People Magazine’s cover story this week is all about the Princess of Wales. What’s remarkable is how little there is to say. Throughout 2024, it’s often felt like there’s a huge part of Kate’s story which was never revealed or openly discussed, but people were leaving bread crumbs and talking around whatever “it” was. All I know is that by Wimbledon in July, Kate looked like she had a new lease on life. Refreshed, fluffy hair and the same gawping and jazz hands. By the time she released her bizarre “cancer free” video in September, we thought Kate would be back to regular programming. But no, we’re going to get months, if not years, of Kate’s mysterious absences, all in the name of “recovery.” I was also left with the impression from this People story that Kate and her handlers are kicking the can down the road even further, basically saying that it will all come out in the wash once Kate is queen consort. Well, here’s more from People’s cover story:
Kate has changed: “You can’t go through something like that and come out the other side unchanged,” an insider tells PEOPLE in this week’s issue. “She is a different person now.”
Kate’s intentionality: Despite the uncertainty surrounding the royal family, Kate is approaching her path forward with intentionality. Experts and sources close to the family agree that she isn’t rushing back into her previous routine. “She is focused on herself and her family right now, rightly,” says a source close to the palace.
She will only pursue her passions: She likely won’t return to her previous intensity—she took on 128 engagements in 2023—in the coming year. The palace has cautioned that decisions about 2025 will be taken in line with medical advice. “She will probably continue to be strategic about how often she appears in public, and people shouldn’t hold it against her if she is doing less next year,” says royal biographer Sally Bedell Smith. “The important thing is she will be pacing herself. She will do what she’s able to do and pursue things she feels passionate about.”
Don’t expect too much: Adds Anderson: “She is a member of the royal family but also a wife, mother and daughter. Don’t expect too much— she’s a person going through something horrific.” Says the insider: “She won’t be going back to work in the same way for a long time.”
I chuckled a bit at “Kate is approaching her path forward with intentionality.” They’re trying so hard to make it sound like everything this year was completely above-board and there wasn’t a months-long PR catastrophe because Kate, William and their staff could not stop lying and misrepresenting everything. Not to mention the completely contrived video, an announcement that she had completed chemotherapy and was focused on “staying cancer-free,” as she galloped and twirled in a meadow in between rolling around on a beach with William. The palace messaging is still significantly dire, you must admit. If the message is “Kate is much too fragile to do more than one event a month,” then why the video? Why the hours spent prancing around Wimbledon? And why is she ordered to appear at certain events, but benched for events where she could wear a tiara?
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images. Cover courtesy of People.
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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: 881844185, 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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- Tennis : Wimbledon 2024 – Kate Middleton Princess of Wales – remet le trophy au vainqueur Carlos Alcaraz,Image: 889695015, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: Chryslene Caillaud / Panoramic / Panoramic / Avalon
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- Carlos Alcaraz (Spa) defeated Novak Djokovic (Ser) in the Wimbledon final with Kate Middleton,Image: 889709773, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: Antoine Couvercelle / Panoramic / Panoramic / Avalon
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- Mandatory Credit:,Image: 889855430, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: Ella Ling/Shutterstock / Panoramic / Avalon
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- The Prince and Princess of Wales speak to members of the emergency services during a visit to Southport Community Centre to meet rescue workers and the families of those caught up in the Southport knife attack earlier this year. Bebe King, six, Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven and Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, died after a mass stabbing at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in the Merseyside town on July 29. Picture date: Thursday October 10, 2024.,Image: 919252435, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: *** NO UK USE FOR 48 HRS ***, Model Release: no, Credit line: Danny Lawson / Avalon
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- The Princess of Wales speaks with members of the emergency services during a visit to Southport Community Centre to meet the families of those caught up in the Southport knife attack earlier this year. Bebe King, six, Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven and Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, died after a mass stabbing at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in the Merseyside town on July 29. Picture date: Thursday October 10, 2024.,Image: 919252475, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: *** NO UK USE FOR 48 HRS ***, Model Release: no, Credit line: Danny Lawson / Avalon
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- Image Licensed to i-Images Picture Agency. 10/11/2024. London, United Kingdom. Kate Middleton, the Princess of Wales , at the Remembrance Sunday service at The Cenotaph in London.,Image: 932704778, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: Licenced to i-Images Picture Agency. All Rights Reserved. UK copyright law applies to all print & online publications. i-Images space rates apply to all images. Magazines contact agency for fees before use. Images Single use only then repro fees apply. Info@i-images.co Tel: 07860204379, *** NO UK USE FOR 48 HRS ***, Model Release: no, Credit line: Stephen Lock / i-Images / Avalon
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- The Princess of Wales travels along The Mall to the Trooping the Colour ceremony at Horse Guards Parade, central London, to celebrate King Charles III’s official birthday on her first official engagement since her diagnosis for cancer. Featuring: Catherine, Princess of Wales Where: London, United Kingdom When: 15 Jun 2024 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- On the balcony of Buckingham Palace, London, to view the flypast following the Trooping the Colour ceremony in central London, as King Charles celebrates his official birthday. Featuring: Prince George, the Prince of Wales, Prince Louis, the Princess of Wales and Princess Charlotte Where: London, United Kingdom When: 15 Jun 2024 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- The Prince and Princess of Wales and the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester attending the annual Royal British Legion Festival of Remembrance at the Royal Albert Hall Featuring: Catherine, Princess of Wales, Prince William Where: London, United Kingdom When: 09 Nov 2024 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
Kate is taking every opportunity not to work. This time it’s because charles health is declining so she intentionally wants to do nothing. Like when she became princess was a reason to do nothing, have each of her kids, becoming pow, having “pre”cancer, being pre queen etc etc does this surprise anyone. Waity katy is lazy. But we knew that
My opinion is that after the night of December 28th negotiations began whether she liked it or not. So now yes she is a changed person who has to live by those negotiations. She will be seen very little from now on. When Peg finds someone he wants and they are willing Can’t won’t be seen again.
