As we discussed, People Magazine’s cover story this week is all about the Princess of Wales’s public reappearance. A lot of people are milking this for all its worth. Which I understand in some sense – Kate’s disappearance for nearly six months was one of the strangest and craziest things to ever happen to the Windsors. It is legitimately major news that she came outside. I think what’s bothering me about the post-Trooping conversation is the complete lack of answers about what the hell happened in the past six months. Why the lies, why the frankenphotos and faked “sightings”? I still don’t really get it. But in lieu of answers to those questions, we’re getting soft-focus sh-t about Kate saving the monarchy. More highlights from People’s cover story:
William & Kate command secrecy: “It is really impressive how they are still able to command all this secrecy,” royal historian Amanda Foreman tells PEOPLE exclusively in this week’s cover story. “They are totally running this.”
Few people know what’s going on with the Waleses: Wary of leaks to the press, Princess Kate had been open about her cancer diagnosis to some, but other close friends and confidants were unaware. A former palace aide previously told PEOPLE: “The circle of knowledge was very tight.”
William is a huge support: “To use the late Queen’s language, they are each other’s strength and stay for all these years; she will continue to be a real source of strength for him as he prepares to be the next King,” says royal biographer Sally Bedell Smith. “But since this befell them, he has been a huge support for her — not only behind closed doors but also in going out in public and carrying out his job. Watching the two of them on the palace balcony, you could see their bond — and their bond with the children.”
The same emotions as lesser mortals: “She might be the Princess of Wales, but she is still a mother and wife and going through the same set of emotions and worries and fears as anyone else in that set of circumstances would be,” Ailsa Anderson, former press secretary to Queen Elizabeth, tells PEOPLE exclusively in this week’s cover story.
Unforgiving: The Princess of Wales, 42, radiated strength during her first public appearance in nearly six months at King Charles’ official birthday parade in London on June 15, but a source close to the royal household adds, “The treatment is punishing, and it is different for different people. And the side effects can be unforgiving.”
The way the post-Trooping PR has played out, it feels like Kensington Palace is back in charge of their own messaging once again, and that’s not a compliment. The messaging is chaotic: Kate is the bravest, most important higher mortal ever but she’s also just-like-you, with the same peasant emotions. The quote is bonkers given everything that’s gone down: “It is really impressive how they are still able to command all this secrecy…They are totally running this.” They were not, in fact, running this. Kensington Palace’s clownery had international media agencies like AFP, AP, Getty and Reuters publicly calling out their lies and lack of credibility. Their whole operation had to be taken over, for several months, by Buckingham Palace because KP made such a hash of it. Even if all of this was simply about “William and Kate demand secrecy and privacy for every part of their lives,” that alone is a horrible message from two supposed public servants who live on the taxpayer’s largesse.
Cover courtesy of People, additional photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.
