Ending weeks of feverish speculation and wild rumors, the Princess of Wales revealed on Friday that she has cancer and is undergoing chemotherapy.
And the tone online quickly turned from jokes about the duchess’s so-called disappearance to sympathy and regret, with some saying it was embarrassing and others saying the duchess deserved an apology.
“I think a lot of people who were making jokes online are going to really regret it,” freelance royal correspondent Ellie Hall told CBC News Network.
“And I think some of the high-profile public figures who have made tongue-in-cheek statements and, again, made jokes and posted memes, are really disgusting.”
In a video posted to her social media pages, the Duchess said that post-surgery tests revealed that “cancer was present” and that she was in the early stages of preventive chemotherapy.
Questions have been swirling around me since the surgery.
Questions have been swirling about Duchess Kate’s health since January 17, when Kensington Palace announced that she was scheduled for abdominal surgery. At that point, she had not been seen in public since Christmas Day. Her initial statement did not provide any other details other than clarifying that her condition was not cancerous.
But on Friday, the Duchess revealed in a video message that further tests after the surgery revealed that “cancer was present.” On the advice of her medical team, she is undergoing preventive chemotherapy, she said.
“Of course this was a huge shock. Prince William and I have done everything we can to manage this matter privately for our young family,” she said in a statement to her husband. He talked about Prince William and his children. Prince George, Princess Charlotte, Prince Louis.
“As you can imagine, this took time. It took time to recover from major surgery to begin treatment. But most importantly, the way George, Charlotte and Louis had everything It took me a while to explain that it was appropriate for them and to reassure them that I was okay. ”
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said in a statement that Duchess Kate “has been subjected to intense scrutiny and unfair treatment in some parts of the world’s media and on social media.”
“When it comes to health issues, like everyone else, she must be given the privacy to focus on her treatment and be with her loved ones.”
Suddenly the tone changes
Kensington Palace had said from the outset that Kate was unlikely to return to royal duties until after Easter and that the palace would only provide updates “if there is significant new information to share”.
But in the information vacuum, people created their own theories, and the hashtag #KateGate started trending online.
People have made tongue-in-cheek posts suggesting that the princess is growing out her bangs or that she is recovering from a serious injury. brazilian butt lift.many people theorized that William may be cheatingjoked that Duchess Kate may be much sicker than the palace is letting on, Duchess Camilla is having a ‘Saltburn moment’ and is playing the long game of destroying the royal family from within I joked.
It’s great to see the passengers so happy and relaxed this morning. ✈️ pic.twitter.com/4u35dXnvhU
Some major companies and celebrities also joined in and joked about a popular meme making fun of a recent Prince William and Duchess Kate sighting video that many believed was fake. Dublin Airport, for example, joked that the pair looked “happy and relaxed” in an image shared of them superimposed inside the terminal.
Kim Kardashian, late night talk show host, joked she was going to look for Kate herself stephen colbert Describing the affair rumors as “spilling the tea”, the Washington Post published an editorial cartoon showing Prince William puppeteering his wife in front of a palace window.
Even the King of the Netherlands made a Photoshop joke in reference to a Mother’s Day image of Duchess Kate and her children that was revealed to have been edited and retracted by several news agencies.
Following the princess’ diagnosis, the tone online quickly turned to coyness.
“The last few weeks I’ve been laughing so hard at all the jokes about Kate and the royal family. If I found out she was battling cancer…I would go to hell,” one person wrote on X.
“Come on, we’re all a bunch of assholes,” he wrote. another.
I hope Princess Kate makes a full recovery, but I can’t help but think about how badly she’s been treated by the palace’s public relations team. They allow speculation and speculation. Rumors have been circulating for weeks… and a photo-editing botch throws a cancer patient under the bus along with young children!
News that “no one wanted”
“This was the news no one wanted,” royal correspondent Hall told CBC News Network.
Duchess Kate blames herself for Mother’s Day photo fiasco, says she likes to experiment with photo editing, and apologizes for causing confusion despite suffering from cancer In response, many voices of anger and disappointment were expressed online.
Carolyn Harris, a royal commentator and historian, says there was a time when the health of members of the royal family received a lot of attention. But the excitement surrounding the Princess of Wales on social media in recent weeks shows that a “huge segment” of the world is taking speculation to new heights.
“All she really wanted was privacy,” royal commentator Edward Wang told CBC News Network. “And it must have been incredibly difficult for the past two months to have rumors and conspiracy theories about her flying around the internet and around the world.”
He said the news was currently coming as a huge shock to many people, given the “insatiable interest” in learning more about her condition.
“As someone who speculated about this without considering the possibility of a serious health condition, I’m honestly very embarrassed and my thoughts and prayers go out to her.” I have written User on X.
“Perhaps the media could stop deciding whether she’s too thin or too chubby, too tidy or too tired, too secretive or too desperate for public approval. “Even a royal woman, the royal holy grail of a future British king, deserves a little humanity,” the critic said in Friday’s Washington Examiner.
“The Duchess of Cambridge deserves our prayers, if not an apology.”
