The Princess of Wales..

[CurlewKate]

I just wanted to share some thoughts I've had since talking to some RL friends last night. I'm a Republican, and didn't actually post much on any of the threads on here. But I did read them, laugh at the ones I found funny and speculated a little IRL. I enjoy robust mental health, but I feel a little sad and down today about the news. And a little guilty. It occurs to me that it might be a real source of distress to some other people. Not the big media ghouls, of course, they have no shame and will just move on to the next thing without looking back, but for those of us who bought in to the whole farrago and maybe posted things we now wish we hadn't. So remember, the media often manipulates us, the establishment often lies to us and it's actually a good thing not to immediately take what we're told at face value. Don't beat yourself up and find someone to talk to if you feel really bad about it. Take care of yourselves.

And you would expect adults to know these things (about social media). We are taught from childhood to be kind, not to gossip about people, to consider others' feelings, but when it comes to social media and fame, all bets are off and anything goes.
People who were not kind, did gossip and lapped up the meanness towards someone else deserve to feel ashamed and guilty. Adults should not be mean to others and should not tolerate others doing so.

I would describe myself as actively anti-royalist and I also allowed myself to get a little too into the speculation (escapism from my own life) and now feel similarly.

Guess we just need to reflect on how we felt/acted and why, and try to do better next time.

Thanks mum.

I think it’s horrible that KP released a totally composite picture of her family and lied. They should not have done that. Stick to the story. Be back at Easter.
All of this could have been avoided if the pictures had never been released.

Heads should roll at KP for not being able to hold the line.

Twitter will alway twit and SM will feed off any scraps out there. But KP have done HRH Kate dirty. Not the public.

I have very little interest in the royal family and didn't engage in any speculation whatsoever. I still feel sad this morning.

Charlotte is the same age as I was when my mum had cancer and I'm the same age as Kate. I guess illness is a leveller. I feel very sorry for the whole family and wish her well.

There's a royal family section that MNHQ are mercifully corralling all these threads.
Maybe post there

Just wow. Not a part of you can understand why Kate wasn’t ready to reveal and wanted to post a healthy picture. Not a single cell

and the public has been shocking. Facelift, stoma, dead, domestic violence, divorce, facelift. That wasn’t the media. It was the public.

@Lampslights the PR management around all this has been very poor and has let Kate down.

There was already a slew of speculation despite the original press release stating she would be back at work after Easter.

I think someone was paid a lot of money for her private medical records or private information about what she was dealing with and she was effectively bullied into releasing yesterday's message.

There’s no justification for letting yourself off the hook like that OP. The woman was clearly very unwell, so nasty speculation had nothing to do with media manipulation and establishment lies - it was just nasty.

I am all for learning the lesson, forgiving yourself and moving on, but to do that you have to own your mistake in the first place.

Some might feel a bit bitter that they the royals get such prompt treatment, and the rest of us are waiting for phones to be answered and the waiting lists to go down .

There was a tv show on a few years back, Derren Brown, on how a crowd acts and can be manipulated, very interesting.

Behave. It's not as if she jumped an NHS waiting list and plenty of people choose to go private.

The mainstream British media in this case behaved pretty well- it wasn’t our tabloids speculating, it was the foreign press plus the public. (I half wonder whether our press were aware and had agreed not to run the true story).

I feel we are long overdue a major shift in how the public view the royals. They should be able to live a lot more privately at all times and without question in circumstances like this. I’m reminded of the outcry when Meghan said she didn’t want to give birth with the press camping outside the window but in privacy with an announcement later. Such a reasonable thing to want.

You can't dodge the issue that the NHS needs a kick up the arse .

It’s depressing that it has taken this news for people to realise how twattish the whole furore has been.

Person has surgery and is out of the public eye within the timeframe they originally specified and people all over the world go batshit and take it personally.

Maybe KP did mess up, but that goes to show how much pressure traditional and social media puts on them. And that’s without taking into account that there’s a real life person going through a distressing and evolving situation.