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- A new photograph of Catherine, Princess of Wales, has been released ahead of her appearance at Trooping the Colour on Saturday 15 June 2024.,Image: 881655614, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: *** NO UK USE FOR 48 HRS ***, Model Release: no, Credit line: Matt Porteous / Avalon
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- Catherine The Princess of Wales attends the The King’s Birthday Parade at Horse Guards Parade, London, England, UK on Saturday 15 June, 2024.,Image: 881844189, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: Please credit photographer and agency when publishing as Justin Ng/UPPA/Avalon., Model Release: no, Credit line: Justin Ng / Avalon
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- London, UK. 15th June 2024. Catherine, the Princess of Wales rides in a carriage with her children and waves at the crowds. The annual Trooping the Colour ceremonial procession for the King’s Birthday makes its way from Buckingham Palace to Horse Guards Parade for proceedings there, and back to the Palace for a balcony appearance. Catherine, the Princess of Wales, is making her first public appearance this year.,Image: 881847743, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: Imageplotter / Avalon
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- Prince George, Prince Louis, Prince William, Prince of Wales, Catherine, Princess of Wales and Princess Charlotte on the palace balcony following Trooping the Colour on Saturday 15 June 2024 at Buckingham Palace, London. Trooping the Colour is a traditional parade held to mark the British Sovereign’s official birthday. This year the colours were trooped by The Irish Guards. .,Image: 881850906, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: World Rights – Julie Edwards/Avalon.Red, Model Release: no, Credit line: Julie Edwards / Avalon
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- Prince George, Prince Louis, Prince William, Prince of Wales, Catherine, Princess of Wales and Princess Charlotte on the palace balcony following Trooping the Colour on Saturday 15 June 2024 at Buckingham Palace, London. Trooping the Colour is a traditional parade held to mark the British Sovereign’s official birthday. This year the colours were trooped by The Irish Guards. .,Image: 881850912, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: World Rights – Julie Edwards/Avalon.Red, Model Release: no, Credit line: Julie Edwards / Avalon
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- Prince William of Wales, Catherine Princess of Wales, Prince George, Prince Louis arrive at Buckingham Palace for Trooping the Colour 2024 ceremony, marking the monarch’s official birthday in London. Featuring: William, Prince of Wales and Catherine, Princess of Wales with Prince Louis and Prince George Where: London, United Kingdom When: 15 Jun 2024 Credit: Dutch Press Photo/Cover Images **NOT AVAILABLE FOR PUBLICATION IN THE NETHERLANDS OR FRANCE**
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- During appearance on the Buckingham Palace balcony to watch the flypast during Trooping the Colour 2024 ceremony, marking the monarch’s official birthday. Featuring: Prince William of Wales, Catherine Princess of Wales Where: London, United Kingdom When: 15 Jun 2024 Credit: Dutch Press Photo/Cover Images **NOT AVAILABLE FOR PUBLICATION IN THE NETHERLANDS OR FRANCE**
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- During appearance on the Buckingham Palace balcony to watch the flypast during Trooping the Colour 2024 ceremony, marking the monarch’s official birthday. Featuring: Prince William of Wales, Catherine Princess of Wales, Prince George, Princess Charlotte, Prince Louis Where: London, United Kingdom When: 15 Jun 2024 Credit: Dutch Press Photo/Cover Images **NOT AVAILABLE FOR PUBLICATION IN THE NETHERLANDS OR FRANCE**
They command nothing. They just suck at telling the truth and their web of lies create chaos.
The more I look at the untouched photo’s of Kate the more I’m leaning into the theory that she had a facelift – she’s not as jowlly as she used to be, her face is overall tighter looking. Plus she looked rather tanned, something that is not from a spray tan as her derangers are trying to say – she’s not orange for a start.
They ‘command’ all this secrecy though misuse of super injunctions. How many do they have now against the UK media?
I don’t need the photos. I just know that a woman as vain as Kate will get a facelift.
I’m not seeing the facelift, at least, if she had one, it wasn’t a great one. However, as an old wrinkly myself, I have been investigating facelifts and people look normal enough to go out in public with make-up on 2 to 3 weeks later. Even allowing for close-up photography, a couple of months would do it. You don’t need six months off, so, she may or may not have had plastic surgery but she certainly didn’t need to take as long as she did to recover from that Massive scar on the face to fade so it’s not so noticeable? Yeah, that would take the time that she has taken.
A good face-lift makes you look rested. She’s had an eye lift and lower face lift. Doing a full would be too obvious, so you can see her jowels and eye bags are gone. Only surgery can do that. Look at the horse’s wedding pics to Chuck. She had a full face-lift and neck lift. She looked rested and refreshed. She had a good surgeon bc she didn’t look pulled.
It wasn’t a regular face lift. She had reconstruction. A good blow to that area or injury in a car accident or whatever might call for reconstruction. Surgeon goes to fix that, he has almost certainly pulled the jowels up to access the extra tissue needed for the repair. He then does the same on the other side just to “even it out”.
Hence why it looks like a face lift. Plus, as you pull the jowels up, the neck skin also lifts.
