I love it when you guys theorize that royal reporters are secretly Prince William and Kate’s biggest opps. I’ve long believed that royal rota reporters see themselves more as gatekeepers to the Waleses in particular, and that there’s a lot of “common knowledge” among the rota, stuff which is barely ever reported but is often hinted at within various stories. What’s gone down this year has broken a lot of codes and agreements though, and we could see that with our own eyes as the rota tried to contain the five-alarm PR fire that happened in the first three months of the year. Lies, manipulated photos, secrets, a missing princess, day-drinking, it was all pretty bizarre. Months later, people are still trying to work out exactly what happened and whether the stories we were fed were all lies. Which is why it caught on when Rhiannon Mills at Sky News seemingly let the cat out of the bag when she emphasized that the Princess of Wales had “pre-cancerous cells,” implying that was all it was. As of Monday, the palace had not responded and Mills’ reporting had not been corrected. Then something shifted on Tuesday. Tom Sykes at the Daily Beast sounds pissed off at this utter clownshow:
The extraordinary rumor that Kate Middleton never had cancer, which went viral over the weekend after an old report resurfaced saying the princess had been afflicted by “pre-cancerous cells”, can arguably be traced back to a deliberately opaque communications policy by her and her office.
The half-transparent/half-secretive approach to Kate’s health crisis this year also resulted in one of the most disastrous episodes of news management ever seen in the royal family, when Kate disappeared from view for weeks on end, triggering a tsunami of speculation about her health and her marriage, before she reappeared in a photo that turned out to be doctored. Kensington Palace never produced the original. Many still darkly mutter that rather than being subject to some light editing by Kate sitting up in bed with her laptop as the palace subsequently suggested, the Mother’s Day picture was in fact an out and out forgery stitched together from a selection of old photos.
After an outcry from global picture and news agencies which declared William and Kate’s office to no longer be a credible news source, Kate then appeared to be bounced into revealing that she had cancer in the first of two momentous videos. But, astonishingly, that story is now being called into question after the Sky News report which said that Kate had actually been treated for “pre-cancerous cells.” The report originally dated from September but resurfaced online this weekend. It was authored by Rhiannon Mills, senior royal editor for Sky News.
Mills and Sky are members of the so-called royal rota, a quasi-official group of royal journalists working for the British media who—while maintaining their editorial independence and frequently writing critical stories about the royals—cooperate with the palace, especially on logistics, in a broad sense. Palace staffers are often able to get simple errors made by rota journalists easily corrected.
The Daily Beast understands that reputable journalists contacted Kensington Palace last week to ask them about the Sky News report but it went unchanged until Tuesday, when it was finally amended by Sky to remove the reference to “pre-cancerous cells.” Mills has not responded to requests for comment and the palace has told The Daily Beast that it won’t be commenting, with sources saying the phrase “pre-cancerous cells” was never used by them.
The specific formulation of the words went largely unnoticed at the time amid relief at Kate’s announcement that she was “cancer-free.” Intriguingly, her office said at the time that the press shouldn’t use the phrase “cancer-free” although Kate did, suggesting another significant disconnect between the press office and its principal figures.
“Her office said at the time that the press shouldn’t use the phrase “cancer-free” although Kate did…” This is true. The rota gossiped about that too, that the palace issued talking points and guidance and Kensington Palace said that no one should actually quote Kate. It was in that stupid “romping in the meadow and fondling a butterfly” video where Kate said, in her voiceover, that her goal was remaining “cancer-free.” As for Mills, I have no idea if she simply made a mistake or if she was making a choice to spill some tea or whatever. I think it’s interesting that Sky News just edited the report and Mills hasn’t said anything on the record. God, so much weird-ass sh-t has gone down with these people this year.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images, Kensington Palace.
As I have said before, I wish her everything she ever wished for Meghan
Ditto
I feel the same way, long past time that someone calls Kensington palace out on the lies and complete unprofessionalism of their entire firm. Always enjoy reading articles like this one, at least it contains verifiable information and not made up narratives they write about Meghan.
Agree for that wish. The lying will continue with this one. She will try any and everything to make herself look better but it never works. She should just go quietly off into the night.
What I’ve really learned over the last couple of months is that people will believe what they want to believe, not the truth, not what their ears heard, not what their eyes saw, nope people will believe what they want to believe.
