[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][et_pb_text module_class=”custom-post-title” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” header_font=”Black Han Sans|700||on|||||” header_text_align=”center” header_font_size=”46px” header_letter_spacing=”4px” custom_margin=”25px||5px||false|false” custom_padding=”0px||0px||true|false” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″]<\/p>\n
[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”credit-name” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” text_font=”Black Han Sans|||on|||||” text_text_color=”#000000″ header_4_font=”|||on|||||” header_4_text_align=”center” text_orientation=”center” custom_margin=”||0px||false|false” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″]<\/p>\n
Words by<\/strong> Georgia Aspinall<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/flatplan-plus-content.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2024\/03\/GettyImages-1760320021.jpg” alt=”Jennifer Aniston” title_text=”The Duke And Duchess Of Rothesay Visit Scotland” force_fullwidth=”on” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″]<\/p>\n Last weekend, Kate Middleton was reportedly spotted at her favourite farm shop in Windsor. As reported by The Sun, the Princess of Wales looked \u2018happy, relaxed and healthy\u2019 at the farm just a mile from her Adelaide Cottage home, according to onlookers. While there aren\u2019t any pictures from the farm shop stop, Kate was said to have been casually shopping with Prince William. Then, in another picture-less endeavour, multiple tabloids report that she was also seen in Windsor watching her children (George, 10, Charlotte, eight, and Louis, five) take part in sports.<\/p>\n The walkabouts come after speculation around Kate\u2019s health reached a fever pitch last week. Following months of intense debate online about her medical leave for abdominal surgery \u2013 which will see her off public duties until the end of the Easter holidays \u2013 Kensington Palace published a Mother\u2019s Day portrait of Kate with her children that was killed by respected picture agencies due to \u2018image manipulation\u2019. Kate then released a statement taking responsibility for editing the image and apologising for \u2018any confusion\u2019 it caused.<\/p>\n The ordeal has lit a fire under online discourse about her health. Where conspiracy theories were previously being shared in royal obsessive circles, the story has now broken into the mainstream as the likes of Kim Kardashian, Stephen Colbert and John Oliver have begun publicly questioning what\u2019s going on behind the scenes.<\/p>\n On last week\u2019s episode of Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen, comedian John Oliver explained, \u2018I was out. I thought, \u201cLet\u2019s all just ignore this we\u2019ve moved on,\u201d until the photoshop thing. That feels, like, you\u2019re almost handling badly in an impressive way at this point.\u2019<\/p>\n Now, it seems Oliver\u2019s take is increasingly being shared by royal experts. Far from quelling concerns, every new development in this story only appears to be fuelling the fire.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”custom-quote” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” header_2_font=”Libre Bodoni|||on|||||” header_2_text_align=”center” header_2_text_color=”#333333″ header_2_font_size=”40px” header_2_line_height=”1.2em” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″]<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″]<\/p>\n Initially, the party line from the Palace appeared to be their usual: keep calm and carry on. All the public were told is that Kate had spent 12 days hospitalised at The London Clinic for abdominal surgery and that she would be recovering at home until Easter. They requested privacy on behalf of the Princess and made it clear updates about her condition would not be given unless they were significant, stating \u2018The Princess of Wales appreciates the interest this statement will generate. She hopes that the public will understand her desire to maintain as much normality for her children as possible; and her wish that her personal medical information remains private.\u2019<\/p>\n And yet, in the months that followed this initial statement in December (Kate Middleton has not been seen at a public duty since Christmas Day, but was spotted in an unverified, unauthorised Paparazzi picture published by US tabloids earlier this month), there have been a series of what seem like panicked moves from the Palace.<\/p>\n First the doctored Mother\u2019s Day picture (in which the absence of Kate\u2019s wedding ring was a particular bone of contention to fuel the conspiracy theorists), then Kate\u2019s apology that only resulted in the public having more questions than answers. And despite calls for the Palace to release the original image and put commentators to rest, nothing in response.<\/p>\n \u2018Behind the scenes, whispers are that lessons can only be learnt from this PR disaster if the client \u2013 in this case William and Catherine \u2013 allow the professional communications experts they pay to do their job,\u2019 royal biographer Robert Jobson has written in this week\u2019s Grazia. \u2018Their \u201cdo it yourself \u201cmarketing is understandable for a family who want to prioritise normality for their children. But, as this scenario has shown, when it is done in rush without full disclosure to their team things go wrong\u2026 In the age of AI when the camera not only can lie, but does frequently, if the royal brand is to be believed, it must be authentic, or it risks damaging the public\u2019s trust of the royal family.\u2019<\/p>\n And damaged trust it certainly has, with last weekend\u2019s walkabout now being treated with similar caution online. Again, the public are questioning how such a widely reported outing from Kate \u2013 where onlookers were able to spot her twice and note how \u2018healthy\u2019 and \u2018relaxed\u2019 she seems \u2013 didn\u2019t result in any photographic evidence at all. Many are thus questioning the validity of the story, and whether it is yet another mis-stepped PR move from the Palace.<\/p>\n Of course, we must remember the so-called ‘gentleman’s agreement’ policed by Kensington Palace PR gurus, Jobson adds. Essentially, the Wales’ have historically worked with the British press by providing stage-managed family photos, with the unsaid understanding that UK media won’t use paparazzi or publicly taken pictures of them in return (which is why we rarely see non-professional pictures, or pap shots, of the royal family printed in Britain).<\/p>\n Today, with US tabloids, and online commentators, spreading rumours that the \u2018BBC is on standby for a major Royal Family announcement\u2019 it seems the furore around this debacle is only growing. To be clear, the BBC have not commented, and any suggestion of an impending royal announcement is pure speculation.<\/p>\n What all of this does prove though is that cynicism toward the royal family \u2013 in Britain and now seemingly crossing the pond \u2013 is at an all-time high. With the last few years of family fallouts and Prince Andrew scandals already contributing to an increasingly fraught relationship between the public and the monarchy, the clunky responses from the Palace to this latest scandal show the real cracks in the royal PR machine. Certainly, each new development is starting to denote a level of desperation for public approval we\u2019ve never quite seen from the Palace before.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_divider color=”#111111″ divider_position=”center” divider_weight=”2px” module_class=”custom-divider” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” custom_margin=”0px||0px||false|false” custom_padding=”0px||0px||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][\/et_pb_divider][et_pb_text module_class=”credit-texts” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” text_font=”|||on|||||” text_orientation=”center” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”]<\/p>\n Photo: <\/b>Getty<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The ordeal has lit a fire under online discourse about her health.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":2328,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2327","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-feature"],"acf":[],"modified_by":"kschwarz","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2327","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2327"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2327\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2333,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2327\/revisions\/2333"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2328"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\u2018Behind the scenes, whispers are that lessons can only be learnt from this PR disaster’<\/h2>\n