She had reconstruction. Why did she need it??? You tell me.
@Renae — Good take. I think many of us suspect the reason. I have a close friend who had Graves Disease which caused one eye to bulge out. Once she got over it the eyelid was noticeably droopy so she had surgery to lift it back up, but had to have the other eye done to “even them out”.
As an old OR nurse, I have witnessed facelifts. They do everything in the hair for a brow lift, not above the eyebrows. They do infront of the ears to pull the skin taut, the jowls were pulled from just behind the ear. That was 40 years ago so things may have changed but they try to make incisions in places not noticeable not over the eyebrow. I had to get my eyes done as the lids drooped so badly I had to hold them up with two finger to read. I’m 83. The incision line is in the natural fold of my eye. ..
Visible only if you were looking for it.
So someone just had a 6 month vacation…
Digital Unicorn, Last weekend I watched Bridgerton 3, and the Cressida Cowper character reminds me of K a bit. Mean girl, tough family and sad backstory, still a mean girl.
In truly untouched photos, I honestly do not see that she’s had a facelift. I don’t understand if she did, why it was so poorly done—to me the facial changes scream reconstruction. Which pictures are giving you the impression that she stayed away for half a year with the other royals cooperation for a facelift?
If you look at the photos of her in Denmark from the Danish press as well as one where she has a red turtleneck on, you can see she was tightened up in the face and no cream does that.
The side views are where you really see the difference. She’s smiling a lot in the trooping photos to hide the obvious effects but I bet we will see it more at Wimbledon where she doesn’t smile most of the time.
A facelift would explain the puffy face in the car with Carole and how suddenly her under eye bags are 3/4 reduced, jowls much better and neck tighter.
I keep seeing people saying a facelift only takes week to recover from, but that’s not true for a public figure – especially one who will be photographed from every angle. doctors say it takes 6 months even a year to be at the ideal results.
none of us know what’s happened, but she looks remarkable refreshed for someone on chemo. Either they’re photoshopping her way too much or she had work done.
She had recovered enough for the bench video. I will say that one was her without eye makeup.
(Also notice how much her hair covers the left eye in that video).
I think she had work done. I dont know if it was a facelift, but she looks different and its not just photoshop. We’re used to seeing photoshopped pictures of her. i think this is something else.
Do I think she took 6 months off to have it done? I dont know. do I think it was more reconstructive? I dont know. But she looks different.
My line of thinking at this point is that if she sustained facial and jaw injuries, she had reconstructive surgery rather than a facelift. Did it work out in her favor that she got a six month vacation? Not the way I’m sure even lazy Doolittle would want and that also had to be a grueling recovery period. I don’t like her, but if that’s the way things went down that’s really awful for her and for the kids who had to see all this.
I don’t think that’s the REASON for the 6-month hiatus, but sure, why not, throw in a facelift if you’re going underground for an indeterminate length of time.
@amb, 💯
I don’t think she’s had a facelift. The photos in the carriage were photoshopped to hell and back, as per. This is her go to photoshop situation; going into a building, with a look over the shoulder at her fave photographer, or looking out of a car/carriage window. I think these photos are almost arranged, and also perhaps easier to edit – think of the DoE funeral car photo, with Kate looking out the window. So, in the carriage she looked fine. Totally what I expected. The photos side-on as she walked around are more realistic. She still has the jowls and bags etc. Ditto on the balcony. I really think she’s ill, not facelift recovering. Who knows. Give it a few months and she’ll restart the tweakments. I saw no difference. In conclusion!
I wish George Orwell was around to give us his take on all of this. I think the man who invented the term “memory hole” would have thoughts.
Well for sure we know the Fiction Department is up and running, and well maintained by the RR.
Positively Orwellian.
Orwell (like most British people) was never overly concerned with the Royal family. He’d ben focused on things like Putin, Xi, Trump, silicon valley, AI, social media and poverty.
No, he would be on this. The current batch of royals is living proof of everything he detested about elites. He could walk and chew gum.