I don’t understand why they bothered with negotiations to begin with. William at best looks like he tolerates her in public. Doesn’t appear to be any real love loss between her and any of the wider family unless they’re being sycophantic about their own needs for attention. If she has any actual friends that she hangs out with in her down time I would be shocked. She doesn’t get to go to any of the fancy events where she would have all the attention anymore, and is relegated to the duty events where she can’t grin and has to appear to be somber. What benefit is it to her to stay married? To spend the next 40 years pretending in public at your kids graduations, weddings, christenings that you and your husband are still together while you have to be alone or incredibly discreet while he does what he wants and goes where he wants and controls all the money. I just don’t understand how this is worth it.
@Dee2. It maybe that she is ok and just wants what royalty she can get these days. She and her mother put a lot of time stalking a prince to get a crown. My opinion is she won’t get that crown but she is still willing to get any attention at all from the royal family but I truly believe Peg has someone else or is seriously looking for someone else.
@Dee(2) – I dont think we can underestimate how important the title of “Queen” is to her. I think in her mind she can suck up all the graduations and christenings etc because in between will be a coronation and Troopings and such where she will be the big cheese.
I think you are right, Becks, and it is really something to watch. I didn’t think she had a burning desire for any of this, given her previous performance, or lack of, but she must really, REALLY want to be queen. There is no other explanation for her hanging around for the level of disrespect she is shown by her husband. Most people would be filled with embarrassment, but not this one.
Kate was prepared to endure a lot of humiliation during the dating years to get the ring. She was called mattress by his RPOs, limpet possibly by Harry, waity Katie etc. and we say it was the ring but really it was what the ring meant.. which is the title of Queen.
Kate will accept all forms of degradation to get that title. Even if it means her children are embarrassed by her lack of dignity and self respect.
William decides how this ends. Not her. Any woman with self respect would have left long ago, especially after George was born. She doesn’t just want to be mother of a king. She wants to be queen.
Horrible example for women but that’s what Carole raised her to be.
I just wonder about a scenario in which she becomes queen but then at some point a divorce happens and then there’s a new queen. Listen, I get that some will say the king can’t divorce but of course the king technically can. He’s the king. So I’m guessing she would be called the queen mother while there is another queen. I’m not exactly sure how titles would work in this scenario. But all I can think about is how Kate has been constantly compared to the racist steel marshmallow known as the queen mother. Coincidence? Either way I can’t see Kate being happy in some sort of a double queen situation. Potentially beautiful or competent competition in a second wife is not something that I can see her handling well.
Henry VIII divorced a few queens. It can be done.
Given the habit of visiting one or two places in a town and counting each as an appearance, that likely means she worked only 64 days of the year or less. That is far less than half of the working year.
Yes, and they aren’t ‘days’. Engagements are typically 30 mins.
You’re not counting the hours of pampering, makeup and hairdo shaping before the event. All the time shopping for something to wear. I’d add in time for briefing about the charity or the event, but I’m sure she skips those.
lol I was thinking if each “event” was an 8 hour day (like millions of people work) then she worked 16 days 🤣🤣🤣
All this PR is so gross
I think that they have had marital therapy.
What intensity did this woman have before she was diagnosed with cancer? And now, why doesn’t she make cancer victims one of her platforms if she was so devastated by it? She’s just so lazy and disgusting. Just wants to do a few events a year and that’s it. And keep using her cancer as sympathy from everyone.
@Carol Mengel
Yeah. That word – INTENSITY jumped out at me too.
The only intensity I’ve EVER seen in that woman are her OTT hyena rictus grins and spastic jazz hands.
Intensity? 🥴
@809Matriarch
Without intention you have used a pejorative word to describe Kate’s jazz hands. That is a word best left in the past.
Excuse you, she did 128 engagements!!!! HOW INTENSE!! /s
Meanwhile Anne clocked however many hundreds, as did Charles, Camilla does more than her, I’m pretty sure the Gloucesters did, etc.
And as pointed out above, those aren’t 128 DAYS of work. Those are engagements. So she probably worked 30-40 days of the year.
Oh the intensity.
