That was exactly my thought. I don’t think they told poor King George he had cancer, let alone tell the public.
I think they might have told the PM Churchill.
It was a different time and place
1 Like
3 Likes
I realize that Kate has not shared her type of cancer, so is it impossible to get an idea of her prognosis? I’ve been so sad since I heard her announcement. Whenever I hear people talk of colon or pancreatic cancer, it seems very serious.
2 Likes
I respect Kate’s ability to decide what she chooses to disclose about her cancer, when she’s ready. She can indeed do a great public service WHEN she’s ready to share whatever she chooses to.
At this point, I respect her privacy so she can have time and space to work on her healing and helping her young family through this challenging time.
14 Likes
The friend of my one kid, in middle school, had her mother die from breast cancer. According to his friend, the mother handled her first bout of cancer so “poorly” that the father kept it from her when the cancer recurred that it had metastasized. He was a doctor and apparently had some influence? I was utterly shocked by this story.
1 Like
You’re forgetting the duchies of Cornwall and Lancaster here. That’s another cool billion (untaxed!) because as kings and princes, they own so much land.
1 Like
The crown also doesn’t pay inheritance taxes, which allows the estates to stay intact.
This is huge as inheritance taxes have been/are quite high.
1 Like
To be clear, the monarch does not pay inheritance tax on bequests from the deceased monarch (or deceased consort if also the mother of the current monarch).
1 Like
I just don’t get this. She’s a young woman with a life-threatening disease, mom to three young kids. Maybe she WILL use her platform–she did reach out in empathy to other cancer patients in her post.
But could you giver her a moment or two, maybe a few, to deal with all this before getting faulted for not taking up the platforming job???
People are such vultures. I don’t get it. I literally never gave her a moment’s thought before this episode, but the whole thing is making me really weirded out about the lack of empathy out there. But maybe it’s just the online world.
37 Likes
It appears they were waiting for the kids’ 3 week spring break to tell them the news, giving them time to process and ask questions. Yesterday was their last day of school. She should be focused on herself and her family at this time.
14 Likes
I was also surprised they interrupted programming for the announcement. It wasn’t as if it was a live press conference, or that they were announcing that she had died (which some were speculating).
It’s a bit unsettling to now see various members of the medical community jumping in to dissect the medical portion of her statement. They seem to be split on whether what she said, is medically accurate. I think anyone who isn’t her immediate doctor, should sit this one out.
7 Likes
I just saw a doctor online comment that “preventative chemotherapy” is not a medical term. The rebuttal was that she is not a doctor, and those are words that the general public may be able to understand.
5 Likes
Yes, you won’t find many laypersons saying “adjuvant therapy,” even if they are a Princess.
6 Likes
Maybe a defense secretary?
12 Likes
If I knew who that was! I would really have to Google it, to the chagrin of my politically involved husband. However, I could sketch a very detailed five-generation family tree of the Royal Family.
7 Likes
We don’t know what’s going on. We don’t know if the princess waited until the school break so that the kids won’t be bombarded by schoolmates, teachers, parents. Media. Although I think royal children are off limits.
I would think that the children have been told but it’s not been in the public. To give them time for 
this story to die down.
3 weeks is a lifetime in the current medial landscape.
I do want to say that cancer treatments are so much better than they were even a decade ago. That’s what we’ve been told.
I do wish everyone well. Anyone who has to go through this. It stinks.
3 Likes
What a bizarre and awful statement. It IS hard. It WAS hard. It CONTINUES to be hard. Battling cancer or any serious health decision when you have small children is grotesque. Even without the concerns for your own life, your own pain and discomfort, your own agony is that known that your child can be terrorized at the same time. You appear to know nothing of compassion.
,
12 Likes
He (and he is chief of staff, not a defense secretary) had no duty to share his illness with us. He had a duty to tell his boss, POTUS, that he was assigning his duties to his undersecretary (and to actually do that promptly). Under HIPAA, he has no duty to tell us WHAT his illness is or even tell POTUS what it is. And if he did tell POTUS, POTUS can’t share that info with us without his permission.
I don’t know if England has a similar law to HIPAA.
3 Likes
They are not just glorified civil servants. They are immensely rich, own huge swathes of the country outright and absolutely will influence legislation that threatens their business interests.
1 Like
They’re rich? Who knew?
My comment was a reply to those who claim the royals are obligated to share their medical issues because they are paid by taxpayers.
The fact that they are wealthy and influential also does not oblige them to divulge health details.
6 Likes