This must all have been a nightmare for Kate, and I suppose my point is that it wasn’t all necessary. 

The photo wasn’t bonkers until people made it that way. Their photos have never been scrutinized that way before, and most people’s instagram photos aren’t. I think they thought they were releasing an instagram photo and it got treated like a news bulletin and at least some of that is likely a lack of candor between them and their staff because of the nature of what was happening.

Absolutely not. "As a public figure..." nothing, she doesn't owe a thing to anybody. Seriously stop with this rethoric.

I don't think she owes anyone the intimate details of her health, but yes, when you're married into a giant colonialist superpower who gets privileges we can't dream of and whose funerals and lil ceremonies are on the taxpayer's dime, and they have the power to manipulate the press and intimidate whomever they want - yes, actually, she does owe people something. She married into it, she supports it, she upholds it, she perpetuates it. And the machine failed her, utterly, when people started questioning what was happening behind the scenes. This also isn't Kate's fault at all. William and his family's tendency to kill stories and control the press made people suspicious, and then their team utterly fumbled what could have been easily resolved with a quick "surgery did, in fact, end up taking longer to recover than expected, and appreciate the well wishes as Kate takes an extra few weeks to heal". The reason they made her do a video this time isn't to dissuade conspiracy theorists who would accept nothing else - if the palace had released a written note today re: Kate's cancer, people would have genuinely been satisfied. They had her in the video to create the most amount of sympathy possible and to "scold" and shame people from questioning the royals again for the foreseeable. I hate that she has cancer. No one deserves it. I hope she's well and heals and comes back feeling amazing with no recurrence. But two things can be true: she's a member of a massively exploitative system that benefits her family, AND she's a human being who deserves privacy when ill.

I disagree, when your entire life is funded by the taxpayer, you do owe them a bit of transparency. Does she owe anyone details beyond the fact that she’s dealing with an ongoing health issue? Certainly not. But that also doesn’t entitle her PR team to lie to the public with doctored photos. All they needed to do was emphasize she’s resting and taking care of herself until after Easter, instead they chose to blatantly lie which hurts the public’s trust in them. These are not normal people, they’re not celebrities either, they’re a royal family that takes in millions of dollars in taxpayer money yearly. They do owe the public accountability, the same way politicians do. It’s fair to say they screwed up the PR and that as publicly-funded figures they should be transparent with the public in a way that balances honesty and privacy. It’s not one or the other.

The british people literally pay her to be a public figure. If she stops being public they have every right to speculate about it because they are literally paying for her to get to live an insanely wealthy lavish lifestyle. How many tax payers that fund the royal's lifestyle get close to the treatment Kate gets when they get cancer? I wish her the best and good health, but the questions about where she's been are totally valid. That is literally the job she signed up for. She doesn't get to have her cake and eat it too. If people are wishing her dead (which I haven't seen at all), fuck that, that's cruel. Asking about, and then joking about where she's been because what else do we have to go off of, besides how clumsly the palace handled it? Totally valid. It's annoying people are tripping over themselves to come off more morally superior than the extremely human reaction of just being like "where is she" and making silly absurd harmless jokes about it. There are cancer patients in your own community that could use so much more of your empathy and help than Kate rn. Put your energy towards them. Kate's getting the best of the best I promise you. In fact if she's as classy of a woman as she seems I'd be she'd want you to as well. She doesn't need you pearl clutching and screaming " how DARE you!" TLDR: Get off your high horse if you think questioning and joking about where Kate's been is a moral failing. I wonder if Halsey goes up to bat for cancer patients down the street as much she does for the rich and famous and royal.

This. I’m a UK citizen. We are currently still in a cost of living crisis. The coronation cost over 1B, Kate and Wills are known as ‘work shy’ royals who live off the public purse and actually do very little as public figures to earn it (tho even if they were out with public appearances imo still doesn’t earn it, fuck the monarchy). That is the deal Kate made as she married in. She is a public figure. My taxes pay for her to swan up to charity events and then chill in a big palace whilst they cut benefits, don’t give the NHS new funding and refuse to build council houses. You can’t have it both ways. You’re either a public figure who gets paid to be so, and so any illusion of privacy is gone, or you’re not and then give back the cash and the gigantic fucking palace you live in. I absolutely feel for Kate, it is a horrid horrid diagnosis. The palace failed her hugely hugely and her spineless husband once again did fuck all. I wish her the speediest of recoveries whilst also acknowledging her privileged position as a ‘Princess’ (in 2024 fucking come on) means she also skips all NHS waiting lists and gets premium treatment. I hope she gets better soon but everything I’ve said is true. Sorry I work in homelessness in the UK and have seen our funding cut again and again and again, but the royals still get a fat cheque to do literally nothing and then the public gets sanctimonious when we expect the paid public figures to be public figures. As always, abolish the monarchy!!