I learned that nov 5th
Sad but true about November 5th.
Absolutely true . Always been that way and always will be .
Ah, even more tomfoolery afoot. It’s so much easier to discount every word that comes out of their mouths or their rota hacks as a lie. Simple.
“It’s not the crime. It’s the cover-up.”
Every time.
They never learn, do they?
Like i told my kids when they were growing up: Don’t ever lie. You may not get in trouble for what you did (or didn’t) do, but you’ll ALWAYS get in trouble for lying to me about it.
So we shouldn’t use Kate’s own words regarding her health? Very strange.
I’m wondering if Kate’s going rogue from William/KP with some of her language choices. I think perhaps he wants her to seem sicker than she is because he likes being solo. And perhaps she’s not happy being pushed aside so she sneaks in phrases that contradict his goal.
Or perhaps she’s just bad at keeping to the story they’ve settled on for the public?
But surely William and some of their staff saw the video before posting it online.
It would be very “on brand” for William to order his wife to have cancer.
Sure, as long as it’s cancer “with a small ‘c'”. Let’s face it, the “cancer” video, alias “bench announcement” was released after long months of speculation from the public and embarrassing attempts to cover up Kate’s disappearance. The bench announcement and cancer story accomplished its purpose in that it bought KP some breathing room and even sympathy as it tied in very neatly with Charles’s own cancer disclosure. For months, the new story was that senior members were stricken with illness, cancer no less. Would the Sussexes need to return? More importantly, would the royals need to call on Sophie, their secret weapon? Would the York sisters need to step in? Why not, they were more fashionable now. The focus was no longer on Kate’s whereabouts. Mission accomplished, as George Bush would say. Except that the cancer cover-up story is now leaking out, so what do the royals do but get the BM to throw another cover-up log on the fire. They get their press minions to change their story. So, they’re all probably patting themselves on the back now and thinking that they”ve averted another PR mess. For now, maybe they have. But, since the cancer story is based on a lie, it will periodically keep coming back time after time until the whole truth is known.
For the time being, we can look forward to happy, harmless stories about individual members to distract people from the cancer lies. For the moment, both the royals and the BM are in lockstep and the marching orders are clearly “Nothing to see here, move along.” They still haven’t learned though.
Remember Kates cancer diagnosis is not just a valid excuse for her non- appearances but baldinghams as well. The timeline of her finding out has to match up exactly to the day William supposedly didn’t attend a memorial service (an event….which actually started the chaos) and can’t be prior to him popping up at the Baftas (an event that ensured he wouldn’t be surrendering the early February royal news cycle to his younger brother). Her condition has to have been moderate enough to be doing some shopping at a local market in Windsor, but poor enough to not be able to hop on a 5 minute zoom call to one of her patronages showing everyone she’s alive.
This, my God, has any woman ever been so coddled? We aren’t supposed to believe what she says about her own health?
I find it more and more amazing that Meghan made it 18 months. She must have truly felt she was down a rabbit hole of hell.
I bet they read the Celebitchy report and then rushed to correct it 😉
But seriously it continues to be so unprofessional… only increasing the mystery…
Someone needs to remind this so-called journalist that the mother’s day photo wasn’t the only one they were accused of altering. What is amazing about not being believed when you have been proven a liar? Or is this sarcasm?
I think he was pushing buttons. Sykes did sound pissed off. He’s basically reminding readers that it wasn’t just a few light edits but that in fact most people can clearly see it’s a mismatch of pictures stuck together. He’s trying to say that without outright saying it.
Sykes is usually disgustingly pro-Will, so it is notable that he is pissed. Royal reporters always downplays Mother’s day photo (just a few editing like everybody does), but he clearly said here that it was “stitched together from a selection of old photos.”.
Yeah, I’m assuming he doesn’t want “William’s friend” to stop calling him and feeding him unhinged thoughts from the world of KP. But Becky English would never ever skirt that line. It would be flowery prose about how Kate only did some light edits bc she just wanted to cheer up the nation with perfect images of her face and kids. At the end of the day, Sykes still tows the line but he’s passive-aggressive.
Yeah, he’s the first reporter I’ve seen acknowledge that it wasn’t just light editing, but in fact totally different photos.