If you asked him a direct question, then yes of course he’s not going to be complimentary about any aristocrats (including Harry and Meghan). The man was a democratic socialist.
That said, the Royal family have no real power so they wouldn’t have been in his top 100 concerns.
He also wasn’t in favour of abolishing the monarchy as from a pragmatic stand point, he thought they served as a buffer to prime ministers becoming dictators. It’s a weird contradiction that constitutional monachies are less vulnerable to dictatorships because they make it harder for the Orbans, Erdogans and Trumps to present themselves as the sole personification of patriotism and national loyalty.
The British monarchs since Victoria have tended to not overtly express their abuse of power and keep it behind the scenes. That might change with William.
But they don’t have to be openly dictatorial because the British people give them all that they want anyway.
the modern royal family is a weapon of propaganda to distract from what the Tories are doing that has led to poverty, Brexit, etc so I’d imagine they would be right up his alley today.
But after 14 long years change in command is coming!
Moderate Starmer and Labour will be in power! Plus Meghan will be on every tv, everyday in the UK in reruns of Suits for YEARS to come.
Have fun commanding that, Tories and Royalists protecting KP, TRF and the likes of Piers Morgan and the British Media!
Interesting how they are allowed “secrecy”, but the media thought H&M didn’t deserve any privacy at all.
Meghan was told we pay you pose.
When is the South Park episode about the Wales going around the world asking for secrecy airing ?
The South Park episode with Kate and W’s wedding is the one to bookmark
Why in the hell do they need secrecy? What exactly are they doing behind closed doors? Using the word secrecy sure sounds sinister.
For some reason, “secrecy” does sound sinister compared to, for example, “privacy.” But William likely does have a ton of skeletons in his closet, so I guess it fits.
Oh, FFS. It’s really easy to command secrecy when you have permanent boot on the neck of your country’s media and a work ethic that sloths envy.
The WaPo fiasco is really showing how corrupt a lot of the British editors tend to be. And the access journalism that Maggie Haberman was called out on is basically par for the course for British journalism well beyond just one paper or network.
Nic919, Yes, it’s been shocking reading how normalized criminal behavior is in British journalism! It’s not in the US (and Canada I presume) or where I live in Europe. Yet. And if you open the door to breaking the law to get and print your information, how trustworthy is that? I’m glad Winnett didn’t make it at WaPo, I desperately hope Lewis doesn’t either. I’m proud of all the journalists who are calling this out.
I don’t understand why this is still an issue. Where is all the righteous fury I remember from the years after Diana died? Did everyone just shrug and give up?
None of this is credible and I think in the long run will have done more damage than they anticipate. On the other hand – the “peasants” in the UK have been treated like this for centuries and may just continue to swallow it whole.
You only have to look at long term polling trends when it comes to the monarchy and the lack of interest and enthusiasm from the young to know that this royal soap opera has had an effect on the way people view the monarchy. I’m not saying the monarchy is about to be abolished but the respect that Elizabeth II commanded in no longer there.
Was it only 8% of all Britons had heard about Kate at TOC? It was really low and of that mostly older white women.
Yes, all these antics just accentuate the feeling that these are not real people, that they’re just characters in a TV show and whose actions and experiences don’t matter in real life. Maybe if W&K had done more real work that actually helped people and showed empathy, they wouldn’t need ass-kissing stories and fake photos to get the people to love them.
All I’m getting is that they have a lot of secrets to hide.
Yes, we’re soooo great at keeping secrets! One of went to MI-6, and even they agreed. Haha!
Edit: One of us went to MI-6…
People is just trolling us 🙃
W is doing a piss-poor job of being a huge support. He’s been less industrious than usual this year, he’s not been going to visit her in the hospital, nor did he seem to be running to-and-from, repeat: to-and-from school, and he certainly wasn’t supportive in public during Trooping.
I wonder how much People got bribed to print this?
So, you don’t think day drinking is supportive?