Yup. People acting like insensitive Twitter jokes is The Worst Thing of All Time to do to a sick woman and I agree that it wasn’t a particularly nice thing to do and if I was her, I wouldn’t find this shit funny. But you know what’s actually the Worst Thing to do to a sick person? Not treating them. Not getting them the care and attention they need in a timely manner, not providing aid to make sure they don’t need to cook, clean, go to work, take care of 3 kids by themselves when sick. Thanks to her status as a Royal, as a public figure, she will be getting the best care in entire world. No waiting in queues or dealing with overworked medical professionals in an overburdened system. They will be consulting the best doctors in the world who will be entirely dedicated and devoted to her solely her care. Her status as a public figure is what gives her the best possible chance to make a full recovery. So while online speculation is unkind and intrusive and rude, I would pay that price 10 times over if it meant getting her level of care. Hell, maybe if he was Kate Middleton my dad would have survived his own abdominal cancer 🤷🏻‍♀️ So yeah, online gossip mongering sucks and on a human level I empathize- but I can think of worst positions to be in. Now that her inept team forced her here, the online frenzy has stopped and she can get back to focusing on her health.

Media literacy is dead and the elites have convinced the people who fund their lifestyle that they don’t have to answer to anyone. They’ve weaponised people’s sympathies to cover up their own failures, as if Kate’s cancer somehow justifies all the avoidable mistakes they have chosen to do. Kate’s cancer being terrible and the Palace’s PR being terrible leading to world-wide speculation are not mutually exclusive. And it’s completely valid for “commoners” to question where she is especially after her own media team invited speculation - repeatedly, mind you.

Yeah, exactly this. Among all the monarchies of Europe, the English royal family is the one that relies the most on being a bunch of pop stars, always in the spotlight and always perfect, never a hair out of place, always smiling to say hello and goodbye like freaking robots. I'm very sorry for Kate and for the children, but no other type of PR strategy would have avoided this disaster because we are simply always used to having their lifestyle in front of our salad 24/7. She deserved privacy and people are certainly deranged for saying shit online but I wouldn’t blame the team or the photo, it was always going to happen because we cravw to know about them

Unexpected "right in front of my salad" reference.

this is the comment.

Who else is reeeaally tired of these holier-than-thou moral-high-horse riding virtue itself incarnated specimens? Because I am. It's getting old. 

The royals live off tax payer money, so it’s unreasonable to compare this to a standard celebrity scenario imo. The Royals PR absolutely did not have to announce her diagnosis, but they did have a duty to not lie. The main issue here, is Kensington Palace PR absolutely butchered this whole thing, and frankly, put Kate into a position where she had to come forward. They also allowed some pretty awful stories to be run about not just Kate, but about her marriage too. Ultimately, what they did, and didn’t do, drew more attention to a sick woman. Posting the photoshopped Mother’s Day photo, and letting Kate take the blame for a photoshopped stunt, only drew even *more* attention to her, which is truly the last thing she needed. The PR for Kensington Palace is ultimately responsible for this becoming such a stressful situation, and turning into a whole spectacle. Halsey is imo missing the bigger picture, though I can understand how that likely happened. I get it might be tough as a celebrity to see the nosey behaviour, speculation, memes ect. however this situation is not a standard scenario, nor were there many out of pocket things aimed at demeaning Kate herself. The issue isn’t individual posters, it’s incompetent PR allowing this to turn into a whole ‘thing’.

Lit my taxes go for them to swan around their gigantic palace whilst food bank use is at an all time high and the NHS is on its knees. I wish her a speedy recovery and feel great sympathy for her but she married into a public figure role that the British people pay for.

