There is a long way between stealing a photo of a convalescent princess who asks for respect for her privacy and hastening the death of a king so that the news reaches the front page of The Times of the next day. The first thing happened this week, when the American gossip website TMZ obtained the most searched image by paparazzi: Princess of Wales, Catherine (Kate) Middleton, wearing dark glasses, in the passenger seat of an Audi 4×4 driven by her mother, around Windsor. The second, at 11 pm on January 20, 1936, when Dr. Lord Dawson decided to give a high dose of morphine and cocaine to a dying George V, grandson of Queen Victoria, so that he could die before midnight and enter the next day’s front page of that monarch’s favorite newspaper.
The British found out about this 50 years later, when the diaries of the king’s doctor came to light. Today, social networks and tabloids demand to know all the details regarding the health of the Princess of Wales, and the lack of information sparks speculation and rumors.
“And it is clear that, although we live in different times,” Fitzwilliams admits, “we should not allow social media to be the arbiter of this debate. Although a photo probably would have been smart casual from Kate. Nowadays, with our mobile phones, we are all paparazzi. In the United Kingdom they have chosen to avoid the TMZ photo, but it is not easy to find the balance of this dilemma.
And the current era does not privilege some victims over others. Meghan Markle, the Duchess of Sussex and wife of Prince Harry, denounced this Friday the “seemingly endless toxicity” of social media, and the “abuse and harassment” that she suffered during her two pregnancies. It is currency, in the tangle of news, gossip and slander that circulates on the Internet, the rivalry between Markle and Middleton, which they have never made an effort to conceal (and in the case of the former, has admitted it more openly). “As you think about it and think about it in your head, you keep wondering why people have so much hate. It’s not malicious, it’s cruel,” Markle told the audience at an event held in Austin around Women’s Day.
Not one but several unknowns
The British royal family has had an unfortunate start to the year, and the blame has been on their communications teams and the strategy deployed. King Charles III, 75 years old, wanted to be more transparent than the rest, as corresponds to the head of state, and has explained that he suffers from cancer and is withdrawing from face-to-face public activity for the duration of the treatment. Consequence: rumors and speculation about the type of cancer he suffers from.
The Duchess of Wales, 42, has only explained that she underwent “abdominal surgery” in mid-January. She spent two weeks convalescing in the hospital, and has disappeared from the public scene until at least the end of March. Consequence: hoaxes and conspiracy theories on the networks about the severity of her illness, and diagnoses without data.
Kensington Palace finally decided this Sunday to publish on the social network X (formerly Twitter) a photo of the princess and her children, supposedly taken at the beginning of last week, to try to stop the rumors. The excuse is the celebration of Mother’s Day in the United Kingdom, and Kate Middleton thanks in a brief message “the kind wishes and continued support received over the last two months.”
William of England, the heir, excused his presence on February 27, with just one hour’s notice, from the religious service held in St. George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle, in honor of his godfather, Constantine of Greece. Consequence: the Kensington Palace communications team was forced to explain that his unexpected scare has nothing to do with the health of his wife.
And when the newspaper The Times said this week that the queen consort Camilla, who has been carrying the institutional representation on her shoulders for a month – William had taken a few weeks to take care of the family – was going to go on vacation for 10 days (“to a sunny place, outside the country “) to rest, the world press panicked. The monarch has been going on vacation at this time of year for years, but in the current situation of confusion and sick leave, her absence caused the perfect storm.
But if the traditional press hardly tolerates information gaps, on social networks they become unbearable. The British media have respected both Charles III’s decision not to give more details about his cancer and Middleton’s decision to preserve her intimate life. In the case of the first, because the level of transparency offered has been sufficient – for the moment – and because of the respect due to the monarch. In Middleton’s, surely, because the lessons learned from the abuse that Lady Di suffered during her day have been useful.
As the BBC’s royal affairs correspondent, Sean Coughlan, pointed out this week, when information is excessively rationed, the answers offered by the respective communications teams only raise new questions.
Although image experts offer a simpler solution to the mystery surrounding the Princess of Wales: apart from the error caused by the stolen TMZ photo, the strategy pursued by Middleton’s team was probably to choose the best moment, the best stage, and the best costumes for a public return that would silence rumors and speculation.
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