Great news, HRH Princess Kate seen in public today

[DistinguishedSocialCommentator]

The press has published pics of HRH with her mum in mum Audi on a
"school run." HRH was seated in the front passenger seat.

Wishing HRS Kate a speedy recovery!!

I’d forgotten that! Repulsive

She's sold his pants for £200k, to a club owner who is going to create a shrine to him. I can sense another legend award coming along.

The alternative view, in a thread that gives Kelly Ann Conway and her alternative facts a run of their money, is that the dominatrix, as a sex worker, is standing up to a man who has exploited her, and should be applauded for her feminist stance. I cannot confirm or deny whether the microwave told me to type that.

😂

The first two are not statements but letters ? And the last one does not mention him in the first person.

Communications include letters, no?

@AliceOlive yes letters and statements are both communications but you would rarely write a letter as a couple - Kate would write her own. However, Kensington Palace ordinarily issue statements in the third person and either from the Prince and Princess of Wales or implied as being both of them because it’s simply from Kensington Palace. I did fact check this but could only go back so far.

I am not implying they are getting divorced. King Charles actually does statements in the first person, though I think as a King & with issues around Camilla’s status, this is different.

Seems like Prince William is forging a more independent path and his own identity away from Catherine. This could be because she’s
unwell, he’s stepping into being King or anything.

Also, and I’m going to voice my views because this is a forum & we are in a democracy….

I think it’s highly unusual and very coincidental that both the King and Catherine went in for serious surgery requiring long leave, within days of each and even issued a joint announcement.

Also coincidental is Uncle Gaz appearing on CBB during her leave of absence. I would get a sick note written too if my Uncle on the back of my fame.

Perhaps this is just really unlucky but I don’t think so. I think the issue is predominantly related to the pressures of her role and mental health, possible abdominal surgery was just one aspect or they wanted to completely throw the narrative to lead speculation in the right direction.

I think she does deserve privacy by the media but I don’t think you can police forums & Twitter accounts & people wanting to discuss their views. We are intelligent enough to know that one person saying a ridiculous rumour or asking questions is just a view point. It’s the media that has a responsibility to not give weight to those views.

Hopefully we are intelligent enough to not give weight to those rumours ourselves. And bad luck does actually happen you know. Often things are what they seem on face value. No hidden meaning or agenda.

For me it’s because I come to Mumsnet for the words! It’s a different way of reading, engaging, bunfighting. GIFs and memes are solidly Twitter – RIP, I don’t use X; and instagram stories.

I love a good gif, TikTok, meme etc on Instagram stories – excellently stupefying for my brain after a day at the small children coalface. But I find it genuinely jarring in a forum that’s largely written to be reading, writing, occasionally writing a reply in my head then thinking “nah” to then be confronted with a gif. One brilliantly deployed one in a thread can occasionally work; constant low-level, vaguely amusing ones and it all becomes a bit Netmums/those weird forums where everyone has a signature to their posts littered with shit quotes in hot pink comic sans and a load of twinkling fairy emojis. I’m sure a scientist can explain why it’s jarring but my tuppence worth is that I come to MN for the aggro for its clean interface and largely written communication.

I'm really surprised that Carole has allowed Uncle Gary onto Big Brother. I wonder why.

Under what powers could she stop him?

This is another reason why I am glad I am not royal- random family members selling you out for money. And how would you know who is a real and genuine friend?

There are perks, granted. Many many perks. But it comes at a cost.

Or in the RFs case a member of your inner circle.

Good point.

Does anyone else increasingly feel that we should stop making the royal family a ‘thing’?

I feel like I’ve gone down a dark rabbit hole with the whole ‘Where is Kate?’ frenzy in recent days and eventually come out into the sunlight blinking and bemused - and feeling rather grubby.

Would it not be better for everyone involved if we extracted ourselves from this particular social construct?

I completely understand people speculating. And there is nothing guaranteed to promote speculation more than being told not to speculate. It’s human nature to look out for apparent anomalies and try to figure them out. Maybe there is something noteworthy there. Maybe not.

I also understand those who find pleasure in cultivating an encyclopaedic knowledge about everything going on in this high profile family.

It seems to me that both groups of people are really in the same camp - people who think the royal family and its doings are significant. Both groups keep the show on the road. And it’s easy to get sucked in since the family is a constant fixture in the news.

