The British royal family’s dilemma with public curiosity about Kate Middleton’s health

The last few weeks have been challenging for the British royal family.

The health problems of King Charles III and Princess of Wales, Kate Middleton, have raised questions about what Buckingham Palace and Kensington Palace want the public to know.

Advisors try to deal with the thirst for information, speculation on social media and the need to protect two people who are unwell. This is all proving to be quite a dilemma.

The spotlight has turned even more on the royal family in recent days, after Prince William, Kate’s husband, canceled at the last minute his participation in a religious ceremony in Windsor, in memory of his godfather, King Constantine of Greece. . He was supposed to do a reading, and his name was on the service program.

But less than an hour before the event began, a message arrived from Kensington Palace.

“Sadly, the Prince of Wales will no longer be able to attend this morning’s service due to a personal matter,” the statement read.

This caused strangeness. Prince William lives on the Windsor estate. He had a role to play in the ceremony. It was his godfather being honored.

Rumors immediately began to spread – was this a bad sign for Kate? The message from the prince’s team was that there was no need to panic.

The princess was doing well, they said, suggesting that William’s absence was not related to the health of his wife, who underwent abdominal surgery in January.

But that wasn’t enough to quell speculation.

SCARCE INFORMATION

The messages I received on WhatsApp probably reflected what many people were wondering.

“What’s wrong with Kate?”, “Why don’t they say?”, “Is that why William didn’t show up?”.

And if you delve deeper into social media and online searches, you will find increasingly wild rumors about the princess’s condition.

The lack of detailed information and the sudden cancellation of Prince William’s participation in the ceremony fueled speculation.

We still don’t know why the prince gave up going to the service – but it’s worth noting that he attended an event on Thursday (29) as planned.

The Princes of Wales’ aides are well aware of online gossip – they read it, they talk about it, they know the narratives well. But they emphasize that nothing has changed.

A spokesperson for Kate played down the speculation on social media. “Kensington Palace made clear in January the timetable for the princess’s recovery. We said we would only provide significant updates. That guidance remains.”

RETURN TO PUBLIC LIFE

There is, of course, the issue of privacy. For Prince William, protecting his wife while she recovers is paramount.

Kensington Palace simply doesn’t want details about his health to be made public – and his aides don’t feel the need to say anything more about it.

But when Kate returns to her public commitments, the scrutiny will be intense. All eyes will be on her. How is she? Does it look different?

Your team is well aware of the interest there will be at this time, so protecting them now takes on added importance.

They will choose when and how we see her again in public very carefully.

THE KING’S HEALTH

The situation is different at Buckingham Palace when it comes to managing King Charles III’s cancer diagnosis and treatment.

There, the court feels there is a need to see the monarch in action, fulfilling some of his functions.

That’s why we’ve seen photos of the king with the prime minister, going to church and reading “get well” cards.

This is a king whose health is compromised at the moment, but he can still do part of his usual work, and the Palace wants to show us that.

There isn’t the same pressure on Kate to go public. She is not the monarch, she does not need to reassure the people in the same way.

Yes, there is a clamor for information, but the mood seems to be one of “patience, it will be like this”. It’s about a princess who wants to maintain her privacy.

This text was originally published here.