On January 17, Kensington Palace released a statement saying that Kate Middleton had to undergo abdominal surgery. On average this procedure takes around 6 weeks to recover from, and it has now been around 8 weeks since Kate was last seen. The past couple photos of her appear to be edited or generated using a form of AI. The photos released have had many errors in clothing or hair that tipped fans off to notice editing mistakes. Many followers of the British royal family have begun speculating, “What has happened to Kate Middleton?” There are theories that William is cheating on her or that this surgery is for something else. This whole issue with the media has reminded many fans of what happened with Princess Diana.
Kensington Palace had said that Kate would not be returning to her royal duties until after Easter. However, she did try to post for English Mothers Day. This was the first photo that made fans suspicious of trusting media coming out of the Palace. In this photo, Kate is pictured with her three children. People picked up on how she was not wearing her wedding ring, Charlotte’s sleeve is unaligned, Kate’s hair and zipper appear to be cut and uncentered, and the tile is messed up. After the image was released and people picked up on these errors, a kill notice was issued. A kill issue is only ever done in extreme circumstances to remove the image from as many platforms as possible causing people to worry for Kate. Social media is notorious for creating environments that promote toxicity and negativity. This is similar to the environment created by the paparazzi in the 1990’s when Diana died. Many people began theorizing that what happened to Diana is going to happen to Kate.
When Diana died many conspiracies came out accusing the royal family of planning her death. It was said that the royal family did not want to deal with a divorce since Charles had been having an affair. Her death was ruled an accident but many of her fans don’t believe this. After the affair between Charles and Camilla people are now speculating that William is following in his fathers footsteps. Fans believe he is cheating with Rose Hanbury, a longtime friend of the royal family. These rumors are not new as four years ago these same rumors were trending. Kate and Rose had been friends but seem to have drifted apart in recent years which helped add fuel to the fire. If this was the case it would be extremely similar to what happened between Charles, Diana, and Camilla. In the royal family it has been a common theme to have the women of the family receive the most backlash especially now with social media.
Another more far-fetched theory is that Kate did not go to the hospital for abdominal surgery but she was there because William had hurt her. A scandal of abuse is definitely something the royal family would not want in the public and could have lied to cover up. With her not being seen for two months and William only being seen visiting her at the hospital once fans are leaning more towards this theory. However, both theories of cheating and abuse seem unlikely because in the public William has always acted loving to his wife. Their meeting and marriage was always a fairytale and this continued into the rest of their marriage.
Kate has been spotted on a walk through shops with William and unedited photos have been shared across social media. This has disproved the conspiracy theories but some fans are hesitant to drop their ideas since they love to have a story to gossip about. Her official return is still set for after Easter when she will return to her royal duties. This story shows how easily social media can get out of hand especially for women of the royal family.
