Unless you’ve been living under a rock, I’m sure you’ve heard at least some of the controversy surrounding Kate Middleton, the Princess of Wales, who was labeled ‘missing’ by the public. I want to take a deep dive into the timeline of the events that have led to multiple theories about where she could have been and why it was kept under wraps by the Royal family.
Christmas Day, Dec. 25th, 2023 was Middleton’s last public appearance. She was attending a service at Saint Mary Magdalene Church in Norfolk with her husband, Prince William, and their three children as well as other members of the Royal family. Everything seemed completely normal and except for a finger injury Middleton had sustained from earlier in the ear, she seemed to be in perfect health. However, on Dec. 28th – only three days later – an ambulance with a police escort was seen leaving Sandringham House. There still hasn’t been any public statement made by the Royals about what or who that was about. This event was the calm before the storm: at this point, no one was too concerned and nothing about Middleton’s health was revealed. In fact, most people thought the ambulance was for King Charles III because of his age.
On Jan. 17th, Kensington Palace announced that Middleton had been admitted to a hospital for “planned” abdominal surgery on Jan. 16th. The statement claimed the surgery went well and the Princess of Wales would remain in the hospital for two weeks before returning home, but that she would not return to public duties until after Easter. This all seemed pretty normal except for the fact that during her stay at the hospital, which was revealed to be The London Clinic, the only people to visit her were King Charles III, Queen Camilla, and Prince William, all of whom only visited once. People flocked to give reasons why her children did not visit: this was the first moment many people started feeling like something suspicious was going on. However, I think the most reasonable conclusion is that children are not allowed to visit The London Clinic and Middleton was using technology to stay in touch with them.
What shocked people is that while Kensington Palace said that the surgery was planned, it appeared to have come to a surprise to many friends of the Royal family. On Jan. 24 sources said Middleton’s health was kept under wraps from even the people who worked at Kensington Palace: most of the staff believed Middleton to be in perfect health up until she was admitted to the hospital. One of the first theories came out around this time when Spanish journalist, Concha Calleja, stated that Middleton was in fact in an induced coma. The journalist told her TV show, “Fiesta” about her theory, saying she had sources close to the Royal family who had given her this insight but no names were given. This theory was quickly shot down however by Kensington Palace, which put out a statement on Jan. 29th saying Middleton was released from the hospital and returning home to Windsor to continue her recovery. While this shot down one rumor, many more arose. People began to wonder why there were no photos of Middleton leaving the hospital, stating it was sketchy how secretive the move was.
All was quiet until Feb. 27th, when Prince William pulled out of a memorial service for his godfather, King Constantine of Greece, where he was meant to give a speech. According to the Prince, he pulled out due to a “personal matter”; this vague reason caused an uproar of people being concerned about if something happened with Middleton. At that point, the Princess of Wales had not been seen for over two months and concern was steadily rising. With this came the rise of conspiracy theories about where Kate was, why she hadn’t been seen, and what could’ve started her strange absence. Many were convinced the Royal family had done something to Middleton, citing what had happened to the late Princess Diana as reason to believe the royals could be behind something suspicious.
TikTok user @matta_of_fact – whose account focuses on the Royal family – made a video saying people were digging in too deep and that Middleton wanted privacy around her health because of all the work she has done to build her image as the “perfect princess”. In the video, the TikToker states that Middleton has carefully cultivated her perfect image, especially as a member of the royal family, and to do that a high level of privacy must be kept so the public doesn’t notice any wavering in her “perfect princess” image.
It turns out @matta_of_fact was right; on March 4, 2024, Middleton was seen being driven around by her mother in London. But atlas, this citing was not good enough for the public and people began claiming the woman in the car was not Kate Middleton but was actually her sister, Pippa Middleton: disguised as the Princess of Wales to stop the prying public.
This is where people began to look into the marriage between Middleton and Prince William, speculating that they were going through a divorce due to the alleged affair the prince was having with Rose Hanbury the Marchioness of Cholomondeley, a friend of both the Prince and the Princess of Wales. However, Hanbury’s lawyers have spoken up and said these rumors are entirely false and Hanbury was not involved in an affair with Prince William.
The biggest conspiracy came when on March 10th(Mother’s Day in the United Kingdom) Kensington Palace posted a photo of Middleton with her three children. Quickly, fans began to notice weird editing in the photo surrounding some of the children’s arms and fingers. People also pointed out Middleton’s face was edited and it appeared to have been taken from a Vogue photoshoot from years prior. As more and more people began saying things on various social media platforms about the photo, a tweet on the shared X account for the Prince and Princess of Wales was posted where Middleton admitted to editing the photo and had left many mistakes because she isn’t very good at it. While this would’ve been a very understandable explanation for a poorly edited photo, the public didn’t really buy the story. After all, why would a Princess be editing her own photos?
Another rumor began after this suspicious tweet: claiming the Princess of Wales was dead and that the Royal Family was using editing software to make it seem like she was still alive. This is one of the crazier theories; why would the royals keep Middleton’s death a secret and go to lengths to make it seem like she was still alive? Personally, I think the photo was created using editing software because Middleton wasn’t healthy enough to take a new photo with her children on Mother’s Day. However, no further explanation for the photo was given by Middleton or any of the Royal press.
Then, on March 17, multiple social media posts claimed the BBC was on standby to receive massive news from Buckingham Palace. This news quickly spread across social media: fans assumed this meant either King Charles III or Middleton had died. However, nothing was confirmed and the BBC did not have anything to report from the palace after a few days.
The next day (March 18), TMZ and The Sun published a video depicting Prince William and Kate Middleton walking around the Windsor Farm Shop. Of course, conspiracy theorists were quick to create theories, saying the Royal Family was forcing Middleton to pretend everything was okay and that her recovery was going well. This idea was rooted in the theory that the couple was going through a divorce due to Prince William’s alleged affair. People began to wonder if Prince William had impregnated his mistress– which many still believed to be Hanbury – and that Middleton had had enough but was so power-hungry she would not leave him. Nonetheless, the video proved Middleton was still alive, putting to rest at least one of the many rumors.
Now that the public knew the Princess of Wales was still alive, the new question was, why was she hidden for so long? Of course, the original statement from Kensington Palace about her planned abdominal surgery said she would be out of public duties until after Easter but that did not mean she couldn’t go outside at all. On March 22, Middleton released a video on all of her and Prince Williams’s joint social media accounts confirming where she had been. In the video, Middleton announced through further testing after her abdominal surgery in January, doctors discovered cancerous cells in her system. She explained how she has been undergoing preventative chemotherapy, explaining her absence from the public eye. She did not indicate the type or the stage of the cancer but did talk about the process as if it was all in the past, saying “there were cancer cells”: leading the public to believe she is cancer-free now. Since then, the Royal Family has yet to make any more comments about Middleton’s health.
Almost three months since Christmas Day, when the suspicions surrounding Middleton’s absence from the media started, the quest to find out what is going on with Kate Middleton has been solved by the princess herself.
I personally think we should take this situation as a learning experience that public figures – including princesses –need privacy. It is harmful that Middleton was going through medical issues and the media were poking into her marriage and personal life. I’m sending out my thoughts and warm wishes to Kate Middleton and her entire family and I hope she gets better very soon.