February 2024: Kate's Absence Trends on Social Media Sparking Conspiracy Theories

As Kate continued to recuperate in private, Harry and Meghan dominated much of the February royal-watching with their trip to Whistler, Canada. William has been getting out on public engagements more and more, which has been nice to see. Sadly, the month ended with tragedy and bizarre social media drama.

The tragedy was, of course, the death of Lady Gabriella Kingston’s 45-year old husband Thomas Kingston, who, it was revealed today, died of a traumatic injury to the head inflicted from a gunshot. He was found in a locked room at his parents’ home in the Cotswold. No foul play is suspected, so I do think this will be revealed to be a suicide. The couple married in 2019 in a mini-royal wedding at St. George’s Chapel, Windsor, attended by Queen Elizabeth II and other members of the royal family. Yet another heavy piece of news from the royal family.

Meanwhile, Kate dominated news headlines last week after she went viral for, well, doing nothing at all.

Sometime in the last week, my husband told me that tweets about Kate Middleton were proliferating his feed on X/Twitter. Needless to say, although he supports me in my Kate interest, I don’t think his algorithm generally has anything royal-related in it. I, too, started noticing friends on social media talking about Kate’s absence, in addition to lots of Kate Middleton memes. Apparently, the general public—people beyond the regular royal watching circles—have started asking where Kate has gone. I think that Prince William’s abrupt withdrawal from the memorial service for the late King Constantine of Greece at St. George’s Chapel, Windsor, also helped fuel the fire. The conspiracies range all over—Kate is in a coma, she is dead, she has gotten Brazilian butt lift (what??), she tried to leave William and he beat and imprisoned her, etc. A range of wild theories.

The Palace did address the rumors this week, including this statement to the Telegraph:

“From our perspective, we were very clear from our statement at the start of this in January that the Princess of Wales planned to be out of public action until after Easter, and that hasn’t changed,” says a spokesman for the Waleses.

“We were always clear we wouldn’t be providing updates when there wasn’t anything new to share.

“The last thing anyone wants is a running commentary of the Princess of Wales’s recovery. Nothing has changed from that approach in January.”

I am baffled by the confusion about Kate’s whereabouts. It seems pretty cut and dry to me. I shared this sentiment on Instagram, and several readers sent me DMs chastising me for thinking this. In answer to a slide on Instagram, I recieved the following messages.

And another:

Here is why I am baffled by the conspiracies and these two readers who seem to think there is something suspicious.

As a preliminary matter, it is very clear that something is or was seriously wrong with Kate. There is no mystery there. When a 42-year old woman undergoes unexpected abdominal surgery that has her hospitalized for two weeks afterward, something is very wrong. No one is denying that. As we have discussed at length in these pages, there are a number of things this could be. It is not accurate to say that only late stage cancer or a complete “mommy makeover” could be at issue here.

Birth is grueling, but it is a natural process. It is a function the female body is designed to do, and it is a state of health. Whatever surgery Kate went through in January, it was for something that is not normal or healthy.

The Palace did not say Kate is in bed, the Palace said she will be recuperating in private until at least Easter. The timeline to heal—two and a half months—is certainly generous, but it is not crazy, if Kate decided to take the entirety of the time it will take her to feel herself again. That can take many, many weeks. It is also possible that some of Kate’s time to heal might be psychological as well. If she has a serious health issue, maybe something she will need to learn to live with longterm, I could see why she would take an extended time away from the public eye.

Nor has there been absolutely no word on Kate. William has talked about her on a number of occasions, thanked people for their support, and mentioned Kate has in-home nursing care. We know from Richard Eden’s reporting that Kate was well enough to travel to Sandringham several weeks ago for a “staycation” with her family.

It seems that a lot of poeple do not understand that the royals can thoroughly withdraw from the public eye, if they want to. Adelaide Cottage, where the Waleses now live in Windsor, is in Windsor Home Park. Windsor Home Park is the private estate of Windsor Castle. The public cannot access it, which means the Waleses have significant privacy to go about their lives in complete seclusion, should they so choose. If Kate wants to travel to her parents’ home (a generously large private estate), to Sandringham (a veritable royal enclosure), or anywhere else, she could be driven out in a blacked out Range Rover or take a helicopter to her destination. It is not as if she lives in a regular house on a public road and we would naturally get pictures of her around her house or coming and going. The royals, if they want, can move from estate to estate without any exposure.

People are asking why the Middletons have not visited. Again, how would we know? I have never seen a report of the Middletons visiting in the almost two years the family has lived at Adelaide Cottage. Are we to believe they have never visited? Of course not! But how would we know? I have not heard of Kate visiting her parents in Bucklebury in years, either. Do we think she never visits them in Bucklebury with the children? Again, preposterous to imagine given how close knit this family is.

We haven’t seen the children! Indeed. How often do we see the children apart from the public events their parents bring them to? Not a lot! There are very few paparazzi pictures of the Wales children, and most of those pictures were from the time when the family lived at Kensington Palace and would walk in the public park there, or times when they have ventured somewhere public that is heavily trafficked.

The only reality this complete blackout on Kate underscores is that the Waleses actually live the majority of their lives in private. People often make the mistake of thinking that the parts of their lives they choose to reveal is all of their lives. Nothing could be farther from the truth. They live their day-to-day lives in the privacy of their estates and socialize with their friends among the aristocracy in relative if not complete privacy.

That is why events like the Houghton Festival, where someone leaked a picture of Kate, are so interesting. William and Kate have a private social life that we, the watching public, know nothing about.

To recap, obviously something pretty serious is or was wrong with Kate, and I worry. I worry especially when William pulls out of an event as he did last week citing personal reasons. It is impossible not to wonder if Kate had a set-back. But it is clear that whatever is wrong, Kate wants to face it in complete privacy, and the Palace is going full bore to defend her privacy. Given the wealth and resources of the British royal family, we should not be at all surprised that they are able to successfully provide Kate two and a half months of seclusion.

P.S. I just saw Tom Bower say that he knows Kate’s diagnosis, that it is very serious, and that she could take even longer to recover! We will have to discuss and unpack that in a later post.

I apologize this newsletter is a day late! Somehow, February’s shorter month just did not register to me until I was blowing out my hair this morning thinking happily about how it is St. David’s Day and daffodil day…and the new month dawned on me!