As I said yesterday, he’s a KP mouthpiece but he’s also super shady sometimes, and we’re seeing that in full force here. His comments about the editing are carefully crafted – he’s not saying HE thinks it was heavily doctored, just that some are “darkly muttering” but he makes sure to add that KP is no longer considered a credible source by the official photo agencies.
This is the first I’ve seen a RR actually come out and say that KP really bungled their comms over the past year, which many of us here have said all along obviously.
And that’s what’s funny. Sykes doesn’t have to report what others darkly mutter. He doesn’t have to report that news agencies said they were not a credible new source. That’s a choice to include those details. Since he’s been so shady here, I wonder how he’ll reign himself back in. An article next week about evil Meghan or one about William’s friend talking about his super hot beard.
Sykes was the one who wrote an article about the suggestion of an affair with rose Hanbury and all the lawyers letters sent to stop it. And he mentioned hearing the story from an earl’s daughter.
Sykes knows the real story and these articles are a warning to William that he knows.
Hilarious that they pretend that any of the dopes over there “maintain[] their editorial independence.” Nope, ya’ll are not journalists, you’re paid PR and you’re crappy at your jobs.
Lol, I loved that line. And I understand why they are mad. They dutifully report the lies they are fed, knowing exactly what they are and sometimes even what they cover up. Then the idiotic royals come out and contradict the lies, making these independent, conscientious journalists look like fools. Not only that but then they are expected to clean up the mess in some more independent unbiased reporting.
They really did sign up to constantly look like idiots, and be grateful for the opportunity. It would be sad if any of them were good people.
So Kate said cancer-free, but it shouldn’t be quoted, because she isn’t cancer free or she never had actual cancer cells. Kate said in the first video that cancer had been present (somewhere in someone at some point in time), but the chemo is just to prevent cancer. Mills wrote pre-cancerous cells quoting William and now it’s removed, but no one actually says she indeed had cancer. And from now on she cannot lift a finger because she had chemo that was finished at some point in time, because she is … cured?
@Smart&Messy — I think you’ve offered the most succinct and correct version of this whole fiasco!
It seems to me, they are trying to introduce the truth gradually, but the article saying pre-cancerous cells got a little too much negative attention. So, they backed off. When another quote of Will got negative attention (about war in Ukraine), the royal reporter retracted his reporting and took the blame. This journalist now did the same thing, but didn’t take the fall yet. It isn’t a simple matter to misreport, I am sure these words came out of Will’s mouth. He probably didn’t think people will focus on it and compare it to previous statements.
Palmer was the one who had to walk back William’s comments about the war in Ukraine and he was TICKED about it. I think something similar is going on here – if we think that Rhiannon Mills didn’t make a genuine mistake, but this was something she was fed by the palace, I can see her dragging her feet at making the correction but Sky News itself being a little quicker with it.
As I said yesterday, if this was a genuine mistake, its easy enough to clarify – a quick tweet saying she mixed things up and she apologizes and while some eyebrows might still be raised, if that had happened fast enough it wouldn’t have gained a lot of steam.
Her silence is doing a lot of work here.
I am prepared to bet money the phrase pre cancerous cells were in the press briefings from the palace, KP, that they are not allowed to make public. That’s why Rhiannon made the revision but did not say she made a mistake. The palace won’t push further either.
And if Kate’s own words of being cancer free can’t be repeated, it must be because she is a liar. It’s crazy she can say something in a video that cannot be repeated.
So I guess I’m a little confused. Let’s say KP did use the phrase precancerous cells in a press briefing? Why would they ever say that? Were they trying to be more transparent but didn’t understand what it accidentally revealed?
@Jais my opinion is that if she got it from the palace, it wasn’t any sort of official briefing. It was on background from a staffer/family member (which means a journalist wouldn’t name their source on background). It could have been as off handed as someone saying “oh it wasn’t so bad, the pre cancerous cells were caught early” or it could have been someone deliberately planting something. I don’t think their press secretary put out an email with that phrase or anything (although anything is possible with these people).
So she can’t correct bc she can’t name her source but she also didn’t misspeak.
