Months after her planned abdominal surgery, Kate Middleton’s exact condition and her whereabouts remain sort of mystery. Except for the statement that she’s doing well, the Palace refuses to provide any details, which leads to a number of theories and speculations. What added to the rumors is the photo Kate published on Mother’s Day in which she’s seen posing with her three chiclden.
The photo was picked up by the media which later pulled it because it was manipulated.
News agencies, including the Associated Press and Getty, issued a “kill notice,” an advisory notice to remove or not use a specific photo.
“It appears that the source has manipulated the image,” the Associated Press notification read.
AP also released a statement, saying, “The Associated Press initially published the photo, which was issued by Kensington Palace. The AP later retracted the image because at closer inspection, it appears that the source had manipulated the image in a way that did not meet AP’s photo standards. The photo shows an inconsistency in the alignment of Princess Charlotte’s left hand.”
The Princess of Wales posted on X that she edited the photo herself.
“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,” Kate Middleton wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.
The Palace issued a statement that they won’t be publishing the original, unedited photo, which contributed to even greater fuss, and now many believe that it’s not Kate that is behind all that mess surrounding her.
Following the picture mishap, which turned into an international story, and the Palace’s failure to release a new photo,led more and more people wonder—and worry—what is going on with Kate.
Speaking to Fox, royal expert Hilary Fordwich said the palace is responsible for what she calls “yet another public relations disaster.”
“The certainty is that a ‘slimmed down monarchy’ means fewer are guiding the royals and those who are aren’t as media savvy as they need to be,” Fordwich said. “In our fast-paced world with tech-savvy media outlets, the palaces need to hire the best and brightest in such fields.
“While this certainly isn’t ‘business as usual’ nor what we would expect from a royal household… it shows great humility to admit one’s mistakes,” Fordwich continued. “Others might have either remained silent or tried to blame another. Kate issued a straight-up, no-nonsense apology. Many could learn a lesson from such.”
Royal expert Rob Jobson, author of Our King: Charles III – The Man and the Monarch Revealed, shares Fordwich’s thoughts.
“We can’t really blame Kate,” he told The Sun.
“Now it hasn’t passed that muster, if you like, and that’s because it was pretty much an amateur job on doing so. So, really, there needed to be some advisers around doing that job, making sure that in this modern world of modern communications that, you cannot tamper with photographs that are being issued as official photographs.
“It damages the integrity of the organization that is issuing a photograph,” Jobson added, saying that Kate had done the palace a “favor” by accepting the responsibility. However, the manipulated picture has “added fuel to the fire.”
Among those who stayed silent regarding Kate’s surgery and recovery is the King himself. Amidst his own battle with cancer, Charles hasn’t spoken of his daughter-in-law’s condition.
He is said to be receiving treatments once a week in London and spends the rest of his time at the royal estate of Sandringham.
Over the years, King Charles has been dragged in a numerous feuds, among which the one between his sons, William and Harry, and now, according to royal expert Daniela Elser, the Prince and Princess of Wales have dragged him in their own issues.
“Here (the Mother’s Day picture) was a jolly god-given opportunity to tamp down the mania that has engulfed social media; here was a chance to prove that the Princess of Wales is alive and well-enough to work her trusty curling tongs,” Elser wrote for News.com.au.
“This should have finally set things to rights, a return to cool-headedness, normalcy, sanity. Oh no. In the place of a nice return to regular viewing, those major news agencies put out that ‘kill notice’ and things went nuclear.”
Elser continued, “For Charles this is something of a Chernobyl-sized mess (instance #868) in that no one seems to have even the remotest clue how to put out this inferno or begin to clean things up. All that William and Kate and their Kensington Palace’s office have managed over the last few weeks is to create this chaotic, shambolic, out-of-control situation which is now being reported on by every major outlet globally.”
Charles will soon celebrate one year anniversary since becoming the head of the monarchy, but Elser comments that he has little time to celebrate considering his battle with cancer and everything happening around him.
According to Elser, it’s not just William and Kate who are giving him headaches but also the fact that his younger son and his wife are somewhat present and could be making scenes.
In years of writing about the royal family, charting their downfalls, their exits, their TV shows, podcasts, books, interviews, interviews again, births, deaths and energetic visits to waste recycling plants, I have never seen anything like the insanity, and the inanity, of the last few weeks,” Daniela Elser added.
“In Harry’s memoir Spare he recounted the father saying in 2021 during a heated scene ‘Please, boys. Don’t make my final years a misery’ – sadly, William and Kate are accidentally doing exactly that this week.”
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