Where's Kate Middleton? Her rep brushes off speculation

[marsdiamonds]

Various conspiracy theories have been circulating online since Kate Middleton, the Princess of Wales, underwent surgery and took time off from her royal duties. Kensington Palace said in January that Kate is recovering from planned abdominal surgery. However, people think she may have had cosmetic surgery, is dealing with serious health issues or

Comments

[london_eclipse]

She literally made a whole post saying not to expect to see her until Easter but okay internet 🤭

[automaticpeople]

Because she knew that BBL surgery would take MONTHS to recover from!!!

[iznanassi]

**heightening surgery

[automaticpeople]

[shangri__la]

I find the memes funny, but the actual serious speculation is incredibly gross and offensive, complete with faux concern and demands to know her medical issue??

They released a statement like a month ago saying when she would return. She didn't SUDDENLY go missing, jfc

[sarahvma]

Yeah I can only get on board with the "she's left William and has fled off to be with a lover" stuff since it's fun and non-invasive.

[yonkers]

i liked the tweet about her being the new guitarist for slipknot, she's getting ready for tour!!!! leave her alone!!!!!

[skyler_white_yo]

That would be amazing.

[fauxkaren]

This is very "AS PER MY LAST E-MAIL..." of them and I kind of love it.

lol I think it's probably the right strategy in the long term to not play the press's game by giving them a photo because then a photo will be picked apart (it's AI! it's old! it doesn't prove anything because we only see her from shoulders up!) and then would they have to release a video? Would they have to have her holding up a newspaper like a person being held hostage for ransom?

Sure people are speculating now, but idk. I do think it's probably the right move to just be above it and be like "the Princess of Wales had major abdominal surgery and is recovering at home. It was previously announced she would not be returning to duties until after Easter and that timeline has not changed." Let people speculate. They'll get bored of it in a couple of weeks and 99% of people will forget all about it in a year's time.

[mellawe]

Mother's day is coming up in the UK and we're probably going to get an old picture from a photoshoot they did last year like usual. The Waleses have a habit of doing one shooting and the giving out the pictures over the folowing year for special occasions (birthdays, Mother's day ...)

[fauxkaren]

Yep... which is only going to make the crazies feel like they've been vindicated. "Look they're using an old picture because Kate is actually dead!" when like... no, that's what the Waleses always do.

[dejatrue]

[just444]

i don't understand what the big conspiracy here is, do people think she is dead?

[dreamdate]

i regret to say yes, yes they do.

[willardwright]

...if she had an affair, wouldn't it be easier to just let her give birth and pretend the kid was William's? Unless it was visibly different ethnicity or something.

(I know you're not the one believing this theory, I just had to be puzzled somewhere.)

[laydownhere]

In looking at royalty we are always looking at what is archaic, what is mysterious by its nature, and my feeling is that it will only ever half-reveal itself. This poses a challenge to historians and to those of us who work imaginatively with the past. Royal persons are both gods and beasts. They are persons but they are supra-personal, carriers of a blood line: at the most basic, they are breeding stock, collections of organs.

I think this Hilary Mantel quote from Royal Bodies in the LRB sort of gets to the point - of course people won't be satisfied, of course people feel entitled to know what is happening. It is part and parcel of the system where Kate isn't a person, where she has to a degree chosen to become more/less than a human.

[sarahvma]

Which isn't technically incorrect. She signed up to be a symbolic figurehead for the rest of her life. And I know it's all very "tiny violins" but it does feel fair to say we can still respect her as a person.

A lot of people are comparing it to the way Meghan was treated during her mental health episode, which I think is fair -- ie. the palace did nothing to distract from nasty speculation and also did nothing to help Meghan.

[fauxkaren]

We didn't know about Meghan's mental health issues until she told us though. There wasn't massive speculation in the press about it. So she was able to have that privacy for her mental health and Kate wants privacy for her physical health. I think they both should be allowed that.

[sarahvma]

No, but the palace did. And I think it's fair to say that they knew she was going through something and did nothing to distract from the horrible press she was regularly getting.

Also there was a TON of speculation around why she wasn't announcing the baby's due date or didn't parade out with the baby after delivery, which was tied ultimately to her mental health.