Sorry I should have been clearer. I think the press office out pre cancerous cells in a background release not anything official. They always provide information in a backgrounder that can’t be quoted directly as opposed to an official press release. The media are not allowed to produce these backgrounders to the public in anyway. They do this for every major event / incident. That’s why Becky English said Kate didn’t have cancer in January because the backgrounder would have said that.
Ah, but let’s not forget that the “don’t call Kate cancer-free” pushbacks only started after the bizarre butterfly stroking cancer-free video was released. After what I presumed to be much rejoicing in the land, drunken peasants suddenly began asking, “Okay, so now that she’s cancer-free, in her own words, when will she resume royal work which, let’s face it, only amount to one-hour appearances with some light handwaving involved?” Suddenly, as I recall, there emerged the “don’t say cancer-free” and “how dare you claim Kate is cancer-free” storylines.
I absolutely can not watch that video again. One time was already too much. Did she say she was cancer-free or just that her focus was to stay cancer-free?
As always with this story it’s all in the parsing. Okay, suppose Kate said that her focus was “to stay cancer-free” or “to remain cancer-free” isn’t that different from saying that her focus is “to BECOME cancer-free” at some future point? How would one STAY cancer-free unless one was cancer-free?
By the way, I’m not miffed at you at all. I’m just tired of the lies and unnecessary wordplay.
Kate used the words cancer free. The backtrack is because she’s too lazy to get back to work.
I understand she doesn’t want to be called cancer free or “cured”, because that would imply she can now work.
They are also implying that kate would have cancer return if she worked too much. Which is untrue and incredibly stupid.
Pretty messy, eh? They need a new PR team, because Jesus …
Sorry the damage has been done; the internet is forever. Even editing Kate’s Hallmark video isn’t going to help. KP mess ups are a reflection of the principals William and Kate: they are incompetent as they are lazy. This is a pre cursor of the disastorous reign of William 5.
What’s amusing to me is that they’ve f–ked up what could’ve been the perfect cover story, SO badly, SO many times. Saying she had cancer was perfect for their purposes: it explained the lengthy absence and why she couldn’t resume even her usual feeble schedule, and assured that anyone who questioned it all would look like an insensitive monster. But they couldn’t keep it up! They couldn’t keep their wording straight, and they sent out the world’s most unconvincing doppelganger, and she had to make that dumbass butterfly-groping video that I think most of us would’ve rolled our eyes at even if Meghan had made it, and they insist on pushing the “so brave!” crap every time she walks out the door. It should’ve been SO. DAMN. EASY. They’re literally just THAT incompetent.
lol…Sharing the photoshopped picture is diabolical.
It seems as though all of this is to cover up the lie about her diagnosis and the particulars of what was shared. Her lack of work ethic is also at the heart of all of this. The press isn’t AS critical of her because they don’t want Meghan the real working Princess to overshadow her (even though she does) so they are willing to keep up the suspicious excuse of having an illness.
No matter what is revealed, at this point I have zero confidence in KP telling the truth. For me, it all started with the video of “Kate” giddily bouncing outside the farmer’s market. I didn’t believe what the PR team was selling then and have been skeptical ever since.
The Sun will still not admit to that lie, that it wasn’t Kate.
Wait. Is the inference that she’s saying she had cancer when she did not.
Instead the mass they removed had precancerous cells?
Because lying about cancer – HUGE karmic no-no.
Why is everything so convoluted.
Being truthful is so much easier, less stress. Elaborate lies tend to go badly. Especially for people with no discernible skills- like the windsors.
What’s strange to me is that she’s never thanked her treatment team.
My guess is that it’s hard to thank a nonexistent team. If she thanked real doctors who didn’t treat her, who’s to say they would agree to remain silent? Cancer was a dumb cover story for many, many reasons. It reeks of KP and their chaotic, headless chicken approach to managing PR.
But couldn’t she just very vaguely say thank you to her medical team? No one would have to know if it was real or not.
To me it was the hospital stay where no one visited her for two weeks. Her family went completely MIA during that time.
Yep and she never thanked those doctors/nurses either.
Yes! Ok, sure, giving names would give too much away (re: their specialty, cancer or ED or whatever) but surely she could give a nonspecific acknowledgement to her care team, perhaps as part of a larger thanks to medical professionals and cancer caregivers…? It isn’t this difficult to be vague but still meet expectations.