Cheersh *hic*
Are People’s sales/clicks higher when they publish this dreck? Are there that many people out there who would rather consume what is clearly basically fan fiction?
They are so bad at This praising themselves for hiding things when they are so obviously inept.
Kim Jong Un palace praises itself for telling big lies. Media claps.
They can command secrecy because they’re the great hope of the royal family, lot of people have a vested interested in ensuring it’s continuing. Harry and Meghan were gonna play the game but it became clear that even if they played the game, the papers will not leave them alone it was literally a lose lose situation for the Sussexes.
Why do they need to command secrecy? That’s the real question. What do they need to hide?
Well they wanted to hide that she had cancer. Kate admitted that. She wanted the children to get used to the fact before/instead of the rest of the world (i.e. other kids at school) found out. It’s pretty obvious that they would not have said anything were if not for the fact that the tabloids started jumping on the conspiracy bandwagon and sending photographers to get photos of her on the school run or going shopping.
My point is , she didn’t have cancer or leprosy or AIDS or the plague , so the question of hiding it doesnt arise . Have lost too many people to malignancies and invasive treatments to not recognize the look , and I can bet my bottom dollar they are all lying .
Kate never had cancer.
I still believe the secrecy conceals domestic violence.
@ArtFossil — I totally agree, and have thought that from the beginning. These people will lie about literally anything and have the tabloids and rota covering for them by printing utter garbage for clicks and revenue. Must protect the heir come hell or high water. What I find especially sickening is the Middletons toadying up to William now that Kate has come out of seclusion. Their whole relationship with him is built on nothing more than quid pro quo.
They didn’t command secrecy. Becky English literally ruled out cancer as soon as the abdominal surgery was announced. So they lied.
@Artfossil, BINGO!
That’s why Will was persona non grata with the family for months.
Right? Why all the secrecy? Why the refusal to say what kind of surgery it was, why the refusal to say more about the type of cancer it is, why the refusal to give a clear timeline on her return to public duties?
Secrecy is different from privacy and its not a good look for publicly funded royals.
This is all so stupid. Of course, they’re able to command secrecy – they’re royals, they’re super rich and they have a deal with the press.
It’s very interesting that the press have allowed William and Kate to have privacy and secrecy when they demanded to know everything about Harry and Meghan. Furthermore, this whole situation has shown that the Palace has the ability to protect of the Royal Family and that all the leaks about Harry and Meghan were coming from the Palace.
Like, literally. They literally proved every word Harry and Meghan said about the conspiracy between the royals and the media to abuse the Sussexes was the absolute truth.
BP and KP could have supported and protected Harry, Meghan, Archie and Lily. But they choose to attack them and *encourage* the public to hate them.
Which shows what a horrible father and grandfather Charles is.
These two are really going to be sh!t at the top job.
At the moment we are dealing with a divorce in the family and the person being divorced is a malignant narcissist with coercive control issues. He writes a lot of emails where he simply states what he wishes to be true in defiance of the facts. It’s quite a thing to read when you know what actually happened and you know that he knows that you know what actually happened and yet the emails are self assured, calm, apparently logical and entirely believable if you didn’t know the truth. This press release sounds exactly the same as those emails to me.
As someone elsewhere on here said “it’ll bite them in the end”.
And, if you really stand back and look at it, the frankenphoto being withdrawn by all the world’s press was beyond scandalous. They sure were bitten by that and I’m certain shocked to the core.
Well, it’ll happen again
That single photo of Waity smiling at Bill that’s been all over the place to show “See? They are still madly in love!!” — she’s not even looking at him.
It really struck me this time how they’re really grimacing at each other. And you’d swear they’re actively wishing death on each other.
They do this ALL the time @Grimly Fiendish. It drives me up the wall. Rarely, in recent years, is there a true photo of them actually both looking at each other and interacting. Most often, it’s Kate over compensating with a manic expression looking at Will and he’s looking somewhere past her.