@ Becks1, I did the math, and assuming each engagement was an hour (they weren’t, but giving her benefit of the doubt), that still only equates to just over three weeks total work for the whole year, based on 40 hour work weeks . So you can cut your 30 to 40 days estimate in half, it’s actually more like 15 days worth of work! I’d like to tell my boss that starting next year, I want a raise of $10 million dollars, and will only work 15 days.
Let us not forget how many of the 128 were meetings and not actually leaving her house.
Kate is one of the only royals, William , being the other, to even include meetings as part of the count.
If we go back to an actual breakdown, the number is likely closer to 70 engagements and many of them stacked in one day.
And even if we take those engagements at face value – that each engagement was one days worth of work (which we all know its not for the reasons you and others have mentioned), that still means that she did NOT work for over 200 days out of the year. 2/3 of the year she didn’t even work!!!!
And that’s looking at her engagements in the light most favorable to her. My guess is probably 30-40 of those engagements were meetings at WC or phone calls, and we can’t forget events like Wimbledon etc which also count.
I would be interested to see the actual breakdown of days worked because I imagine it was around 50, maybe less.
It’s not only meetings that count towards the grand total — they also list phone calls (Zoom calls?) in the Court circular!
For both of the Workshy Welfare Wailses, actually.
I mean, phone calls, come on, how low can they sink.
Oh Kate has changed! She now likes bows too!
*spoiler alert… that’s it folks
Honestly, I have nothing against anyone with the means having the opportunity to take an extended hiatus when they’re ill. And to be fair, the long-term effects of chemo can be very unpredictable and downright nasty.
That said… If she wants to take leave in perpetuity, kindly stop drawing from the public purse. Literally no other public servant in the UK has this degree of luxury.
This! x1000
Conceptsof plans…
How often has she been on an engagement which includes interacting with the public WITHOUT somebody (William, Pippa, etc) to accompany her? Alone? I don’t believe she has? That is NOT something due to cancer.
Mentally incapacitated? Being controlled? Why?
The whole reporting around Kate’s illness is typical of a mental health issue and not a cancer issue…
Even in yesterdays excerpt, they talked about how she would mostly be joining William on his already planned events. So yeah that does not sound like much solo work. Technically when she got to the church service early and greeted people before William and the kids showed up, she was somewhat on her own. Pippa was with her at Wimbledon.
And it says to me that they aren’t scheduling events for her. She’ll just tag along with william when he says its okay and her “doctors okay it.” So for some reason they aren’t comfortable scheduling events in her name.
Which is fascinating. Why do the summers eve commercial then? Bc yeah, scheduling solo events for her is not happening as they’re clearly telling us. I can believe there’s a MH component and the rota may be aware of that. I just don’t know how shooting a butterfly in a field video helps but what do I know.
Thanks for clarifying, Jais.
Becks1, The question I keep having is does Kate who is traditionally “intensely” work avoidant have a choice in the matter? Is she the one choosing not to do solo work, or has that been decided for her?
First Comment, It does sound like something mental.
@ML my take on it is that Kate likes not having to do solo work. she likes having a mostly clear schedule. Like you said, she’s intensely work avoidant so I dont see her fighting the powers that be to let her do more solo work.
I do think she’s angry about missing events like the two recent tiara events, and maybe even that Christmas luncheon William attended, b/c those kinds of events were usually pretty easy for her and she got lots of attention for them.
So I feel like the royal family is letting her keep this extremely scaled down schedule, but the flip side is that they are restricting her from events she may have wanted to do as part of the deal. I said below that I think events like Trooping and Remembrance were part of “the deal” and I think Carole or whoever didn’t think to negotiate state dinners or the diplomatic reception, maybe bc they never thought Kate would be excluded from those.
But I do think, like others have said including @FirstComment, that if this is not about a separation or negotiation, then it sounds like some sort of mental health issue. Or it could be both – but i’m just thinking if we take what KP has said roughly at its word, and we substitute “mental health issue” for “cancer” or “chemotherapy” everything makes a lot more sense.
Even for her Christmas carols, we don’t know if she was alone..perhaps, her personal assistant was with her…
@FirstComment – It’s been said that the people she met at the carol service were all briefed and planted to meet her beforehand. Conversation’s were mild and Kitty was blubbering as per usual in the videos of her. It wasn’t like she was having full blown conversations about the year she’s had. There’s definitely a controlled element of who she meets and what people are allowed to say to her.
Either way, I can see mental health issues being the real problem behind this and why KP is so eager to push the cancer narrative instead.
The treatments that you undergo for cancer can have unpredictable and debilitating side effects, including things like vertigo; these can continue well after the treatment itself has stopped. She may simply not want to be somewhere publicly where she doesn’t have some kind of familial support if something happens.
The longer that she stays out of the public eye, the more people will realize how little to no impact she has on any of her charities/causes. Kate has absolutely no impact on anyone’s life and obviously helping others isn’t what brings her joy so maybe it’s time to just stop the charade, give her a settlement and send her on her way.
Harla, I’ve always thought that if she stopped doing any engagements, people would forget about her. Indeed, that may be going on now by sidelining her more and more. Time will tell.
I wonder how long until somebody realizes that if Kate told us she’ll only do things that bring her joy & she does NOT bother to show up to any of her previously linked charities, that she does NOT care about whit about the people these charities are to help.