I think they are extremely wary of drawing attention to the fact that she probably had access to care far beyond what’s available to average Britons and that she also likely left the country for treatment—not to mention it, it puts them more on the line about the specifics of what the treatment was for
It is SUPER weird. She did thank her team at the London Clinic in the press release announcing she was released from the hospital, but that was pretty vague. We’ve heard nothing else about her actual chemo/cancer team, not even a similar vague thank you.
My guess is that its because KP doesn’t want to tip anyone off as to what kind of treatment she did (or didn’t) get.
AFAIK Charles hasn’t said “thank you to the staff at X Hospital for my excellent care during this time” but its not as fishy because Charles isn’t hiding behind his cancer diagnosis for months at a time.
Charles was seen leaving the hospital too. Kate was never seen.
She was clearly way off way before all the shenanigans this winter/spring. The Windsors would never admit it if she had an ed, sa issues or mental health issues because she spawned the heir(s) and if she had “issues” the children could inherit her “issues” and possibly be unfit for the crown. The marriage with willy has seemed progressively more miserable since George was born, but has been in deep trouble since their cover left that mess 5 years ago. Keener and Charles both being diagnosed with cancer gives Willy cover to do as little as possible and gains them all public sympathy and goodwill they wouldn’t have otherwise. The protests would be much louder otherwise. She is clearly unwell and clearly needed treatment for something when she was attending events last fall wearing her wig crooked, grabbing Will-not’s ass at every event (even in a church), and deliberately flashing her thighs during a state visit, but I think they are playing fast and loose with the wording and the general public’s assumptions about cancer treatment to give both Keener and Will-not time out of the public eye and to gain pity points from the general public.
I would like to thank Celebitchy.com and Kaiser for keeping a public record of all these press shenanigans involving the Windsors. This site is one of the only places keeping clear documentation of the Windsors rota follies and not allowing Windsor influence/interference to completely dictate reporting. So many articles have been altered to embiggen the left behinds and this is the best page to see summaries of critical articles before the Windsors demand and get changes.
This is what I’ve 100% believed. I’ll keep beating this horse, but I still believe that whatever went wrong with W&K had already gone wrong by the time they released last year’s xmas card. The b&w card. That one was filled with errors and obvious photo-shop, but the media largely let it slide. I think that’s why KP had the belief that they could get away with all of the stunts they’ve pulled in 2024.
“whatever went wrong with W&K had already gone wrong by the time they released last year’s xmas card”
Good point.
I think dec 28 was the trigger. She was seen at the Christmas walk and was generally fine. The messy wigs are likely marital issues but we have to question why a royalist posted a video which he states is from one of his spies and specifically mentions Sandringham even though the video itself is not from there but in London. That said the Range Rover in the video resembles the one we saw William and Kate use for the remembrance concert last week. Charles doesn’t travel with that vehicle.
I concur 100%!!!
I always love it when a rota flips out like this. They reveal all sorts of things! Tom is calling out KP right and left and it’s hilarious. In addition, Ms. Mills from Sky News will not comment on the record, which is very telling. She is standing by her reporting and that says it all to me.
It’s just funny bc he even reminds us that global news agencies declared that KP was not a credible news source. Just before Kate’s initial cancer video. So then technically how could that video be credible? I mean really that even means that anything Sykes himself reports from “William’s friend” shouldn’t be considered credible. Entertaining? Sure, in an unhinged way. But credible? No. And I would love to know what Mills thinks about this. The fact that they’re now correcting something from September that they didn’t seem to have an issue with at the time.
The blame for this is on KP and their special relationship with the royal rota and KP doesn’t help things by telling the press that they shouldn’t use the phrase “cancer-free”.
It is an astonishing instruction to the media to ignore a Royal and the words they choose right? I never actually did understand what Kate’s treatment was. As a medical researcher, certain pairings are correct. No one does “preventative chemo” if cancer is found. It’s simply chemo for cancer. When does one do “preventative chemo”? For pre-cancerous cells. THIS for once makes sense and if this is the case, then that crazy video commercial announcement that she is cancer free is even more unhinged.
@Em
Precisely! As someone reminded us upthread: its always the cover-up that reveals the crime.