But the language used in the media is terrible. ‘X breaks cover.’ ‘Y spotted for the first time.’ ‘Z breaks their silence.’ It’s very objectifying. But at the same time an almost inevitable consequence of elevating people in this way.

It’s a human zoo with us as the visitors. I used to go to zoos but now I would think twice about it. I sense that there’s been a shift in the way zoos are regarded by many people. Maybe, particularly in the age of social media, with everything so intensified, human zoos should be outlawed.

To me, William and Kate appear like two people who in their heart of hearts would prefer to be ordinary rich people living in obscurity.

Is it time to dismantle the whole system and introduce an alternative?

In my heart of hearts I too would like to be an ordinary rich person living in obscurity

David Mitchell, when promoting his book ( about the Royal Family!) said the UK has a Royal Family instead of an identity. I think that's true to some extent ( probably more in England) Who are we without a Royal Family? Nothing works properly, No-one wants to be us. But at least we can put on a good show once in a while for a Royal wedding or coronation!

@OutwiththeOutCrowd Completely agree. I am guilty as sin but much of my intrigue is fuelled with complete fascination in human nature & our society. I can’t understand how this family exists after 2024 in countries like the UK & Australia that uphold equal rights and claim to be fair, just meritocracies. The royal family is basically a sexist institution. The women are the ones that carry the media intrusion & what must be insane pressure on their looks & every move. The fact they can’t speak out about it, the fact they have to be bullied outside by waiting media and screams 12 hours after giving birth (probably bleeding heavily and still swollen) and their image beamed around the world. I don’t understand how any of it is different to the #metoo movement. The institution and the media coverage is a microcosm of our society hating and blaming women, “they knew what they were getting into when they married in”. Though I’m quite sure nobody could truly imagine what it would be like and even the best of us know that love can be blinding.

There is no grace given to these women, who are quite often “sacrificial lambs”. The men of the royal family make the rules but it’s the women given a level of fame and criticism we can’t even fathom.

Even the expectations of what a “perfect princess” is are backward.

The media covers them because there’s public interest, there’s public interest because of story book weddings, castles and glamour funded by the tax payer & endorsed by government. Also because it’s an entertaining pantomime and sums up the unfairness and disparity of life while giving us aspirational content.

I think it’s up to the government of both UK and Australia where I am, to make a call that in 2024, a head of state on the back of colonialism, Princesses hounded to death, privacy issues & well publicised mental health issues, a family perve that’s never been met with justice. A game of “media thrones” and internal politics & shadiness. What exactly does this family really represent ?

I also don’t thjnk it takes Freud to imagine that Princess Catherine is not this pillar of strength everyone wants to be and immortal woman. Nobody could come out mentally unscathed from atrention level of pressure and media attention. Not Diana, not Meghan and also not Catherine.

@Primrosecottagelover
I agree with much of your post but re the women being sacrificial - the queen was a mardy looking frump - she did not trade on her looks .
Apart from Diana , who did have a quality about her that went beyond the superficial , the ‘royals’ are now just celebrities but without the personality.
I suppose they trade on the looks of the married ins because the Windsors have the unfortunate Hapsburg gene and lose whatever looks they had early.
And keeping people focussed on shiny things stops them looking deeper into the indefensible feudal setup the Windsors currently enjoy ( above the law, the country literally and metaphorically handed to them at the ludicrous coronation, head of the church ( Charles was really pushing it but William ???)
It long blast time for root and branch reform or retirement - but they seem to be not so quietly quitting anyway

@OutwiththeOutCrowd
@IwishIcouldfinishabook

Yes and Yes

@Novella4 interesting & enjoyable perspective and post. Agree that they’re breaking up with the public with the royal equivalent of the silent treatment , leaving towels on the floor & coming home with lipstick on their collar, until they get dumped.

@Novella4 "I agree with much of your post but re the women being sacrificial - the queen was a mardy looking frump - she did not trade on her looks ."

Apart from being an appalling way to describe anyone, that's not actually true. She was very much marketed on her looks and her youth in the beginning.

** waiting for the public to dump them I mean, and until then, doing what they want on their terms

lol
what an image !

@CurlewKate
I take it back
The queen was a mardy looking woman