I don’t think they will ever understand that them saying that “she will only do what brings her joy” makes it apparent that very little in the way of charity and helping others brings her joy. They have given us a way to determine what matters to her and what doesn’t and so far thanking and showing support for her own caretakers and others who help cancer patients and other ill patients is one of the things that doesn’t bring her joy.
128 engagements a year is already incredibly low considering charles Camilla and Anne pull double if not triple times those figures. The kids are off to boarding school in the coming years, and unless there is another secret set of family she needs to take care off i honestly don’t know what she does with her day.
If she wanted to be a stay at home mom she should have married someone else.
I don’t understand British people. Meghan got ripped to shreds and portrayed as this huge drain of state funds but miss thing can just announce that she isn’t going to work and it’s silence, while being funded by the taxpayer. Why aren’t they outraged?
Because of the media. It’s how people think that Meghan had higher staff turnover than Kate. One gets more highly reported and skewed. Kate has always done very little and has high staff turnover. You wouldn’t know reading anything in the last five years about it.
And she has no private secretary at the moment, right? Nobody to schedule those non-existent solo events.
That is one of her highest years too, which of course includes meetings at Adelaide cottage with staff.
Kate has always found a reason not to do much. At first it was because she was researching charities and they didn’t want to dump her in like Diana, then it was because she was pregnant with George and needed mat leave, then it was because they were not next in line so they needed time as a young family , then it was because she was pregnant with Charlotte and needed mat leave, then it was because she was pregnant with Louis and needed mat leave, then it was because all the kids were young and Louis was not at school.
Now that Louis is at school full time like the others they have tried to use the school run as an excuse, but it was trickier especially now that she is only one step away from top job. This years medical issues have provided a solid reason for Kate to never take on full time work because she will always have bad days when it is convenient for her. The bad days will never affect Wimbledon though.
Quite the goldbricker, when all laid out like this!
We all have our good days and bad days.When we have a bad day we have to get on with life.
Not the case with this spoiled darling.She can pick and choose which are her good and bad days.Days which does not have to speak to the public, just look pretty in expensive clothes are her good days.It is when she has to do what she calls “work” it is always a bad day.
The last year reads as: he wanted a divorce, she panicked and became ill (probably more mental health than cancer), they negotiated a deal, her parents were welcomed back from the cold, she goes to Wimbledon and sits in the hot sun for four hours, preening through her standing ovation. Then she gets to stay home most of the year with a handful of big events like Remembrance and Christmas concert. It’s a good deal on paper for her, but since William clearly hates her, we get the teary eyed pix in the carriage. I bet her mother negotiated the terms, but Kate secretly thought things would get better between her and Egg. Oh well.
Kate is such a nothing burger. Why did QE2 give consent for William to marry her? She bring nothing to the table. This PR push is more to protect the late sovereign and the heir: they cannot look like the made a wrong call with Kate.
Charles and Camilla I doubt are fans of Kate. William settled for Kate after being turned down by others. Maybe the queen just wanted him to settle down and marry and have an heir.
@aquarius64: dare I say that that is exactly the reason QEII gave her blessing. Kate is a blank slate that others can projects their ideals, ideas and feelings on. Very much like QEII herself.
The last thing they wanted was to have another future queen consort that was complex and had a personality. Like Diana.
The Queen did notice Kate’s idleness which got Kate to get that “made to order” Jigsaw “part time” work for a few months.
She only cared that Kate gave the appearance of “working”, which is a self fulfilling prophecy if I have ever seen one.
Also also: I think the current situation with her being “benched” for Tiara Events has less to do with her personal situation, and more to do with the higher ranking mean girl, Sidepiece Seabiscuit. She literally doesn’t want anyone outshining her (no tiaras AT A FREAKING CORONATION, gets Cluck to ban the aristos from the service). Bride of Chucky is jealous of younger women in the BRF and does her utmost to prevent any of them outshining her.
Honestly, I wish Princess Anne would come out and troll her more often. IIRC protocol rules were changed so that Anne would never have to curtsey to Seabiscuit. I wonder if that’s still in play.
Seabiscuit was a champion racehorse — The Rott is far from it. More like a mule.
Seabiscuit was a short little nobody (folks had quite a lot to say about his odd run) with a very famous ancestor who for the first few years of his career seemed to be doomed to failure and disappointment, and due to very careful behind-the-scenes work the underdog managed to dominate the scene beyond even wildest dreams.
After an injury that in any other horse would be career-ending a meticulously planned and enacted recovery scheme eventually saw Seabiscuit roaring back to top of the podium, and eventually retiring as one of the most famous and most rewarded racehorses ever.
It’s almost a cliche underdog story. It mostly applies to Camilla as well.
The pr bs is gross (and the hilarious photoshop!).
Kate does not have cancer. Even if you believe it, she said in April HAD cancer. HAD. She’s healthy enough to work out daily, get botox and fillers and buy cheap ass bows.
Willy gave the game away with pre cancerous cells.
She, willy and the kids also had deep tans over summer (cough *Caribbean holidays * cough)
Give me a fb with this lazy, stupid good for nothing my taxes sometimes pay for. The embiggening will go for years!