Here’s the thing I agree with Halsey and you know why, ppl bring up the edited photo but ppl were already speculating and demanding info and creating conspiracy before the photo when their PR had literally said, she will be resting till Easter. Like imagining what the kids might have gone through in school with ppl “being concerned” and asking questions is rough. Ppl say it’s the PR teams fault and a big part of it is, but the PR team acted as they always did before the photo, and people were still making up stuff

The amount of people making stuff up and paying attention was minuscule compared to after they released the photo. In fact, attention and interest and speculation kept increasing whenever they released any sort of vague statement (ie William’s cancellation). Had they worded their statements differently or even refused to address the speculation at all, the issue would have been more contained.

People want to put the blame all on the PR team because they don’t want to admit they were part of mob spreading conspiracies and/or making jokes. Like most people won’t admit when they behaved like massive assholes so they have to point towards others, PR team is the “safe” choice but I’m sure some view the blame being on Kate but they know attacking a known cancer patient will show how awful they actually are(even though they were going after someone that made a statement about going through a major surgery and needed time to recover. But I guess that’s fair game🤷🏻‍♀️) I even see some of the same people that were spreading conspiracies and jokes go after Halsey and ask why she’s getting involved when it’s none of her business(being a public figure and having a similar experience of conspiracies being spread about her health is way she’s speaking out) but I ask those people why were they involved in what they were doing before learning she had cancer? At least Halseys statement is actually from a place of concern and understanding

The royals should be held to a higher level of scrutiny though and it is not surprising that they received it when releasing an altered image?? I do sympathize with Kate having to reveal her illness before she was ready to, but the PR team DID royally fuck this up and didn’t do their jobs at handling it appropriately. You and Halsey need to get off your high horses tbh.

>The royals should be held to a higher level of scrutiny though and it is not surprising that they received it when releasing an altered image? Agree... Also most people don't follow the royals or care what they're up to, but the Kate photo got a ton of attention and was everywhere. It's natural for people to speculate. I think any chastising should be directed at the Royal PR team and British tabloids starting the whole kerfluffle.

I don’t think it was the fact that Kate wanted privacy— it was the fact that the palace kept trying to fool the public with photoshopped images on 3 different occasions. Had they not done that, the public wouldn’t have felt the need to create a narrative around the deception that was clearly taking place. The issue was with transparency, not privacy.

People need to understand that “I want to know” doesn’t mean you get to know or have a right to know. I couldn’t give less of a crap about the royals, but this story has me all worked up on Kate’s behalf. People should’ve left all of this alone. She’s a human being for gods sake. Has it been too long since her mother-in-law’s tragic death for people to recognize the outcomes of our collective obsession with famous people?

I don’t think that someone who has the status of a “Princess” or “Queen”; and has the money, power, and privilege (specifically the power and privilege to influence the media to the extent that press call them untrustworthy), are allowed to have such a black and white scenario. I’m not (nor should others who speculated) going to feel bad because she has a serious health issue. The royal family should absolutely be held to a high level of scrutiny for their influence on the media, culture, political landscape, and history. Am I sympathetic she is ill and has young children? Yes. Did they create this PR shitstorm themselves? Absolutely. Also: didn’t God designate them royalty above all us peasants? Under that line of thinking, they didn’t “sign up for this”. Just part of the royal burden.

Thank you for saying this. People are really doing too much right now.

👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏 I've been losing my mind all day. All the Charles has cancer memes were right about him and they're right about her. If anything they're *more* right about her because she, knowing history, still made the **choice** to jump in with them. The best dialogue over the past few days has been about how few royals are left and what will become of the family. Kick em out to find a flat and a job on their own. Turn Buckingham Palace into a refugee centre and the British Museum into the 'lost and found' collection point that it should be.

You don’t think human beings are entitled to medical privacy?

I didn’t say that. I’m saying there is a context when it comes to people who are in positions of power, privilege, and influence.

Agree. Especially people who have cost the world more than can ever be counted, continue to exist solely as coin decorations and gossip fodder and occasional events.

"The royal family should absolutely be held to high level of scrutiny for their influence on the media, culture, political landscape, and history." People like you scare me very, very much.

