Luis Fernando Romo
Updated Thursday, March 14, 2024-9:27 p.m.
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Rumors and
conspiracy theories
arise in situations of importance and ambiguity .
From an official point of view, which does not have to be truthful, the absence of Kate Middleton (42) at official events is due to the
abdominal surgery
performed on January 16 in London.
After
two weeks admitted
to the London Clinic, she was discharged, they avoided the paparazzi and Prince William (41) took her to Adelaide Cottage, the house located on the grounds of Windsor Castle.
It didn't take long for speculation
to arise
.
If you have cancer, if the operation went wrong..., but Kensington Palace turned a deaf ear.
The
lack of response
continued to fuel the bickering.
Perhaps in an act calculated by the royal family's image experts, on March 4, the Princess of Wales
was captured with a telephoto lens
inside a car driven
by her mother Carole.
Due to the great distance between the protagonists and the photographers, the image appears grainy, making it
difficult to recognize Kate.
Both were near Windsor Castle, near Adelaide Cottage, the residence to which the Princes of Wales moved in September 2022.
In an attempt to
continue to silence the rumors,
on March 10, Mother's Day in the United Kingdom, the princess wanted to congratulate all the mothers in the country with
a photo in which she appears happy
surrounded by her children, Prince George ( 10), Princess Charlotte (8) and Prince Louis (5). The
scandal
soon broke out
because the agencies that distributed the photo realized several
manipulations
that put the veracity of the image in check.
They removed it from their database.
Faced with such a situation, the protagonist did not take long to
send a statement
in which she blamed herself for having been so clumsy using Photoshop.
See this post on Instagram
Far from appeasing the gossip,
social networks,
television talk shows and the rest of the media began to offer
their theories
(conspiracy or not) about the true state of health of Charles III's daughter-in-law (75).
Again, on March 11, she was caught
with her husband
while they were leaving Windsor Castle by car.
Like the previous image, the
sharpness
of the protagonists was practically conspicuous by its absence.
Social networks began to exponentially transmit a conspiracy theory - at the moment the opposite has not been proven - that argues that the photograph
had also been manipulated.
Apparently, a photo of Kate would have been chosen taking that perspective into account and would have been
digitally incorporated next to her husband,
who appears crestfallen while she turns her head in the opposite direction to look out the window.
The Palace continues to remain silent.
Princess Charlene and Kate Middleton, at a meeting in Windsor in 2010.GTRES
For the
Daily Mail,
this case
is reminiscent of that of
Charlene of Monaco
when she disappeared for ten months in 2021. As was common with the Monegasque royal couple, it was rumored that they had coexistence problems that could lead to a separation.
The press department denied everything.
In March the princess
was in South Africa
visiting her relatives and attending the inauguration of the monument to the late Zulu king Goodwill Zwelithini.
Her return was expected like May rain, but the Monegasques were left wanting.
See this post on Instagram
Gossip arose
regarding
Charlene's health.
The Princess Charlène of Monaco Foundation issued a statement to confirm that
an ear, nose and throat infection
kept her hospitalized in South Africa.
In April, the princess posted an image of
her husband and her children,
Princes Jacques and Gabriella, on Instagram while they visited her.
Weeks later she published more snapshots during an event linked to a
conservation project
and at her niece's birthday, which was attended by Alberto and her children.
July 2 marked
the tenth anniversary of their wedding,
but each of them celebrated it separately.
See this post on Instagram
That on such an important date some 8,500 kilometers separated them called
into question the
palace's official version.
Time passed and
Charlene did not appear in Monaco.
It was said that she had undergone three operations and that her delicate state of health prevented her from traveling.
In this impasse, the princess published images of her daily life
from time to time ,
but none of them in Monegasque territory.
In October, Albert II announced that he was
about to return home.
Ten days after
his return, he left
the principality
again to enter, according to the newspaper Bild, the elitist Clinic les Alpes de Montreux (Switzerland), specialized
in mental health and addictions
whose fee is around 40,000 euros per week.
She spent four months in this center
.
The Page Six media published that Charlene had lost
half of her
body weight since after sinus surgery she could not eat solids.
The palace issued a statement in which it considered it unfair to talk about mental problems when in reality
it was "a deep general fatigue."
See this post on Instagram
In March 2022 it was announced that the princess had returned but
would take time
to "further strengthen her health before gradually resuming her official duties."
Finally,
in April she posed for a family portrait
to celebrate Easter and attended her first official event
with her family
at the Monaco E-Prix.
In May the family appeared publicly again at the Santa Devota rugby championship.
From that moment on, the princess
partially resumed her schedule,
although she continued to have notable absences.
Several French media published that
the couple had reached an agreement
for just over 10 million euros per year for Charlene to fulfill her role as consort.