To anyone who would doubt Kate’s strength – don’t.
After months of speculation, wild conspiracy theories, dirty rumors and jokes about her condition, Kate Middleton revealed on Friday that she has cancer.
Will this be enough to silence skeptics, cynics and members of the Sussex team?
Sitting on a bench in Windsor, dressed casually in jeans and a nautical striped sweater, the Princess of Wales gave her most personal speech yet.
Should she have had to?
It seems fair to say that had the palace better handled the growing mess surrounding her illness from the start, the answer might well be no.
Kate’s steadfastness isn’t just about revealing her cancer diagnosis and current chemotherapy treatments.
It’s in sitting in front of the world, alone, in the politest effort to shut everyone up.
Kate’s steadfastness isn’t just about revealing her cancer diagnosis and current chemotherapy treatments. It’s in sitting in front of the world, alone, in the politest effort to shut everyone up.
She opened her announcement in a sunlit garden, surrounded by blooming daffodils, smiling and strong.
“I would like to take this opportunity to say thank you personally for all the wonderful messages of support and for your understanding as I recover from surgery,” she said.
Now that’s class. Kate completely ignored the incessant chatter on social media, some coming from American celebrities, mocking her and her once mysterious absence.
Her expression then turned somber and thoughtful.
Tests after her operation in January, she said, ‘found cancer had been present’ and she is now at the beginning of ‘a course of preventive chemotherapy’.
“Obviously this came as a huge shock,” she continued, “and William and I have done everything we can to process and manage this privately for the sake of our young family.”
Their children are 10, 8 and 5. Kate’s announcement was timed for their Easter break in the school holidays.
“Most importantly,” she said, “it has taken us time to explain everything to George, Charlotte and Louis in a way that is appropriate for them and to reassure them that I will be fine.”
But here was Sussex cheerleader Omid Scobie – shortly after reporters had been alerted on Friday afternoon that an update on the princess’s health was imminent – posting a now-deleted ‘countdown clock’.
Like this was a game. How childish. How creepy and reprehensible.
Scobie’s role as Harry and Meghan’s unofficial biographer serves as a reminder of everything Kate has been through over the past few years: ‘Kate made me cry!’, the release of her private text messages in ‘Spare’, ‘Endgame ‘ and claims that she and King Charles, who himself battled cancer, were the so-called ‘royal racists’.
All of this was, of course, followed by what I perceive to be several PR missteps once Kate was hospitalized in January.
The most amateurish mistake: The infamous Mother’s Day photo, released on March 10, which was quickly revealed to have been horribly photoshopped, subsequently killed by news agencies worldwide – a mistake that Kate took the blame.
I didn’t think it was her fault then, and I never will now. It seems doubly cruel for her to take the fall alone since she has so recently been diagnosed with cancer.
Here was Sussex cheerleader Omid Scobie – shortly after reporters had been alerted on Friday afternoon that an update on the princess’s health was imminent – posting a now-deleted ‘countdown clock’.
Scobie’s role as Harry and Meghan’s unofficial biographer serves as a reminder of everything Kate has been through over the past few years: ‘Kate made me cry!’, the release of her private text messages in ‘Spare’, ‘Endgame ‘ and claims that she and King Charles, who himself battled cancer, were the so-called ‘royal racists’.
Prince William, we have now learned, suddenly pulled out of his godfather King Constantine’s memorial service on February 27, just after he and Kate were informed of her cancer diagnosis.
On March 11, Kate’s Photoshop apology was released.
Later that day, the princess finally appeared in what appeared to be damage control, photographed next to William in the back of a Range Rover. Uncharacteristically, she turned her head away from the cameras towards a brick wall.
At the time, I read that act as defiance. Maybe it was. Or maybe she was emotional.
Either way, Kate has signaled her strength all along.
Days later, several of her friends spoke publicly. A report in the Daily Beast quoted a friend as saying how unfair it was for Kate to be “harassed by the media over f***-ups made by other people”.
“And is she to blame?” asked the friend. ‘Unfortunately no. It was (the mansion’s) failure and they should have taken the blame.’
The following weekend: Another attempt to quell the rumours, a ‘proof of life’ video of Kate and William walking from a farm shop near Windsor looking well and happy.
This did not have the intended effect. Instead, this short clip spurred absurd theories of a body double, of Kate being put up somewhere, of ‘disappearing’ for reasons other than health.
Kate unimaginably became a punchline, a potential scandal, at the very time when she most needed protection.
The world did not learn that the late Queen Elizabeth had cancer until after she died. We know King Charles has cancer, but his privacy has been completely respected.
Why not Kate’s?
This week saw the alarming news that three staff members are under investigation at the London Clinic for trying to hack into her medical records – while news emerged that Kate was working away on her projects and patronage from home, preparing for to “soft launch” her return to public life on Easter Sunday, less than ten days away.
Unlikely for someone who, as Kate told us, has started her chemotherapy treatments.
Clearly, someone needed to wrest control of this narrative in order to restore some dignity and privacy to the House of Wales. And obviously that person is Kate.
The world did not learn that the late Queen Elizabeth had cancer until after she died. We know King Charles has cancer, but his privacy has been completely respected. Why not Kate’s?
This week saw the alarming news that three staff members are under investigation at the London Clinic for trying to hack into her medical records – while news broke that Kate was working away on her projects and patronage from home, preparing to “soft launch” her return to public life on Easter Sunday, less than ten days away.
Tellingly, I think she chose to sit alone to deliver this news. It is a show of great personal strength and character.
Charles said in a statement immediately after Kate’s announcement that he is “so proud of Catherine for her courage to speak out as she did.”
In fact: it is her right to decide this PR nightmare as she sees fit.
So if she were to announce her diagnosis sooner than she had planned or wanted — and it looks like she might, as a source close to her said Monday that she would speak out “when she goes back to work after Easter” – Kate has, it seems, done it on her own terms, with great poise and dignity.
What an elegant rebuke to all those who thought the worst – not necessarily that Kate has been ill, but that she has been weak.
How wrong they were.