I guess this means the early years programme is over. If she’s really a changed person I hope she will apologize to Meghan.
But according to the people paid to whisper about her off the record without names to the press, that’s her “life’s work” and “the thread that will run throughout her life.”
She has not changed a bit. She wants to be the center of attention like her preening at Wimbledon. She needs to publicly apologize to meghan.
She is using the cancer diagnosis in the most self serving and disgusting way I have ever seen in my life. It is extremely sickening to watch, because they act like her so called cancer was worse than anyone else’s who ever had it. She hasn’t changed she is a lazy, secretive, self serving, racist who has decided to use a cancer diagnosis as a weapon to play the victim and garner sympathy. Shallow people don’t have the depth to change and she is as shallow as they come.
I wouldn’t even go so far as to describe it as an actual cancer diagnosis — it’s a cancer “excuse”. KP was like…Let’s see how we can cover up what REALLY went down with her mental health, EDs, violent husband, marriage finally blowing up spectacularly, and months of doctored photos and videos, culminating in the nauseating “I’m cancer free people!!” summer’s eve commercial. We see through it for the sham in actually is and, as someone struggling with real and grueling cancer treatment, she can go pound sand. Lazy twat…
Notice how they don’t even mention the c-word here?
First it’s “You can’t go through something like that and come out the other side unchanged”
Like *what* exactly?
And in the last paragraph it’s “Don’t expect too much— she’s a person going through something horrific.”
Horrific *what* exactly?
Oh, to be married to a Slumlord billionaire, and still have every aspect of your life funded by taxpayers, including something as trivial as a hair clip decorated with a velvet bow — and get away with refusing to do any work at all.
People magazine trying to make Kate happen. That kate aka royal family quarterly series of people flopped. And the Kate people issues don’t fly off the shelves. Diana and even ferg ie were more popular back in the day than Kate is now.
“decisions about 2025 will be taken in line with medical advice.” But she has finished the preventative chemo and the Cancer was removed last January, so why does she need medical advice before she spends half an hour talking to people? Did she lie about the cancer?
And that shampoo commercial video supposedly was about her celebrating her recovery. I wonder how much that fiasco video cost taxpayers
Yeah, it’s the commercial that gets me. Why do it? It was just such an exercise in narcissism that backfired. It was like yay I’m done with cancer treatment but I can still barely do anything for the next 5 or 10 years due to medical advice.
Right! She’s a year out from surgery (supposedly), months out from finishing chemo (supposedly), what kind of restrictions would there be? For a cancer-free person, at that!
None. The answer is none.
I just pray we find out the whole story one day, because I’d bet a lot of money we don’t know the half of it.
I’m not saying she’s outright lying but the fact that Kate herself never actually said she had cancer (“Cancer had been present”) just screams plausible deniability.
I don’t think we know the half of it, either. Whatever it was, it was enough to negotiate the Middletons returning to the fold but not enough to ensure Kate gets to go to tiara events moving forward.
I do wonder about her mental capacity/state being more of a “day to day” thing. She looked medicated to the gills during the one Qatari state visit event she was allowed to go to. Maybe that’s why she’s “a different person” now.
I’ve wondered if she was referring to a cancerous relationship and not the disease. Nothing makes sense in the Kate and William world this year.
Unfortunately, we’ll never get the American version of “SNAPPED”, but that would be oh so intriguing.
so we know this article was directly sanctioned by Kate, because no one else at KP is going to put the nonsense about there about her “intensity” with 128 engagements a year. How is she not embarrassed by that drivel? How does she have no sense of shame?
honestly, this is one of the reasons why all royals and married-ins should work at some type of job before starting the FT royal gig. And I don’t mean just in a cushy military position like William did. they have zero understanding of the real world, of budgets, schedules, the actual rush in the morning before the “school run,” the stress of making sure you can heat the house and feed your family, while trying to include some vacations if possible, etc.
Meghan understood this. Meghan had a solid grasp on the real world. Even on suits, she was making good money but not “I dont need to pay attention to what I’m spending at all ever again” kind of money.
There is just such a huge disconnect between the royal family and the people they serve and these sycophants with their talking points just make that clear over and over again.
the idea that an abdominal surgery in January 2024, with pre cancerous cells being found (per William) and preventative chemo being started in February/March 24 and ending August 24, means she can’t work throughout 2025……….and never again expect her to repeat the “intensity” of 128 engagements…….
lordy. what a grifter.
Anyway I really believe that what @Eurydice speculated last week or so is true – Kate negotiated a very much reduced schedule, but she thought she would have some say over what events she could attend. Instead she’s being told no tiara events, no Christmas luncheons with military families, etc. I think Remembrance and Trooping were part of the negotiation so those are set. But I think she thought she would be able to attend more of the big events and she’s been benched for those.
I completely agree on the negotiations, she didn’t read the small print and now she’s a prime example of ‘what I ordered vs what I got’.
The worst part is that kate was sold as a commoner and allegedly down to earth and relatable to the average Briton. But she was a spoiled rich girl who worked less than most socialites. When the Queen picks up on how lazy you are, that’s not great.