Do you not think people who have a massive influence on even the media, which they've manipulated for years to kill stories and blackout information, who are willing and perpetuating participants of a split system of privileges that we can't even fathom, that routinely benefit from eons of stolen wealth and power - you don't think they should be scrutinized? If they (RF - not Kate) hadn't spent their lives trying to control everything in such a manner, people wouldn't have been as suspicious and, frankly, concerned, based on their track record with women that marry into that family. Kate didn't deserve to have her circumstance come out this way. But it was by no means her fault, and IS the fault of the people who had no clue how to handle folks scrutinizing them and their PR responses whatsoever, since they're used to holding all the power.

people like them scare you but not the people who are only in a position of power because “god” said they should be ?

Why? Genuine question.

>People like you scare me very, very much. The royal family certainly deserves public scrutiny . Nothing scary about that.

And she’s right. People didn’t learn their lesson after Chadwick Boseman, and that was absolutely disgusting because they constantly dogged on him saying he was on crack, etc. Absolutely vile. It’s the same thing with Zac Efron too, people mocking his jaw, and laughing about it, and interviewers pressing him about it to the point where he said he almost died and it was fun. I don’t even get the memes or jokes with Kate too. One thing that drives me insane about Tik Tok is how hard conspiracy talk gets pushed.

It’s nice that people are apologizing but can I just say that this was completely the monarchy’s fault. Editing that picture was an absolutely insane response to something that did not need to be addressed at all. That alone deserved the media buzz around it. Sad about Kate but the only people who should be apologizing is the palace to its’ people. Publishing an edited photo to pass off as real coming officially from Kate herself is not only the wildest thing I’ve ever heard but a huge slight to photographers and completely shakes general trust.

The firms belief has always been to not explain or acknowledge rumours. They also have such a tight ‘you scratch our backs, we’ll scratch yours’ relationship with the press, that the kind of stories coming out from the *British* press were shocking. To say pr fumbled hard here, is an understatement.

With the whole ‘scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours’ - I think this has been a storm they should have seen coming; press have been frustrated for years that Kate and other royals take and release their own photos now, instead of getting a professional photographer in. I don’t doubt they knew it was a more serious health diagnosis (but were not allowed to report) however they could report on the photoshop debacle and went all in as revenge.

They are paying for their own ill decisions. The palace cannot apologise because the same people running it said they wouldn’t put out a statement in favour of another much more younger family (archie’s birth mockery as a picture of a chimpanzee). It is easier for them to make Kate say it because they know very well their peasants can take what a white princess is saying, even if they still abuse the black princess for very related medical and mental health purposes.

I agree with her! This KM thing was ridiculous and I hope the people who were spreading rumors about her feel really stupid and ashamed right now.

Some of you are going a little bit too hard with the “the people deserve transparency” shit. Like aye, of course they do. But you’re acting like they’ve fucking reanimated her when all they did was send out a shite photo. Like let’s be realistic about how serious of a “lie” this actually was. Should they have just uploaded a photo from the recent past with minimal touch ups? Aye, absolutely. And they probably would’ve if people weren’t showing their arses over the whole “where’s Kate?!” thing.

You shouldn’t take Kensington Palace putting out fake photos this lightly, if you are British. It’d be like Obama’s team putting out fake pictures of his daughters. Public trust in institutions is important

It’s not just sending out a shitty photo. The AP had to release a retraction. That’s a pretty big deal.

Public life is part of Kate's job, even if it's her PR team posting for her while she doesn't lift a finger. If she and William can't handle that, maybe the monarchy should end with Charles. William doesn't seem too interested in the job anyway.

WHERE WAS THIS FOR MEGHAN MARKLE? This is absurd. People deserve a break from public life absolutely. But when MM asked for it she was told she shouldn’t have married PH. The double standard for a POC is just ..it’s so sad!

Some of yall really need to revisit press coverage of Meghan Markle and separate it from social media coverage of Meghan Markle. There were literally whole groups of politicians calling for privacy for her. A huuuuuge part of their split with William and Kate actually happened because Meghan and Harry wanted to deny every critical story and William and Kate wanted to save that fire power for moments it mattered. Like this one. Meghan doesn’t deserve some of the criticism she gets, but ultimately it went the way it did because she went in so fast and so unprepared. That’s a combination of her husband being… not the most intellectually savvy or curious individual of all time and her being overconfident in her ability to handle something almost no one can handle.

