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.

Quite right! The photo fuelled the already massive media debate about “missing Kate” However the day that William had to pull out of the memorial seemed to be the catalyst for the gossip and speculation to go nuclear.

I now know that my preferred scenario (that I posted about with even @roussette 's approbation) was pretty much OK. So I don't regret anything I posted. Because it was that: there would be an announcement in the run up to Easter. But I also predicted that it would be to give either a further timeframe for return to duties (phased after Easter, complete once DC school holidays over). Or that it would be a further medical update.

Sadly it's the latter.

I do not begrudge then the "lie" when there was a strong suggestion at the time of William cancelling the memorial reading at 11th hour that it was nothing to do with Catherine (I assumed therefore it was an emergency icw one of the DC that she was unable to deal with but which required a parent). But looking at the absolute public madness, I don't blame them one jot for obfuscating/lying about that.

I think everyone and anyone who receives a cancer diagnosis has every right to decide who they tell and when, and also that level of detail is entirely up to them too.

Now I know this post is almost insufferably smug. But it wasn't inevitable that - with the same info from the Palace - people must think that something is being covered up. People need to own up, at least to themselves if not publicly, when they've got it wrong, when they've fallen for the bots and the trolls. In this case it just stoked an internet mob, who fuelled a lot of fury but made no real life difference whatsoever.

But what if the next whipped-up storm had real consequences in real life?

You can have empathy with the situation while still criticising the terrible handling

CurlewKate
I'm a Republican, and didn't actually post much on any of the threads on here.

Actually OP you have hundreds and hundreds of posts on Royal Family topics, some of them quite nasty. If you don't give a shit about the royal family why not just ignore them.

Sometimes folk can be abject failures without being world famous.

‘But what if the next whipped-up storm had real consequences in real life?’

It already has many many times. People still don’t stop. That poor nurse who committed suicide because someone scammed her to give out information from the hospital when Louis was born. The social media trial of Caroline Flack

The only people complaining about the handling are those hoping to avoid taking responsibility for their wild, and often nasty, speculation.

Mature adults thought the messaging was just fine and we should mind our own business.

@HornyHornersPinkyWinky "Actually OP you have hundreds and hundreds of posts on Royal Family topics, some of them quite nasty."

Really? I must have been posting in my sleep then!

Clearly

William cancelling the memorial reading was a purely private affair. It was a private event, not part of his public role. It was nobody's business but his and the family of the deceased. The howling about the cancellation and vilification of him being workshy more than anything showed the indecency of those posters who feel they have ownership of the RF members and their private/personal business. The man lost his grandparents, god father and good friend all in a relatively short space of time, and has the prospect of losing his father and wife. Not a single decent thought went through the heads of the people spewing their bile against him.

I haven't posted about this at all.

I am honestly amazed by OP though. Seriously, people who were either thick enough or nasty enough to post shit about all ths, you want to (barf) reach out and tell them NOT to feel bad?

WTAF.

I mean the timeline was...

Surgery
An announcement that the next three months would be needed for recovery

It WASN'T...

A holiday in the tropics
An announcement of possible detours en route home

(....therefore maybe it's fine to joke, speculate etc)

We were told the Princess Of Wales was ill. had surgery. In hospital. What part of that didn't compute?

So....either own up to being thick as mince if you are shocked, or own up to not caring about treating people's lives like a fucking soap opera.

@CurlewKate seems to be worried about the folk who did this, and presumably was one?

It's really a moment to think when Owen Jones has a better grasp of what's wrong here.

I saw one thread where the OP said something like "I've got popcorn and I've got all night". Then I didn't look but I'm not here a lot. Hopefully that got pulled.

OP name is familiar to me for some stuff but this is a proper....like seriously....what did I just read???

I suppose it's a weird defence mechanism of someone who can't fully admit to their own mistakes.

Yes me too, it’s been a difficult couple of weeks trying to stand up to the ridiculous and often horrendous onslaughts on here, this thread really has been a relief to read.

Normal to wonder what kind of op she was having yes. That type of thing.

Not normal to make wild allegations and speculation when we the public had been clearly told the woman would be privately recovering until Easter.

Not normal to go crazy over a photograph, even once it was clear it had been photoshopped. The obvious logical conclusion is that she want looking/feeling her best for a photo or that they'd tweaked the angle the children were standing 🤷‍♀️

Yes Catherine is in a much more fortunate position healthcare and money wise. But she's a human being and a mum. Even Royals and celebs aren't immune from illness or from hounding from the public and press.

