Nothing is more awful than putting on a public happy/brave face when things are terrible at home. Most of us have been in that position to some degree, but we didn’t have multiple cameras in our face as we braved the crowds.
I don’t understand the mindset of the palace officials as it relates to the photo; it seems heartless.
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Am I going to fault William or Camilla for carrying on? No. And Kate and Charles probably don’t want them hanging around 24/7.
But it is interesting that he gets criticized for cancelling an event and criticized for showing up to an event.
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I can’t help thinking what a difficult time this is for William. His father has cancer, he lost his mother tragically when he was a child, he is estranged from his only sibling and now his wife who is the mother of their three young children has received a cancer diagnosis. That’s a lot no matter who you are.
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And he lost his grandmother not that long ago.
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It is never out of style to apply the Golden Rule.
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@MaineLonghorn very true.
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A month after a similar “major abdominal surgery” being discussed, my wife was all “get out of the house and go do something on your own”. Both because she needed a break from me and also because she wanted me to have a break from her.
Kate probably also threw in, “and act normal until I’m ready to tell the public”.
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Likewise, after giving birth, I could not get my husband back to work fast enough.
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Well the events were quite different? One was an entertainment gala and the other a funeral for his godfather whom the press said he was very close to.
We also don’t know when they found out there were cancer cells present…that news could have been what precipitated William not attending the funeral.
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We don’t know the timeline of their private lives, but I’ll trust in his ability to do what he thinks is right for his family.
And to clarify, it wasn’t a funeral; it was a memorial.
That he was criticized for not attending the actual funeral a year ago may be warranted. But again, we don’t know the circumstances, nor is he obligated to tell us
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I think I am much more curious about the willingness of people to speculate, gossip, demand details and pass judgement than I am about the goings on of the royal family. Random thoughts:
They are (glorified) government employees. Civil servants. They are not in leadership or national security roles. No one has any right to know anything about their health issues.
Kate has a right to release whatever photo, taken at whatever time, she wanted of herself and the kids in recognition of mother’s day. Should she have said “heres a photo william took of all of us enjoying a private moment a few months ago but its only decent because i stitched together three photos”? Maybe.
The fact that crazy people escalated their craziness after the photo was released does not in any way obligate them to respond to demands from the crazies.
It’s at least possible that Kate “took the fall” for the edited photo fiasco because it was the truth.
I do not care how sick I might be or how many kids I might have, if my husband had been by my side 24/7 for a month, I would be BEGGING him to get out of the house-for my own sake, but also because I care about his mental health. It’s possible Kate feels the same way.
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I think they may not have known. My tests didn’t come back for a month, then more time to develop a plan. I’m not a princess and hers may have come back faster, but you don’t know that. It honestly doesn’t matter when they knew - they have no obligation to share. Must the high school principal share health info? The chief of police? Does it change the education your kids are receiving if they keep a heart issue a secret or cancer or diabetes, or change the safety of the city if the chief takes time off for a personal matter? How would the public be entitled to the information or harmed by not having it that William and family have health issues? How would anyone benefit or be harmed by the Palace announcing her cancer in February?
How should the family have reacted? Keep the kids home from school? William walking around all sad, wearing sackcloth and ashes? Sure, no one would have been suspicious then! He was working. That’s what most people do, continue on with life as best they can.
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CBS News broke into the Northwestern game
This baffles me! Why?!! What does Kate Middleton’s health have to do with anything in the US? She’s just like a celebrity here. Would they break into the game to tell us that Kate Winslet was sick too? The whole royal watching thing is way out of hand.
Wishing her the best and a full recovery but this is the perfect example of why she would want to keep it secret. Not only does she have to tell her country which she ostensibly serves in some capacity (I am not a fan of the monarchy, but not my country) but news organizations in other countries make it breaking news!
Can you imagine if the BBC broke into programming to tell their viewers you had cancer?
Man we live in some crazy times.
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Probably.
Hysterectomy with inspection for mets would have been done laparascopically, and would not have warranted a preplanned 2 week postop stay. Either they knew it was going to be an enormous debulking surgery ahead of time for a metastasized gyn cancer but were not forthcoming, or a whipple for a hopefully precancerous pancreatic cyst, and again were not forthcoming.
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Who in the United States, besides a current President, would the press be clamoring about if not seen for a week? Absolutely no one. We go months without seeing the VP and former presidents and months without seeing the most tippy top movie stars.
Taylor Swift is arguably the most famous and photographed person in the US right now. But besides a core number of Swifties, do we know where she is? The last I saw (I think), she was on a beach vacation.
Kate is on another level. She is the most photographed woman in the world and if she is MIA for 10 days the British press and social media lose their minds.
The royals have a history of not being forthcoming about their medical conditions. The public wasn’t told King George VI had lung cancer. The death certificate for Queen Elizabeth II said she died of ‘old age’. No one dies of old age. That was a cover up. Why?
When I had surgery the pathology was back in a week. Normally, when there is a visible growth, the pathology would be done intra-operatively so the surgeons know whether or not to do a larger surgery. My dad had a pancreatic tumor. It was biopsied in the OR, determined then to be benign. If it had been cancer, then a Whipple procedure would have been done.
Something must have triggered the ‘planned’ surgery. She had pain, perhaps. Then a CT or MRI would have been done. You don’t go into surgery without the surgeon knowing what potentially they will be dealing with. So they may have seen some sort of mass, maybe an ovarian cyst, maybe a large flat polyp of the colon that had to be removed surgically rather than by colonoscopy.
The thing is for most early stage cancers the prognosis is very good. So why not disclose and discuss.
Kate has a platform like almost no one else in the world. (Same for Charles’ diagnosis as well). I remember Betty Ford and how she came out very frankly with her breast cancer diagnosis and women ran to get mammograms, including the VPs wife, Happy Rockefeller who also found breast cancer.
Kate and Charles could do a lot of good but they chose to obfuscate and hide the truth. I don’t get it. Celebrities and (many) politicians disclose their medical conditions. No one faults them for it. They are celebrated for bringing these things to world wide attention. The royals are making a big mistake.
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According to most biographies, George VI himself wasn’t told he had lung cancer. Or if he was, not until very late.
A bit overdramatic.
While not the preferred description, UK government guidance does allow listing “old age” as a cause of death for some over 80. That was also the cause of death listed on Philip’s death certificate. The Queen Mother’s death certificate listed “extreme old age.”
And really, nobody is really shocked when someone frail and 96 dies, whatever the actual CoD was.
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My FIL recently died of old age at 95, his heart was too old, there was nothing they could do but call hospice. One morning he didn’t wake up, passed that afternoon. MIL is 93, now in assisted living, I suspect she will be joining him shortly.
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