Kensington Palace is officially commenting on the Kate Middleton rumor mill.
In January, the royal family announced that the Princess of Wales would be taking a break from public life until Easter as she recovered from a planned abdominal surgery. They also asked for her privacy to be respected during this period. “She hopes that the public will understand her desire to maintain as much normalcy for her children as possible,” Kensington Palace said at the time.
However, for the past 48 hours, conspiracy theories about the whereabouts of Kate Middleton have been shared wildly on X, the social media platform previously known as Twitter.
Many were humorous (like ones suggesting she’s at the disastrous Glasgow Willy Wonka experience). However, some took a more sinister tone, speculating that the Princess was “missing,” or that the royal family was hiding the real reason for her absence from public life.
Kensington Palace today reiterated their original statement: “We were very clear from the outset that the Princess of Wales was out until after Easter and Kensington Palace would only be providing updates when something was significant.”
They also added that she is “doing well.”
Will this calm the current internet craze? It’s unclear. The whole furore was sparked after Prince William unexpectedly pulled out from a memorial service for his godfather, King Constantine of Greece for what was described as a “personal matter.” What the personal matter was, exactly, remained unclear—causing gossip to run rampant on social media, which in turn inspired an avalanche of outrageous commentary and memes. It seems that the waters might only be calmed after March 31, when the Princess is presumed to return to her royal role.
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