Normal to wonder what kind of op she was having yes. That type of thing

Let's stop normalising all this ghoulish prying and poking into people's private life and personal medical conditions.

it isn't normal to want to know, it really isn't. Let's stop pretending that obsessing about this stuff is OK and giving permission for this behaviour. It's totally weird to need to know and shows how shallow people are and how empty their own lives are if that's what keeps people glued to screens for hours on end churning over the details.

Anybody normal wondered what was going on. You'd be absolutely strange to not wonder what was happening.

Of course it's normal to be curious.

My thoughts went something like this - 10-14 days is a long hospital stay for abdominal surgery for an otherwise fit and healthy 40ish year old, it must be something quite serious, I hope she's OK. The end.

I did not think it was a cover for a problem with her marriage or mental health and start posting nasty, inappropriate shit on line and then blame my behaviour on KP for not giving me updates when there was nothing new to say.

@jötunnn "I think you’re being kind. I think it’s basic gas lighting and an attempt to ‘reclaim the narrative’."

Thank you for this observation.

I'm not good at power games so hadn't thought of that. I lurk here, but often don't post because things get twisted quite quickly.

It often feels like a way of thinking that everyone else understands but I don't.

(And if I ask a question for clarity somebody will no doubt say oh dear, are you autistic?)

so yeah gaslighting makes sense, but I hadn't thought of it. Don't people wear themselves out twisting into pretzels all day? I suppose they've stretched all the way to talking out of their arse, so they're tired and sleep well?

I suppose it also didn't occur to me that people would exercise those "power/status" urges through gossip, and that it would become such a massive part of their identity.

But you are probably right. It might actually explain the general toxicity of media.

Anyone who was an adult when Princess Diana died - are any of the tricoteurs or the rumour spreaders, people of that generation, I wonder. Because I'd like to think that if you remember what happened there, you wouldn't behave the way some people have now in 2024.

Someone raised the example of Christopher Jefferies up thread.

Full credit, that poster admits to their mistake.

But didn't he have a key because he was the lady's landlord? I remember that happened over Christmas and by day two, at home, we were looking at the paper, saying how the hell would you have a trial because the press would've prejudiced it completely?!

I suppose the sad truth is that the same folk who cried and put flowers for Diana, are the ones spreading rumours about the Princess of Wales now.

it's so depressing. One positive is, I think I instinctively know how to avoid these people in real life!

I should lurk here less. I can't be arsed to read all the replies but was just stunned to see this thread.

I get the impression that W&K (from what she said) would just prefer things to die down so hey can get back to getting on with their family life whilst she recovers. Instead we now have an absolute firestorm all over the media of retributions/accusations/vitriol/self-flagellations all from people purporting to be 'protecting' or 'supporting' Kate and being outraged that she made a short announcement to clear up misconceptions/pre-empt potential medical info being leaked publicly. It has all led to a million times more media exposure and her name being in the spotlight even more which sounds like the last thing she wants or needs. I think that once cancer was diagnosed in whatever part they had removed and she would require preventative chemotherapy and once the children had been told, a short statement should have been officially released with the provision that no further information about Kate's health would be given apart from official bulletins. It would have stopped so much wild conjecture. Of course in theory she should be allowed to be private but the fact is that she is now a senior member of the royal family, wife and mother to heirs so absolute privacy is a pipedream. It goes with the territory that there is gossip and speculation about royals and that dates back centuries in the form of ribald songs, cartoons, pamphlets etc. To pretend otherwise is just naïve. She generates an enormous amount of interest in royalists in this country and around the world so of course if she disappears, speculation will start. I think if people are genuinely all about leaving her alone and respecting her space, the best thing to do would simple stop talking/posting about it all.

Yes exactly. Being curious doesn't mean obsessing over or thinking you have e a right to know.

My thoughts were just like that. I wondered what might be wrong and hoped she was ok. As you would any human being.

No, she's allowed absolute privacy over health matters. We all are.

No such thing if one is in the public eye. therefore better to throw a few morsels in a controlled fashion to the beasts than wait for them to consume one!

I don't see what any of it has to do with my morals? I didn't ask for a royal family. I don't want a royal family. If there wasn't a royal family then nobody would be speculating about anything.

No.
She is allowed absolute privacy over health matters.

You are missing my point. Realistically, it isn't going to happen in the same way that it would for a person without a high profile.

Lie? Have I missed something?