The tone in this certainly fits with the Tatler article talking about Kate being stressed now that Meghan and Harry had left and they would be expected to do more work.
But the reality is that Kate worked hardest at finding reasons not to work but make it look like she was going to. This year has been more of the same except the medical element is likely mental health more than anything.
I do agree she didn’t read the fine print on the negotiations though. In the end the crown always wins and she will never be the crown.
Really, there’s so much interpretive dance going on here to explain away why she’s been benched. “I’m a different person now. Now I understand what is important in life. I no longer care about tiaras and gowns and having my picture taken. I’m going to stay home and take care of myself and my family. Blah, blah, blah…”
Shame….Kate has no idea of the concept.
Do People and the palace know what a condescending and insulting framing this is? Do they know how many people go through cancer every year, how many families are affected? How many of those people long for a platform to promote research into a cure? How many people, how many children, die from the lack of research and development into rare cancers and childhood cancers? How many people feel relieved after recovery and remission to go back to work and live their normal life? But instead this pampered princess, blessed with the ability to turn attention and a spigot of funding on all the issues, including maintaining a marriage and family life during cancer, continues her lifelong war on the certain parts of the press and public, and her belief that she, and only she and her husband and her children, are able to keep anything they want from the public, and briefs that next year she’ll only be seen in public 20 times – but one of them will definitely be Wimbledon.
IF she had cancer, I think she has returned to her previous life as she was living it. Doing nothing but spending time with family has always been what she does.
Kate putting a bow tie on being lazy forever!
365 days in a year, 128 engagements in a year, many of which are maybe half an hour and a number of which were within half an hour of her home. Others were ‘meetings’ with her ‘team’.
Oh to be paid millions to work at that ‘intensity’. They have got to be trolling her at this point.
Those “meetings with her team” are so hilarious.
I think we can all agree that the MSM is owned by the right. People mag and Time with lazy Useless Kate on one cover and 🤬Trump on the other.
Trump as Person of the Year doesn’t bother me, truthfully. He isn’t being called Human Being At Least Worth The Price of His Flesh
Remember who else has been POTY? Hitler. Stalin twice! Putin!
It’s not a measure of if someone is a good, moral human being. Just that he made the news a lot. Which he did.
Kate has never worked intensely in her LIFE. And wow what an insult to all the people who have cancer treatment and must work. Are they bad mothers, fathers, daughters and sons because they cannot focus solely on their family and in fact must work for a living to support said family? And lucky her to only be able to focus on her “passions” (whatever they are). So who is going to be doing the bread and butter engagements? And how are they going to show the increase in the sovereign grant was worth the bother??
The press this basically-useless woman is getting because of a lie is becoming extremely irritating.
I am really curious as to what everyone thinks happened on 28 Dec
Was it D.V caused by argument/ drunkenness
Was it a MH breakdown
I don’t read the press here as it’s so obsequious & clearly what Murdoch & the press barons
want people to know
So just like the US with Trump being lied about and his true nature hidden I would like to know what people who don’t live under this RF propaganda think
What do you all think will happen?
Will he try for divorce or let her be allowed to continue as he has mistresses
I imagine the press want her to stay as they can sell magazines
In 2023 she took on 128 engagements? As Oporto the 530 Anne who is what twice her age took on , not to mention all the ones her sick father in law who is still battling cancer is still doing. Kate is so f-ing lazy . And this all sounds like it’s coming from her mom . Oh please leave my meal ticket to the Royals alone , she is doing her best and working oh so hard to be there for her children, why would you begrudge her more time off? Don’t you understand how hard it is to be as privileged and sainted as our poor English rose is? I wonder if these people know that they are actually real people in this world who have cancer and still need to work and don’t get to decide what part of their job they are willing to do because an income= money to pay the medical bills that are pilling up . So tone deft these people are
To me, this feels a lot like a Middleton attempt to rehabilitate KKKhate’s image after she was named one of the Royal Racists. Seems like People is doing some of the heavy lifting in an effort to say she has changed. But I’m not buying it.
As for negotiations with Slumlord Willy, it does seem like a case of what she ordered vs what she’s getting. I don’t feel one iota of empathy for her. But I don’t count her out just yet. Yeah, it does seem like she’s on the losing end right now, being obviously benched. But Peg shouldn’t feel too cocky. I think this dastardly woman may still have a trick or two up her sleeve.
I believe that being outed as the one who made Meghan cry and who had “concerns’ about the color of Archie’s skin was a major hit for Kate, who had long enjoyed the public’s perception of her as the “perfect queen-in-waiting” and she struggled to cope with that.
I agree with this. But also remember her press wasn’t that great before
Meghan but then all of a sudden she was lifted up as the great white hope, the true English rose that never put a foot wrong. So her ascent was sudden and then she got high on her own supply. She was feeling herself as Meghan got trashed for making her cry. So when she got outed as a lying manipulative racist mean girl, yeah I think that was a deep fall and she was mortified.
This woman is nothing but a vapid huckster.