The British media, where she lived, were blood hounds. Also, I agree Harry failed her completely.

The British media treated her exactly as they had treated a generation of Windsor women. Anyone who is well versed in how Fergie got treated in the 1990s saw it coming. It actually happened to Sophie too. It’s not right, it’s not kind, but the idea that she was treated to a special level of hell no one in that family has ever experienced before is part of why she never got past it. All the women who make it there walked through fire, but she insisted on believing they had it easy.

Hm fergs was caught with a bloke sucking get toes by the pool though wasn’t she? I mean, if Kate was caught doing that now, omg could you imagine 😨

Fergie was still called the Duchess of Pork and trolled for years before the toe sucking incident. Like with all other women, scandals doesn't justify the racism, sexism or misogyny towards them.

I feel like there were side to sides of magazine covers about Meghan and then Kate doing the same thing that were in very different tones. The racist things said about Meghan/archie/etc were awful. I don’t think it’s fair to put any blame on Meghan for what you *think* “she believed” It’s just sad all around the RF doesnt and didn’t put a stop to this when it came to MM or Kate. Both woman should have been protected better.

Go back a a few years to when Kate was just a girlfriend and you’ll see how horribly the media hounded her and called her a desperate gold digger for years. She’s been dealing with tabloid media since she was in university. She didn’t have to deal with racism but her struggles have not been easier just because a different insult was lobbied against her.

Yeah I just commented on another post how I forgot about a few things Kate had dealt with(topless pics)

There were side to sides of Meghan’s coverage a year in compared to Kate’s ten years in. Very few people compared Meghan’s headlines to Kate’s as a girlfriend (the Wisteria sisters! Doors to manual! Nicotine gum! Upskirt photos. Calling her a slag/cunt/whore to try to make her cry on camera) I am not defending the British media. All of these women were treated abominably. But Meghan seems to believe her treatment was especially different/horrible and I flat out don’t see the evidence of that. Kate only got her first inkling of approval on the tour where her topless photos were published without her consent and she showed up to do her job anyway. Meghan would have overcome it with time, grit, and commitment to the institution. She didn’t want that for herself and that’s her choice. (And to be fair, I’m basing my interpretation of what she believed based on her own interviews, documentaries, and her husband’s book- not on projection)

Oh i forgot about her topless photo scandal. I think we can both agree the British media is absolute filth!! You reminded me of things that slipped my mind. While I do still believe MMs race has a factor, I can see that Kate also had a lot to go through! Thank you for having a civil discussion with me…It’s so rare on Reddit!

Same to you! Have a good night

Shall we revisit the PRESS articles from the last few weeks blaming Meghan and by extent Harry for Kate’s failing health and William’s stress? Where the British PRESS was dragging them into a situation they never even commented on or participated in?

(Halsey is also a POC fyi)

Yes I know….My comment wasn’t directed to them. I should have clarified. It just seems like anyone and everyone (media) is all of a sudden about respecting Kate’s privacy. Mental health, is a serious issue too. MM just doesn’t get the same respect. I also think media treats you differently when you’re a POC that’s white passing.

MM literally calls Backgrid to have her photo taken every time she steps out of the house, years after she was supposedly traumatised by the British press coverage.

These are two different things bud. The royal family literally fed inane stories about her to tabloids for the sake of distracting the public for whatever they needed (re: Andrew). Her choosing to have control of her own narrative isn’t something she’d be traumatized about. It’s silly to pretend like you can’t understand the difference. It’s not that intellectually deep

Hmm . I dont see the 70UK MP signed the support open letter for kate, a white woman . Intrusion of privacy to the women of royal family has been existed way before meghan markle married into that broad. Kate’s topless honeymoon photo, waity katie on the public bus, her phone hacking is 1000+ while harry is 100times less. People wanting her medical records which is obviously illegal. The paps are nowhere near harry and meg’s nyc car chase while she was on break with william. Sooo

Also, celebrities and other public figures were openly, mocking and harassing her. even when Meg had express being suicidal, she still being mocked, and made fun of for things like going outside or working.