I haven’t heard anyone talk about Kate irl though, so I do like to think it’s the media stirring the busy bodies up for views and that most people still behave decently towards others.

A badly photoshopped photo was released and it was not only spotted but was bad enough that the photo/news agencies pulled it because of the obvious photoshopping. Someone fucked up, whether Kate (who isn't a professional so shouldn't be expected to be amazing at photoshop and know all the rules) or somebody at KP who is more professional, presumably.

I think it's perfectly understandable why she didn't want a photo taken, but in the U.K. what has caused the problem was the photoshopping of the image. In the US of course, and online, it was way over the top speculation that exploded with the photoshopped image.

It's not fair that she had to come out and make a statement whilst undergoing chemo, just like it's not fair that she had to be photographed and filmed leaving hospital postpartum. Nobody wants to do that!

Sadly for her in this instance she doesn't have the freedom to be invisible. That's the price she and her family pays for the lives they lead. It's a very heavy price in my opinion, and it's not the sort of price you or I would have to pay were we to have chemo. But the truth is that serious illness makes the bad things in life even worse. People lose jobs, lose friends, women often lose husbands and life partners, small business owners struggle immensely, and single people with no relatives are often extremely isolated. So it's not fair, I wouldn't want it, but in a way it's no different for her than for anybody else. Her vulnerability isn't financial, it doesn't seem to be family support, it's public life and the media. Most people have an area of life that's problematic when dealing with cancer, and that's alongside the cancer (or illness).

I feel sorry for her just like I feel sorry for my friend living in the highlands who needs chemo and radiation, not preventative, who needs to leave her home for four weeks to get treated, to stay in a supported B&B because she has nobody to drive her to and from appointments.

I wish them and everybody dealing with a frightening diagnosis and treatment a recovery as pain free as possible.

I didn't really give it much thought. They said she was having 12 weeks away from the spotlight and didn't want to talk about her private medical info so that was enough for me.

I've worked in media for most of my career and it became obvious a few weeks back that a storm was brewing. All the stuff over the photos, the sightings etc led me to conclude the media knew something and were applying intense pressure to force KP into announcing it. And everyone who was commenting and joking about it couldn't see they were being manipulated into adding to that pressure. Pretty grim stuff really!

Having said all of that, I don't think KP has handled it well. They know that silence and lack of information allows 'weeds' to grow and yes, she should have been allowed to have disappeared for 12 weeks as was stated but a few short updates on her progress might have stopped all the noise.

The whole thing is a mess.

Oh please if she did go on the waiting list there would be cries of - it’s so unfair she can afford to go private and is taking someone’s NHS place!

Sorry but I disagree with you. I think that people who speculated ought to feel ashamed of themselves and learn from it.
It’s not about you, it’s about an unwell mum and her privacy who has been forced to speak publicly by a mob.

Did I say she should go on a wait list . I said the NHS needs sorted .

I couldn't put it better myself. The media do not manipulate adults to be unkind. That's their choice.

The only place that I’ve read that the picture was totally composite is on here, and on here I’ve seen it stated frequently and as fact. You have just done the same. You have taken an unconfirmed rumour which is the worst possible interpretation of what actually happened, and posted it on social media as fact. You, and people like you, are the problem.

@Hobnobswantshernameback "There's a royal family section that MNHQ are mercifully corralling all these threads.
Maybe post there"

I deliberately didn't because I suspect some of the people who are feeling guilty might be avoiding that section.

And who caused all that speculation by treating the public like fools, not being honest and issuing fake pictures? That wasn't the public. The problem is now that we know the lengths they will go to lie about something this huge, what else can we not trust the monarchy to be truthful about? Only a few weeks ago the palace said they would only be issuing significant updates about Catherine. The princess of Wales having cancer wasn't significant then? That's ok then. The only reason last night's announcement was made is because it was about to come out anyway, her records had been breached. Otherwise they would have continued merrily with the deceit and fake pictures indefinitely. On the relationships board they call this kind of thing gaslighting....