Emilie HRH or whatever she goes by now is saying that Kate wasn’t benched but “close sources” tell her that Kate so morally objected to the recent state visit that she wasn’t going to go at all, but then the Sheikha demanded she come, so she came to the daytime part. And that then she couldn’t go to the diplomatic reception because she was skipping the state dinner.
I have a hard time believing that Kate would willingly give up jewels and tiaras and glam. I also don’t see Kate having such strong moral convictions when shes acted the way she has over the last two decades.
I smell damage control.
I don’t know who that is, but the idea that Kate would object to the Qatari state visit and so refuse to attend the official formal dinner is laughable.
And if it is true, then she’s a pretty bad future queen consort considering the role of the monarch.
Laughable is the word for it. The woman who wouldn’t wear a black dress in honor of the #metoo movement to the BAFTAs suddenly a paradigm of human rights? No. Kate can’t find Qatar on a map.
Kate has worn jewels gifted to her by the Saudis. She doesn’t have moral objections to anything but actual work.
@Miss Scarlet – What?!!!
“…she wasn’t going to go at all, but then the Sheikha demanded she come…”
Er…_why_, for the love of Mike??!?! Did the Sheikha want to be bored that bad?
Has she had a personality transplant then.? She never seem prepared for anything she or William do they always seem horrified if one of the public ask them a question or get too close. They don’t seem to relate to people and have any EMPATHY LOL
Well, William said he was going to try to toss a little empathy at the homeless.
“people shouldn’t hold it against her if she is doing less next year,” says royal biographer Sally Bedell Smith.
Sorry, Sal, but this isn’t how this works. Kate’s living on the public dime. She should be expected to deliver some return on the British taxpayer’s investment.
That’s rich! How can she do less than she did this year?
Do they mean she’s a better liar?
I think whatever has been going on needed to be handled delicately and secretly. I seem to recall hearing at one point that there was pretty much a bubble around the Wails’ this year. And it seems to have worked because there haven’t been any leaks. I think because of that she feels more empowered to do whatever the heck she wants. She knows she can throw the cancer story at anyone who questions her not being seen. It’s very convenient for a person who has never done much work ever and doesn’t seem to want to do anything more than “self care” or family activities. I think overall it’s sickening to watch especially knowing people with physical or mental issues having to drag themselves into work each day just to pay the bills or maintain health insurance. It would have helped if the Wails’ had been honest and open from the start. It was one thing for the Queen to hide her infirmities. She was old school. I would expect more openness from the younger royals.
HuffnPuff, how long does she think this excuse will work? There are a lot of people in the UK who have had cancer and chemotherapy. Even the harshest of treatments stop and a person improves health wise. I wonder what she will use when people no longer give her the benefit of the doubt?
She’s going to milk this for as long as she can. We don’t know what she was treated for so she could just say she’s had to undergo more treatment. Must be nice to be able to keep your medical condition private whereas everyone else has to give their employers very personal details in order to try to get time off or lighter duties.
True but part of that was due to the deep protection of the heir and his wife. I’m guessing there are quite a few rota who know pretty well what’s actually going on while reporting on pre-cancerous cells.
I don’t know if I’d call her a woman with a new lease on life? She looked happy to be at Wimbledon and seemed buoyed by the applause she got but also William wasn’t there. She was with Pippa and Charlotte. Any outings she’s done since have all been with William or William adjacent (Remembrance Sunday she was standing next to Sophie) and she always looks stressed and unhappy in his presence. I know she may be fatigued post-chemo but she looks exhausted in the People over photo. But seriously, how much time off does she need? The Average Jane who gets diagnosed with cancer may take off some here and there but nobody gets to take an entire year of their lives off. Cancer changes everyone and she can’t use the “but I had cancer” excuse the rest of her life to avoid working unless she’s truly being sidelined.
Argghhh! ‘… Kate is approaching her path forward with intentionality’. Approaching her path forward, she’s not on it yet. They always, and I do mean always, feed us stories about how Kate is about to do something, and yet she never does anything.
Also, ‘ “She is focused on herself and her family right now, rightly,” says a source close to the palace.’ So same ol’, same ol’.
It’s such strange coverage. The explaining away of it all … Too fragile, different person, she’ll do what she wants with intention .. just so ODD. The whole think stinks.
What if Kate is the one to want the divorce? Right now I feel like that would make some kind of sense.
It would explain the limited appearances (yes she likes tiaras, but she is clearly a highly anxious person who has never learned the tools she needs to cope in these public situations) literally she probably has to medicate to get through it all – as we can see. She is not up to the job and she probably knows this.
It would explain the weird narratives that are giving constant excuses for her
I feel like a few things could be true at once – an illness, a breakdown, a volatile marriage, her wanting to leave (maybe??) and the firm worrying this would cause a constitutional crisis, so multiple cover ups and idiotic PR narratives follow..
Could she have negotiated a half in half out for herself ? Because she wants to leave, but she’s been paid to stay?
It’s just that if he was the one who wanted a divorce, he’d have done it by now? He’s a prince. Entitled. Privileged. His father had no problem installing a second marriage. The divorces seem to happen when the firm says so (qe2 ordered Charles and Di divorce) , not when the married-ins want out? Maybe Chuckles is refusing to sanction the divorce requested by Buttons – and thus a deal is struck – limited appearances, a shampoo ad, and years of false narratives to cover up for an absent (by choice) princess.