They’re also photographed to make it look like they are holding hands when they are walking staggered, one slightly in front of the other, with arms at sides. Whatever Chris Jackson gets from them in the way of money, favours, etc is not enough…he helps in a big way to sell their “loving marriage” narrative.
There is video of that moment and it is very obvious in the video that while Kate turned in his direction with a large smile, she wasn’t really looking at him directly.
The press were given ordered to watch for that brief moment because they don’t even have anything else. And there is video where William clearly snapped at her on the balcony too.
So, let me get this straight, they’re on the public dole and get to have privacy but when Harry and Meghan asked for it, they were told no. When Harry and Meghan got off the public dole they still had no right to ask for privacy. Wow…..
That’s it in a nutshell.
If WanK want the privacy of the Montecito crew, they need to PAY THEIR OWN WAY like the Montecito crew.
Dassit, End of.
You don’t get to pull down billions of pounds a year in funding so you can hide in a cottage or castle or wherethefrickever, when your own “subjects” are going hungry, going without necessary medicine, and surgeries, and cancer treatments, and aren’t able to get fuel for their homes.
For the royals to claim they deserve all that money because they serve the public, but then scoff at the idea that they must INTERACT with said public, is an indescribable atrocity. That money, their vast offshore wealth, is STOLEN WAGES from the hardworking people of the UK. People are dying in penury, because of the royal family. Have been for generations. It’s an abomination. What “service” are they providing? I fail to see it. The world fails to see it.
Royals may flinch slightly, and courtiers may curl their lip at the “Not My King” protests now, but these are tame. These are peaceful and calm. Push the commoners too far and the BRF and their sycophantic hobgoblins are going to get a reality check that won’t bounce. It’s not enough to show up at a soup kitchen with a few cans of food or a promise of a new refrigerator now. Climate change-spawned crop failures across the globe are only going to make things more dire, as is currently being demonstrated in India right now.
The Wails trying to compete with the Sussexes once again. They are truly stealth w/o any leaking to the press. The Wails are beyond inept and sloppy when trying to do secret things. The last 6 months are proof. How miserable you have to be as a prince and future king that needs to be competing constantly with your little brother.
That picture where they are grimacing at each other looks odd to me. Kate’s hat doesn’t seem quite right, as though it’s not on her head. Also her hair looks peculiarly delineated, almost outlined which doesn’t seem quite right for a long distance photo. Is it a trick of the light or is there something wrong with this picture?
I get so mad because whatever the reason she has for not working, there are actual women/mothers out there who are truly going through something or the other and can’t afford not to work. Kate gets all the public funding and doesn’t have to lift a finger and it’s so unfair to the regular Jane and jackie.
That makes me angry too. I don’t think they lied but they certainly haven’t told the whole truth and I doubt they ever will.
Unlike most people, I don’t think there’s a divorce coming. W needs K. She and Ma Midds mommy him. He seems like the type to need that and I’m sure Ma Midds was mommying both W&K through whatever they were going through. I do think DV could have happened and that led to K having the upper hand to get plastic surgery and oodles of time off. I don’t know of any cancer patients who have gone through “grueling chemo” that can prance around in a dress and high heels and look perfectly refreshed. Although the rest of us have to actually work for a living so maybe that’s the difference.
And all this talk of W being supportive on the balcony. It was the usual one sided scene with Kate laughing it up and W looking like he wished she would shut up.
But if it were d v. Would not there still be a,risk and did William go to counseling
Interesting how they’re lauded for their secrecy and subterfuge, but privacy is used as a stick to beat the Sussexes with whenever they do anything outside or don’t randomly display their kids. The bar really is in hell with the clown comms show.
Rich enough to create their own reality…
Strange concept…
Dark Triad ???
Now that she’s back from hiatus, the rags can write three stories a week about her strong marriage and how great she is with her kids!
I’m gonna start writing three articles a week about what a support and source of strength I am for my husband and how bonded I am with my own kids. And I don’t even have to go to journalism school!!!