The on-again/off-again usage of: “cancer;” “not cancer;” “pre-cancerous;” “preventative chemo;” and “cancer-free” were all meant to discombolulate the pea-brains of the average serf as well as that of royal watchers who they hope arent paying too close attention.
Afterall, smoke-n-mirrors is one of their tools-in-trade that have allowed them to survive these past 1K yrs. I think theyr slowly finding out that its not working so well anymore.
I know the BM are trying to make her out as some sort of saint. But let’s all call it out. She’s a lying bullying bitch. Now all the time she has just been lazy. The only time we see her is when she’s raided the royal jewellery box. No wonder Harry and Meghan couldn’t wait to get away. I hope all the lying blows up in their face. I joined republic ( not my king lot).😂
And she has the nerve to talk credit for work of others, like the people who really worked to prepare that Christmas concert, the singers and the musicians themselves.
Interesting that the palace can easily correct reporting errors. We’ve been told the opposite, that the palace cannot protect Meghan being smeared by the media. Because “protocol” does not allow it.
Right? Imagine if they’d had Camilla Tominey retract the fake crying story. They swore they couldn’t (technically it would be hard since they planted it). But clearly they can. When it benefits them and only them. F-ck the brother and his wife.
Sorry, this was unclear. I meant William and Kate’s attitude was f-ck his brother and his wife, towards Harry and Meghan, in regards to privacy.
After November 5th, all bets are off. Anyone that could vote for that lying sack of sh**t and see exactly what going to be done to this country will believe her. I always figured she didn’t have cancer. She’s another lying sack of sh**t.
Wow. If she lied about cancer that’s so wrong. Who does that. I had precancerous cells removed from my cervix and went back to work 3 days later. I didn’t take a whole year off. I never once said that I had cancer. If you leave it untreated then it might turn into cancer but it’s not cancer. She is a horrible, disgusting person if it’s true.
I had the same, an abnormal pap smear, pre-cancerous but no guarantee it would turn to cancer. One zap and that was it. Off I went. “Cancer had been present” is also a shameless lie. But poor Kate was outed as the royal racist so they were desperate, as they always are.
Thank you for saying this. I’ve had cancer. It sucks. I also have actinic keratosis aka potentially pre-cancerous cells on my face, which is incredibly common. Should I say I have pre-cancerous cells to shirk my responsibilities and get sympathy? As if. No one on this planet should EVER pretend to have ANY illness to cover-up for whatever situation they want to hide. I still believe either Will whacked her in the face and maybe elsewhere, or caused her to fall, hence the scar above her eye, and she needed to disappear for a while. Or her ED is out of control and she needed treatment in a clinic. Or she has a mental health condition that needed treatment in a clinic. Or all of the above. KP will never tell the truth about W&K.
I vote for all of the above @Catalina. Things all came to a horribly unfortunate head with Kate and she was whisked off to some private location to get medical treatment, therapy and to recover from a traumatic situation. However her (and her awful mother’s) determination to get the crown means she’s stuck in a sick non-marriage to an abusive lout. They’re clearly living apart and sharing parenting duties with Kate running between AC, Anmer or Bucklebury, and Slumlord Bill at KP, Windsor or who knows where. As someone who is currently dealing with REAL cancer, it enrages me that they’re using a fake cancer diagnosis to get sympathy for her and cover up Slumlord’s guilt in this unholy mess.
I’ve got a pre-cancerous condition too. I have increased paraproteins, which can lead to multiple myeloma. But I just have to get on with life, like most of us.
If she had any potentially life threatening condition , pre cancer or actual cancer , and came out of it looking all bright eyed and bushy tailed , the decent thing to do would be to share what kind of cancer , whattreatment she had, who her doctors were , which hospital she went to . For the sake of those who are currently fighting this , it’s the least they could do .
It has achieved its objective if everyone is still talking and writing about this rubbish. How else do they get coverage and numbers without Harry or Meghan’s name? Stop giving them coverage!
Was it Rhiannon Mills who once said on Sky News that they were in talks with KP for weeks or months about Kate needing to get out and being seen to counter the Frankenphoto, then suddenly the market video “mysteriously” was released to the public by a “bystander” from the back of a parking lot, where the woman’s cheekbones were higher than Karen Osborne’s cheeks?