Thoughts?
Emmi, anything is possible, so she may have been the one who wants the divorce. I continue to think Billy Idle wanted the divorce, but with King Snubby so ill that got put on hold, especially once Bone Idle got ill–I’m tending to lean toward a mental health issue as others are.
I just can’t see her giving up everything she worked for by asking for a divorce.
It’s not that impossible. She wants the divorce, she was told no, so she’s refusing to play ball besides the bare minimum of events.
I just think if that was the case, Charles and William would give her the divorce because as it stands, this looks bad. I also don’t think she would have publicly revealed her cancer because it limits the likelihood that William would ever divorce her.
I just wish they’d stop with the “medical advice”, it’s just so insulting. If they truly had to consult doctors months to a year past cancer, it must have been serious enough and that’s just not what we saw.
The “medical advice” as most of us are aware is the persons in charge deciding what to do with her. And I say PIC because I have no idea who is running things. Sounds like it’s a bit committee-ish and that committee is dysfunctional hence all the stepping on their own dicks.
Cancer changed the entire trajectory of my life, and I’m a different person as a consequence. But MAH GAWD do the tone deaf nature of the comments from Kate’s sycophants really rankle. Most of us don’t have the privileges or choices she has. Most of us have to work through treatment, parent through treatment, and more or less have to manage status quo just to pay our bills and keep our households afloat. If she really wants to be viewed more sympathetically, her mouthpieces need a swift perception adjustment.
I think will and Kate are living apart. I get Edward VII and Alexandra vibes but with much more PR. Their marriage is in name only. I net wills would like to get rid of her but chuckie may have stepped in and said no like it happened for him. Kate is popular cos she’s so pretty, the perfect English rose. I’d like to be a fly on the wall during one of their fights.
Not sure about KM being popular, @Nano. I’d say there’s public disinterest with her and her image, more than regular enbiggining by the DM might encourage you to believe. She’s not seen as any kind of trend-setter and is not a charismatic character catching public attention. However, I’d say there is a lot of curiosity about her based on events this year, and even evidence of growing scepticism.
There is widespread irritation with “the Middletons”, seen as sharp-elbowed, pushy and not deserving of any public profilé.
Whether she’s pretty is of course subjective, but it would appear that’s contrived by Photoshop as recent untouched photos suggest. However, there is “no-one else” in the main RF, so she’s competing in a field of one.
I think that either Kate is either the laziest, most selfish person in the world, or all this fragility is mental and emotional. RR are telling us Kate must be treated like a fragile piece of china. All these reams of articles about only doing what gives her joy, having good days and bad, focussing on herself or her children, can’t work at the pace she used to (lol) is putting us back into the c18 when women used “fragility” and malingering as a means of control. How many years can this sort of behaviour and coverage go on. Basically, Kate has no constitutional role- her job was to produce heirs which she has done admirably. She doesn’t need to actually do anything, except that there is this whole “royal family” that is paid hundreds of millions of dollars to be symbol of Anglo-Saxon Britain, and so definitely more is expected of them than a weekly meeting with the PM and keeping up with the Red Boxes. A RR career is a make-work project, as is the monarchy. They can genuinely do good, like Harry, or exist in this current state of nothingess.
Wow Kate really is the only person on Earth who has ever had cancer !
Look up ECT for treatment of severe depression and other mental health problems. Used when medication has too many side effects or do not work well.
Reading part of People’s article, I realised that this is what was missing last year!! Remember the deafening silence prior to Kate’s birthday and the total lack of the usual embiggening pieces about her at the end of each other year? Whatever went wrong, it had started right after her last Christmas carols. The absolute silence was indicative of a serious problem with unknown consequences or end…the timetable presented by the bench video with ” cancer had been present ” after the surgery in January cannot explain this… so, if we are back to this kind of embiggening drivel, that means for me that Kate is here to stay despite everything. And this just proves to me at least, that she hasn’t changed at all….people after a health scare make usually radical changes … she hasn’t, if she continues to live in the same toxic environment. The only thing that changed is the time she spends in public and that is due only to the need to control her appearances for whatever reason…
You’re right. I’d forgotten about that media silence. So yeah this is evidence that Kate’s people(Carole) are comfortable going to People now.
You are right, and I’d forgotten about it too. Last year, her birthday was explained away by spending the day at her parents’ house, it was a blurb.
Didn’t a psychic tell us months ago that they removed her brain or something like that. The Kate from before is gone. So this is not news.
The curse of the Princess of Wales continues .
Living inside that toxic environment must be absolute hell .
Kate was never the same when Harry found true love, it sent her into a mental health decline .
A deeply unhappy woman in a life she chose and it is not what it seemed .
Certainly not the entire story, but I suspect HRHorseface doesn’t want ANY competition during the fleeting time she has as The Queen.
I find this curious because the coverage of the working royals usually takes a “move along, nothing to see here” attitude unless they are actively in damage control mode.
So what is it they trying to to get in front of?