See, when you said Prince Albert, I thought you met Queen Victoria‘s husband, who is the only Prince Albert I know, and I was very confused. I know some people on this board are a bit older than me, but I didn’t think you were around in the 1840s… 
(but, I guess I’m not enough of a royal watcher to know that there is a current Prince Albert)
13 Likes
I appreciate the blend of concern and humor on this thread.
And indeed what this story has done is brought many (including me) who don’t normally give the RF a second look, right into the fold. So true, we don’t know the ins and outs of RF life!
18 Likes
Prince Albert of Monaco, son of Grace Kelly.
We were in Monaco a few years ago and toured the castle. That’s where I learned why there is no king or queen of Monaco. Since it’s such a small country it was always allied with larger countries and as such answered to their monarchs. So Prince and Princess is the best you can hope for!
ETA: I did not see Prince Albert, in a can or otherwise.
13 Likes
I saw the same photo of the King on Instagram. He seems to show up in photos at least once every two weeks for small receptions or meetings at the Palace.
I may be naive, but I’m hoping Kate is just off getting better, and it won’t surprise me if she does, but she may or may not address what her issue was at some point in time. Either way I’m good with it, even though she is a working royal.
5 Likes
Yes! I was just thinking why the heck am I interested in this Royal family “reality tv/soap opera” drama? I looked back at my posts and saw it began when I was appalled at the vitriol directed at Harry and Meghan. I was so curious to understand where it came from. The more I tried to catch up with the main characters and their historical context, I became more and more convinced that the media narrative being put forth was some kind of coordinated manipulation.
Now we have all this William and Kate drama. Are the same people who accused Harry and Meghan of self promotion and who quoted Oscar Wilde (“There’s only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.”) willing to consider this a possibility of the future king and queen? (Imo the UK seems a bit obsessed with popularity polls.)
To me it seems like Kensington Palace has fumbled the ball…but who knows?… maybe they’ll recover it and will go on to score the proverbial touchdown. Regardless, I’m having trouble looking away at the Kate/William stories.
It will be fascinating to see how this all plays out and how this period of time is viewed many years from now.
2 Likes
My older daughter and I are very invested in this, lol. We have landed squarely between “something is very wrong with her health” and “something is very wrong with their marriage” and she is playing hardball about a good exit. Don’t come at me, this is just idle speculation on our part.
I agree with others that the Palace has royally (ahem) mismanaged this. It doesn’t take much to make a “thank you for your thoughts” video, or something like that. While some might think that is feeding the sharks, I see it as appreciating that people are interested and taking control of the narrative. The fact that she hasn’t has just amped up the talk that she is not well.
5 Likes
@skieurope Yes!! The RF of Monaco is absolutely insane. The video of Princess Charlene crying on her wedding day is bonkers.
I was also befuddled by the casual chillness of all the onlookers at the “farm shop”. When I once saw David and Victoria Beckham walking with Gordon Ramsay and his wife here in Northern California, people’s heads did literal 360s on their necks!!! In this video of Kate and wills everyone just goes about their business, almost as if they’re… extras in a production of some kind???
5 Likes
Maybe it was a production. “Closed set” with extras….
11 Likes
@abasket I agree re. the combo of humor and concern. I’m assuming most of us here are parents so we probably have some simpatico with her as a mom who’s trying to keep things stable and upbeat for her kids. We also probably share memories of Diana and we’re loathe to see another woman in her prime being ground up by the “men in grey suits”.
10 Likes
My daughter, who is studying abroad, is headed to London next week. I told her to find out what’s happened to Kate - she had no idea what I was talking about 
21 Likes
Clearly your D is not on CC
5 Likes
Once she gets to London - she won’t be able to miss it ! The newsstands are alive and well with blaring headlines.
1 Like
This thread is fun and funny! It’s been nice to discuss something in the news with friends and family that has no implications for the 2024 presidential election 
.
I’m not a celebrity watcher in general, but I’ve felt supportive of Kate since learning that she suffered from hyperemesis gravidarum (extreme nausea) during all three pregnancies like I did. By going public about it, she educated millions and definitely won me over!
If Kate has Crohn’s disease, I do hope that she considers disclosing as it would help so many people feel seen and normalized. However, I understand that she may not want to discuss a chronic disease in public for many reasons, one of which could be that Crohn’s can have life-threatening complications and her kids are still so young.
Most of all, I hope she is okay. Maybe she’s just curled up on the couch with their black spaniel Orla, laughing about the conspiracies and looking forward to mysteriously appearing after Easter as if nothing happened!
18 Likes
Yes. This is exactly what he needed to do today: show “proof of life” after one of his own embassies was forced to respond to rumors that he had died.
This is why Kensington Palace’s inability to do the same for Kate is all the more worrisome. They can’t provide definitive proof that she’s OK.
To be clear, I’m not such a tin-foil hatted conspiracist that I’ve bought into the crazy “Weekend at Bernie’s” rumors about William offing her etc etc. I still think the most likely is that she either had surgery + high dose steroids for Crohn’s disease or that she wants a divorce and isn’t cooperating with KP as leverage for a settlement/custody or whatever. Or, sadly, has had a mental health and/or eating disorder crisis (has anyone else seen the MULTIPLE pics of her with her hands or fingers bandaged?) Any of those are completely plausible and would explain it all.
Not that she an owes an explanation to any of us. We just want to know that she’s OK.
This is how I ended up going down the rabbit hole that is Ancestry .com, lol. I hit my doomscrolling limit during the last election cycle and fled into the past! I thought that by the time I “finished” researching my family tree, the insanity would be over. (Laugh-cries on both fronts…)
10 Likes
The ‘real’ British media are finally calling BS on fake Kate
2 Likes
I thought that family photo might have had a few edits but holy cow, quite a lot of work must’ve gone into it.
https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/19/europe/kate-royals-altered-photo-queen-gbr-intl/index.html
6 Likes
A sports reporter? Just stirring the pot for clicks.
A BBC sports reporter appeared to promote conspiracy theories about the Princess of Wales by suggesting it was a “lookalike” who was photographed over the weekend.
The Princess, whose absence from public life while she has been recovering from surgery has sparked a flurry of bizarre conspiracy theories, was pictured visiting the Windsor Farm Shop on Saturday.
Video and photographs emerged on Monday night capturing the 42-year-old alongside the Prince of Wales on a shopping trip close to her Adelaide Cottage home.
It follows weeks of speculation with a series of conspiracy theories about the Princess’ healthspreading across social media, among them that the woman identified as the Princess is an actress or lookalike.
Sonja McLaughlan, the BBC’s rugby specialist, echoed this theory online, suggesting the individual seen shopping alongside Prince William was not his wife, but a double.
I have been drawn into this too!
I am wondering….why does it take so long to put out a statement to clarify all this?
They are making a big production about the Princess making an ‘announcement’ in ‘a week’?
Really?
They are making such a big production of her ‘announcement’ that it is adding fuel to the fire by keeping us all in suspense!
Right now it’s like Meghan who?
1 Like