Kate Middleton's cancer revelation adds to royal strain

A ‘slimmed down’ British monarchy encounters real challenges

Rob Carter

It was King Charles's explicit intention to slim the monarchy down, but illness has removed two of its major players from the field, and there are only so many ribbons a mere mortal can cut.

Kate Middleton's cancer revelation adds to royal strain

Bryn Haworth

last update on 28 Mar 2024

In Britain, the news that the Princess of Wales has been diagnosed with cancer has come as a huge shock.

Ever since her hospitalisation for abdominal surgery – in the same hospital as her father-in-law, King Charles, was being treated – there has been a strenuous effort by the royal family to damp down speculation about her health.

She was said to be recovering from her treatment and would resume her royal duties after Easter.

Things are never quite so simple with royal matters. Even the tiniest scrap of royal news is enough to fuel an entire news cycle, with the 24-hour channels dedicating wall-to-wall coverage to royal punditry and sending their royal correspondents out in all weathers to stand in front of Buckingham Palace.

The British press also has a serious addiction to feed. When the news about present members of the institution is in short supply, they will happily continue to cover Lady Diana's story long after the last paparazzo's retirement.

But the difference this time around has been social media. This is proof that it wasn’t just the news channels or the tabloids who were the junkies. As we always suspected, their viewers and readers were just as addicted.

Thus, as the legacy media die on their feet, and as journalists increasingly acquire the hunted look of an endangered species, we, the people, have become purveyors of ‘news’.

'Fakey Katie'

The recent furore over a photograph of the future queen surrounded by her three children illustrated this perfectly.

It was intended as a reassuring image of motherhood for Mother’s Day. Everyone was smiling, which, as one journalist pointed out, was suspicious enough in itself: when had anyone in the history of photography managed to get three children to smile at the same time?

AFP — A picture shows stories in Britain's national newspapers about the altered Mother's Day photo released by Kensington Palace on March 10 of Britain's Catherine, Princess of Wales and her children in London on March 12, 2024.

Then, certain telltale signs were discovered for editing. The picture really was a fake. Not even a very good one, as some journalists rather snootily observed.

With remarkable speed, the newspapers put a kill notice on the shot. An entire news cycle was then devoted to the mystery of why the palace had released such a picture. The princess had to apologise.

Since then, even a picture of the late queen, surrounded by an even more implausible number of smiling children, has been rumbled.

The Mother’s Day picture led to dire warnings that public trust in the monarchy was itself in danger. The usually loyal Daily Mail warned, darkly, that this was the eleventh hour for the institution. As the actor who plays Prince William in the comedy The Windsors would say, surely this was a ‘constitutional crisis.’

But all of this belonged to the quaint old world of official photographs and smartphone aesthetics. It was relatively tame.

Out in the real world, we now have such a thing as deepfake videos. So, when the Prince and Princess of Wales attended a farm shop near Windsor and were filmed by a person on their smartphone, few were gullible enough to believe it. Clearly, the woman by the heir to the throne’s side was a body double of some kind.

This kind of scepticism is the hallmark of all good conspiracy theories. Nothing is as it seems.

With the prospect of artificial intelligence generating whatever images it pleases, maybe it is for the best that everyone doubts the evidence of their own eyes.

The Mother's Day picture led to dire warnings that public trust in the monarchy was itself in danger.

A post-truth world

The only snag is that this doubt applies to everything. Post-truth means just that: truth is a thing of the past.

On various outlets – but mostly the usual suspects, like X – speculation had already been rife for weeks about the true reasons behind Kate Middleton's withdrawal from the public gaze.

It is uncertain where this orgy of speculation stemmed from. Some blamed the appetite for conspiracy theories in the United States. Others blame a campaign of disinformation stemming from the Russian bots.

The overwhelming impression, regardless of the true origin of the theories, is that people feel entitled to reveal the truth because there is so little to be believed any more.

The conspiracy cranks and the bots might well be part of the problem, but modern media socialites can do perfectly well without them.

Cancer revelation

Now, with months having passed and with the rumours about her health having reached some kind of crescendo, the Princess of Wales has told the world that she has been diagnosed with cancer and is on a course of chemotherapy.

She made this announcement with remarkable poise on a bench in the open air, spring flowers visible in the background. It was a moment of rare, utterly authentic poignancy that ought have put all the fatuous speculators to shame.

It was a dignified, gracious and moving speech, in stark contrast to the hysteria it intended to answer. She had the simplest of reasons for taking this long to inform us of her true condition: the necessity of telling her children first.

Given that any premature revelation would certainly have reached their ears through the insatiable royal gossip before their mother had a chance to explain, this was a truly delicate family matter.

Beyond the clamour of the conspiracists – a clamour that will undoubtedly not be silenced by anything as straightforward as a dignified speech to the camera – there is a more serious issue at stake: the way this royal institution might function in the future.

An inverse law seems to have been revealed. Queen Elizabeth would say that the monarchy had to be seen to be believed.

This enforced withdrawal from the public eye has nonetheless inspired more interest in the middle generation of royals, particularly Kate, than at any time heretofore. It has also seen her emerge today as an exceptional communicator.

It was King Charles's explicit intention to slim the monarchy down, and the results have not augured well, as illness has removed two of its major players from the field.

His wife, Queen Camilla, doughtily tried to take up the slack, as did his sister, Princess Anne, and his brother Edward.

None of them are blessed with huge star appeal. His grandchildren, who might well have such appeal, won't be active family members for over a decade.

The enforced withdrawal from the public eye has nonetheless inspired more interest in the middle generation of royals, particularly Kate.

Royal strain

Predictably, there is talk of strain on the remaining members. There are only so many ribbons a mere mortal can cut.

Yet the royals are above the fray of politics and are not elected. They ascend to their positions through birthright. Even as the tighter, smaller outfit of active royals feels the pressure of engagements, they know that the succession is secure.

Moreover, their omnipresence on the airwaves, in the papers, and even as the topics of wild speculation on social media is more assured than ever.

The queen used to wear bright colours so she would stand out among her subjects. She also avoided hiding from the public, as Queen Victoria had done after the death of her beloved Albert.

After Diana's sudden death, her popularity reached a dangerously low ebb when she and the family shunned the public eye in Balmoral.

But in the 21st century, being seen is not believed anymore. We are learning to disbelieve our own eyes. Maybe the disappointing aftermath of a certain glorious wedding in Windsor—of the mischievous Harry to a glamorous American actress—was an omen.

It has hardened the hearts of even the most royalist among us through a sort of foregone disenchantment.

Waving from the balcony, visiting the kingdom's towns and cities, even patronising good causes alone won't cut it. What 'the Firm' requires is a new kind of visibility, as the speculators have foisted on them.

They need to be spoken about to survive.

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