To anyone who doubts Kate’s strength, don’t doubt.
After months of speculation, wild conspiracy theories, gross rumors and jokes about her condition, Kate Middleton revealed on Friday that she has cancer.
Will this be enough to silence skeptics, cynics and Sussex team members?
Seated 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 done that?
It seems fair to say that if the Palace had better handled the mounting mess surrounding her illness from the start, the answer might well be no.
Kate’s determination isn’t just down to revealing her cancer diagnosis and current chemotherapy treatments.
It is in sitting alone before the world, in the most polite attempt to silence everyone.
Kate’s determination isn’t just down to revealing her cancer diagnosis and current chemotherapy treatments. It is in sitting alone before the world, in the most polite attempt to silence everyone.
She opened her announcement in a sunlit garden, surrounded by blooming daffodils, smiling and sounding strong.
“I wanted to take this opportunity to personally thank you for all the wonderful messages of support and for your understanding while I was recovering from surgery,” she said.
Now that’s class. Kate completely ignored the incessant social media chatter, some of which came from American celebrities, mocking her and her once mysterious absence.
Her expression then turned somber and thoughtful.
Tests after her operation in January revealed that ‘cancer was present’ and she is now at the start of ‘a course of preventive chemotherapy’.
“This obviously 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,” she added.
Their children are 10, 8 and 5. Kate’s announcement came during their school Easter holidays.
“Most importantly,” she said, “it has taken us time to explain everything to George, Charlotte and Louis in a way that suits them, and to reassure them that I am doing well.”
But here was Sussex cheerleader Omid Scobie – shortly after journalists were warned in advance on Friday afternoon that an update on the princess’s health could be expected – a now-deleted ‘countdown clock’.
How completely reprehensible.
Scobie’s role as Harry and Meghan’s unofficial biographer reminds us of everything Kate has been through in recent years: ‘Kate made me cry!’, the release of her private text messages in ‘Spare’, ‘Endgame’ and the claims that she and King Charles, who himself was battling cancer, were the so-called ‘royal racists’.
Of course, all of this was followed by what I see as several PR missteps when Kate was first admitted to the hospital in January.
The most amateur mistake: the infamous Mother’s Day photo, released on March 10, which was quickly revealed to have been horribly Photoshopped and subsequently murdered by news agencies around the world – a mistake for which Kate took the blame.
I didn’t believe it was her fault then and I’ll never believe it now. It seems doubly cruel if she alone takes the fall, knowing she has cancer.
Here was Sussex cheerleader Omid Scobie – shortly after journalists were warned in advance on Friday afternoon that an update on the princess’s health could be expected – a now-deleted ‘countdown clock’.
Scobie’s role as Harry and Meghan’s unofficial biographer reminds us of everything Kate has been through in recent years: ‘Kate made me cry!’, the release of her private text messages in ‘Spare’, ‘Endgame’ and the claims that she and King Charles, who himself was battling 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.
A day later, the princess finally emerged, in what appeared to be damage control, photographed next to William in the back of a Range Rover. Unusually, she turned her head away from the cameras and towards a brick wall.
At the time I read that act as resistance. Maybe it was. Or maybe she was emotional.
Either way, Kate has been showing her strength this whole time.
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 for other people’s fuck-ups.”
“And is she to blame?” the friend asked. ‘Sorry no. That was (the Palace’s) failure and they should have taken the blame.’
The following weekend: Another attempt to quash 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 led to ridiculous theories about a body double, about Kate being hidden away somewhere, about “disappearing” for reasons other than health.
Kate became, unthinkably, a punchline, a potential scandal, just when she needed protection most.
The world only learned after her death that the late Queen Elizabeth had cancer. We know that King Charles has cancer, but his privacy is completely respected.
Why not Kate’s?
Just this week, the alarming news emerged that three staffers are being investigated at the London Clinic for trying to hack into her medical records – while news emerged that Kate has been working on her projects and patronages away from home, in preparation for a ‘soft launch’ of her return. to public life on Easter Sunday, in less than ten days.
Unlikely for someone who, as Kate told us, has started her chemotherapy treatments.
Clearly, someone had to take away control of this story to restore some dignity and privacy to the House of Wales. And it’s clear that person is Kate.
The world only learned after her death that the late Queen Elizabeth had cancer. We know that King Charles has cancer, but his privacy is completely respected. Why not Kate’s?
Just this week, the alarming news emerged that three staffers are being investigated at the London Clinic for trying to hack into her medical records – while news emerged that Kate was working on her projects away from home and preparing for a ‘soft launch’ of her return . to public life on Easter Sunday, in less than ten days.
I think it’s telling that she chose to deliver this news on her own. 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 the way she did.”
In fact, it is her right to resolve this PR nightmare as she sees fit.
So if she had to announce her diagnosis sooner than she planned or wanted — and it appears that might be the case, as a source close to her said Monday that she would speak out “when she returns to work after Easter ‘ — Kate has done it, it seems, on her own terms, with great composure and dignity.
What an elegant rebuke to anyone who thought the worst – not necessarily that Kate has been sick, but that she has been weak.
How wrong they were.