Highlights from the 60 Minutes Australia Spot on William and Kate
60 Minutes Australia ran a 20 minute segment on Prince William, primarily interviewing Jason Knauf. Knauf was the Communications Secretary at Kensington Palace, working for both the then-Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.
Although many people only heard of Knauf when he was named as the Palace aide who filed a bullying complaint about Meghan with the Palace HR, longtime royal watchers are very familiar with Knauf from his time in service to the royals since 2015. When the households split, Knauf stuck with William and Kate. He was a senior advisor to the couple and for a time was the CEO of the Royal Foundation. Knauf has left the royal household, but, to my knowledge, he remains a trustee on the board of Earthshot.
“They Hadn’t Told the Children”
The 60 Minutes spot highlighted that Knauf was and remains a confidante of Prince William. As you might expect, there really wasn’t anything earth shattering in the report, but there were some interesting tidbits. Knauf said that when William told him Kate had cancer “it was awful. Absolutely awful. It’s the lowest I have ever seen him.” He went on to explain that as the conspiracies kicked off online, William and Kate did not want to tell the world that the princess had cancer because they had not yet told their children, and they were still trying to work out how to tell the children.
That is interesting. I wonder how long they waited—or how long they wanted to wait. Kate’s surgery was in January, and she announced her diagnosis in March. They held out for what seemed like a good long time. The conspiracies swirled for weeks (it is so weird to think back to this). Bu when you go through the timeline, it does seem like their hand might have been forced.
My recollection is that odd conspiracies started circulating mid-February, but the trouble really started when William abruptly pulled out of attending a memorial service for King Constantine of Greece, citing a personal matter. That’s when things really went into overdrive, and the conspiracies leapt from the various parts of the internet where these kinds of odd rumors are common to the mainstream.
The royals worked to weather the PR storm from that ignition point in late February through most of March. They must have told the children sometime in mid-March before Kate’s video message on March 22nd, in which she announced her cancer diagnosis to the world. Given that timeline, I do assume they were forced to tell their children earlier than they had planned, which is really too bad.
Of course, Knauf’s comment was not a major revelation, but I think it framed it a little more starkly. Kate herself noted in her video that she and William were trying to process privately and explain to their children in an age-appropriate manner what was going on with her health. Knauf’s comment is a little more black and white—they hadn’t told the children, and the suggestion was that they might have been planning to put it off even longer.
Kate has had to reveal so many health details before she is ready—all of her pregnancies were an almost immediate announcement, due to her hyperemesis gravidarum, and then her cancer diagnosis, too. Watching this interview reminded me how crazy and difficult life was for William and Kate this time last year.
Is There a Path Back for Harry?
Knauf wasn’t the only person interviewed. Among several others, they interviewed a former butler who had worked at Highgrove for years, including when William and Harry were teenagers. Personally, I think interviewing butlers is usually scraping the bottom of the barrel, if you are asking for insider information on the royals thought processes, but maybe I am just scarred by Paul Burrell. But, this butler spoke to things well within his ability to comment—he talked about his observations of William and Harry’s relationship as teenagers. He noted they seemed to close and had endless teasing and camaraderie. Harry has tried to (very bizarrely) rewrite history to say there was always a poisonous rivalry, but I think the truth is the two were close brothers.
The 60 Minutes interviewer asked Knauf if there was a path back for Harry. He was extremely diplomatic and discreet. Knauf said even when you love someone, you can have ups and downs, and he stressed that this chapter has been very hard for William. When asked if there is a path back for Harry, Knauf simply said he couldn’t speculate on the future, but that Harry and William have accomplished a lot together. My mom is here visiting, and we chatted about this part after watching the show. As I have said many times before, there is absolutely no path back for Harry so long as he is married to Meghan. But even in the event Harry is divorced, it it hard to imagine William letting Harry back into the inner circle after the things he has said about not just the royals generally but about Kate.
I don’t think it can be over emphasized how vicious and serious Meghan’s racism allegation was. She was trying to destroy the family, strike a deathblow to the monarchy, and Harry sat there on Oprah and supported her in that allegation. I just don’t know that time can heal that wound.
Over all, it was certainly a puff piece to boost William, and I enjoyed all the videos they included of William and Kate over the years and more recently. You can watch the entire 20 minutes here.
I'm nearly sure at the time that I read somewhere that they told the children about the cancer the day the video went out as their school was breaking up and it meant news wouldn't get out that way if they mentioned to teachers/friends, and also the children were protected from questions by not being at school once the public found out.
Came to say the same about the children’s school schedule and telling them about Kate’s diagnosis. I believe I also remember reading that William ended up skipping the memorial service due to either Kate’s first day of treatment or finding out about Kate’s diagnosis that day. Makes all the wild Kate conspiracy theories seem even worse looking back now. So many people spreading vileness should be ashamed.