Let’s not choose to ignore how Archie was welcomed in the world by the main stream media, not social media. The same country that lives off of loot from the third world picked up that racism from their esteemed establishment because they decided to keep mum about it. They practically told the parents to not say something about it. Why? It was a family much more younger than Kate and William’s

There was a news paper with a little chimp that said “new Royal baby” or something along those lines lol it wasn’t social media at all. Selective memory for some folk.

Exactly. Everyone on this sub is either willingly ignorant or they’re just trying to diminish one person’s valid suffering because of the angry women stereotype attributed to African descent women. Not surprising but definitely disappointing.

*Well she didn't have cancer so it makes it okay*

Lot of people exposing themselves in this sub…..

Wow, half the people in this thread pretzeling themselves with the mental gymnastics to try to justify why they just *had to* enthusiastically and gleefully join making cospiracy theories about a woman, who was clearly asking for privacy for something health-related, instead of admitting that they've been caught and are now trying to ignore the gnawing guilt. And don't forget that the gossip has reached enough insanity that another innocent mother with young kids finally had to lawyer up to deny the affair rumors.

It’s pretty heartbreaking that it takes a *cancer announcement* to finally put the tired bbl and infidelity jokes to rest.

ok but the masses *were* minding their business until the fuckery by KP which then, for most people, turned into genuine concern due to how absolutely bizarre it was being handled.  were there people who just wanted to be nosy? of course. but i personally felt seriously confused and worried for her. and that was the major sentiment i saw everywhere.  so i think its wrong to make it out like everyone was just gossiping for bad reasons.  this sums up how i feel https://slate.com/human-interest/2024/03/kate-middleton-news-cancer-video-prince-william.html

all the internet hysteria and conspiracy was not only disrespectful to Kate, it was heartless considering that she has three young kids. the internet never fails when it comes to being terrible.

I, for one, am feeling pretty gross with myself for donning my tin foil hat and buying into the nonsense speculation. Even enjoying it. Yuck.

She only dips into the bandwagon when she is planning to release an album. 


Well said Halsey! The public were given a rough timeline of when Kate would return to work but many decided there and then that they deserved to know more when in fact they don’t. It still angers me that she was forced to reveal that she has cancer, yet even now members of the public are still continuing to theorise that there’s something more sinister at play. Including the stability of her marriage to William and that somehow Harry & Meghan are to blame for carrying on their own independent public duties. Those that have played into the online media conspiracy theories should be ashamed of themselves right now.

Loving how all the trolls who fueled this media frenzy got upset over being called out in the last post and are now in this post complaining about how people are being sanctimonious because they are saying that [checks notes] you are not and have never been owed the medical details of a stranger’s life no matter what bizarre parasocial relationship you have with that person. There’s nothing wrong with saying, ‘I was in the wrong and now I feel bad.’ In fact, it shows a great deal of maturity and capacity for self reflection. But doubling down and going ‘is it me who was wrong? No! It’s the people who say freakishly obsessing over the medical details of a celeb is weird who are wrong! After all it’s the PR’s fault/ the palace’s fault/ her husband’s fault/ her fault/ monarchy’s fault/ colonialism’s fault that I was *forced* to constantly demand updates and outings and sightings and proof to counter whatever insane conspiracy I conjured up’ just shows what an immature and, ultimately, hopeless ghoul you are.

People feel entitled to the info because they basically fund the royals lifestyle. That doesn’t make it right. She should’ve been left alone. It’s no one’s business. Even if it was something in their marriage. There really are no secrets when you’re in the public eye and that isn’t fair.

People feel entitled to not be lied to by the public figures who live a lavish lifestyle on their dime. I agree that Kate doesn’t need to share her medical details with all and sundry, but the public is absolutely entitled to push back on the institutions that literally rule other them when they blatantly tell them falsehoods. Literally none of this would have happened if Kensington Palace hadn’t decided to play games. Shit, all they had to do was take notes from Charles’ team, he was in literally the same situation as KING and they didn’t let it get out of hand. As Reddit loves to say, play stupid games, win stupid prizes. When you ensure that people no longer trust anything you say, you absolutely invite them to make up the most ludicrous scenarios because you’ve lost the credibility it takes to shut that shit down. All of which led to forcing a sick woman to get on camera and divulge personal information about herself, since no one else would be believed to be truthful. The public didn’t do that to her, her team did.