You’ve probably heard this one before: a princess desires to run away from the castle to abandon her duties and live a royalty-free life amongst her friends. It’s nothing new! But in real life, it’s not as common as Disney would like you to believe, which is why the current frenzy regarding Kate Middleton’s whereabouts is a little alarming. This is the kind of drama your grandmother lives for, by the way.
Here are the cold hard facts: Kate Middleton was admitted to the hospital on January 17th for a “planned abdominal surgery.” While Kensington Palace rarely shares details regarding the health of the Royal Family, the statement confirmed that the Princess would remain in the hospital for 10-14 days, and she likely would not be seen out in public until after Easter, which falls on March 31st. The statement also said, “She hopes that the public will understand her desire to maintain as much normality for her children as possible; and her wish that her personal medical information remains private.” Some royal fans believed it was a little unusual for the announcement to come out so last minute for a planned surgery, however, no alarms were raised. Yet.
On January 29th, Middleton returned home, and again, things were business as usual. But the longer the people go without seeing their Princess, the weirder people get. There were some theories, but rumors began to pick up when Prince William withdrew from a memorial service for his own godfather, citing a “personal matter,” on February 27th.
Some harmless rumors began (“She’s just waiting for her bangs to grow out!”), but the story started to crack. King Charles was also admitted to the hospital for his own health struggles, though some believed that was a move of deceit. Kate’s team scrambled to put out a statement: “We were very clear from the outset that the Princess of Wales was out until after Easter and Kensington Palace would only be providing updates when something was significant,” her spokesperson said on February 29th. Keep in mind that this is a year after Middleton reportedly hired a “PR guru” to help with her royal ambitions, but said guru then declined the job. Or maybe that was her plan all along?!
To make matters even weirder, many fans pointed out that Kate had her own photo shoots just hours after giving birth to all three of her children, so the efforts to keep her hidden are unheard of, and her absence is noticeable. Still, the palace claims that she is recovering nicely.
On March 4th, Middleton was finally seen in a grainy paparazzi photo in the passenger seat of a car alongside her mom, though she was wearing sunglasses, and her mom sure looks fed up.
Then on March 10th, Mother’s Day in the UK, things took a turn: Kensington Palace released the first “official” photo of Middleton since her surgery, but eagle-eyed fans spotted a series of editing mistakes in the photo. Within hours, the Associated Press took down the image after stating that photo appeared manipulated. “At closer inspection it appears that the source has manipulated the image,” the AP said in its advisory. “No replacement photo will be sent.”
According to their official Twitter account, Princess Catherine edited the photo. Who among us hasn’t signed up for a free Adobe Cloud trial just to see what kind of stuff they have going on there? The only issue here is that one would assume the Royal family has a professional for this. Either way, the Palace apologized for the confusion, by adding even more confusion. Meanwhile, William is just chilling.
Like many amateur photographers, I do occasionally experiment with editing. I wanted to express my apologies for any confusion the family photograph we shared yesterday caused. I hope everyone celebrating had a very happy Mother’s Day. C
— The Prince and Princess of Wales (@KensingtonRoyal) March 11, 2024
Of course, this doesn’t stop the theories that the images were really old or even reused from other photo shoots.
my analysis of the kate middleton photo saga is that they took her face from the vogue cover she did years ago and edited it in pic.twitter.com/JLXts08zp5
— Ruby Naldrett (@rubynaldrett) March 11, 2024
Finally, Middleton was “seen” on March 11th (the word is used lightly here) alongside William in a car, looking wistfully out the window as if she were in a Beyonce music video. At this point, we have not seen her full face.
So, what’s the verdict? A few theories have evolved, though most of them point to marriage troubles between Kate and William that are spilling out into the public eye. One thing is for certain, we will likely never know what really went down. At least until The Crown picks back up in 20 years to try and explain it.