Eduardo Alvarez
Updated Friday, March 15, 2024-22:44
United Kingdom "Leave Kate alone": British tabloids protect Kate Middleton
'Royals' Kate Middleton's photo manipulation that creates even more concern and rumors
Controversy Everything that squeaks in the manipulated photo of Kate Middleton
"I don't even remotely spend my nights dreaming of being king."
It is a phrase that Prince William repeated around him years ago, responding to the criticism that some media directed at him for the
detachment
that he seemed to show for his duties as such a prominent member of the Crown.
"If you're not careful,
the obligations of royalty can burn you out before your time
," he added.
The biographers of Charles and Diana's first-born son agree that, due to his character, probably his deepest desire has always been to have
been an anonymous citizen
.
And, presumably also, today it causes him more regret than anything else to see how the moment of occupying the most important throne on the globe is approaching.
And the fact that he is failing his first big litmus test as heir
is not going to help him advance on his journey
.
Because the
reputational and image crisis
that is shaking the British Monarchy these days, with
photoshopgate
as the tip of the iceberg, has as its main protagonist Kate, the one labeled until now as a perfect princess, but in reality the person most responsible is him, who in months so hard for the institution, he is proving
incapable of measuring up as a future king.
The controversy over the manipulated photo of Kate with her three children, which
calls into question the credibility of the British royal family
, is the straw that breaks the patience of public opinion and published in the United Kingdom due to
information opacity.
from Kensington Palace, the official seat of the Princes of Wales, on matters of such importance as the health of the successor's wife.
But we are not only faced with an undoubted mistake, before a
monumental error
for which Princess Kate herself apologized through the networks to try to reduce the soufflé of the scandal.
What happened shows that the king's first-born son and his wife have ended up backfiring like a boomerang in the desperate attempt - which comes from very far away - to try to defend an
immense plot of privacy tooth and nail as if they were anonymous citizens
. a claim so incompatible with the need that monarchies have in the 21st century to maximize transparency - at all levels -, along with exemplary behavior, for their survival.
It was naive, and it was absurd, the claim of Kensington Palace to maintain absolute closure for at least three months on something that is as interesting as what happens to Kate.
And, with
the spread of the
fake
photo on the occasion of Mother's Day,
only what had to happen has happened.
It wasn't enough to keep the media appeased a little longer.
On the contrary,
it opened Pandora's box
that has come to confirm that
something truly serious
- whatever it may be - is happening to the princess, and who knows if to the marriage in their relationship, which is more important for the institution. .
To know more
United Kingdom.
The dark side of Prince William's 'turnip clan'
Editor: EDURNE URRETA
The dark side of Prince William's 'turnip clan'
United Kingdom.
Guillermo, in the middle of the storm: tribute to his mother and a surprising allusion to Kate Middleton
Editor: MARÍA SIERRA London
Guillermo, in the middle of the storm: tribute to his mother and a surprising allusion to Kate Middleton
The
lack of transparency
, the stubbornness in obscurantism and taking refuge in opacity, have opened the door to the spread of
all types of rumors,
including the most Martian ones.
And this damages the image of the Crown.
Guillermo's own erratic information and image strategy
makes him
one of the culprits that the focus of public opinion is once again focusing - whether justified or not - on his
alleged infidelities
and that Rose Hanbury, the woman, is once again hogging the headlines. who already in the not distant past appeared as a possible lover of the prince.
Everything that is happening will be studied as
one of the most egregious communication mistakes
of a large corporation, such as the Monarchy, in the 21st century.
The controversial photo of Kate with her children, which was manipulated with photoshop.EM
The alarms went off on January 17.
That day, Kensington announced through an official statement that the Princess of Wales had undergone surgery for planned abdominal surgery.
She added that she would need a
long recovery
that would keep her out of public activity until after Easter.
The first mistake was not giving more specific information
about her state of health, to the point that there was so much speculation in the media around the world that Palacio was forced to come forward to deny that it was cancer. .
But equally unsuccessful has been not periodically providing some details - not to mention images - that would reassure about the
princess's evolution.
DIFFERENCES WITH THE KING
Especially because
Kensington's strategy has clashed flatly with Buckingham's
- the lack of harmony between the current king's team and that of his first-born son is also legendary, and very worrying.
And that same January 17 it was reported that Carlos III suffers from cancer and that
he was also going to undergo surgery
.
Since then,
there has been much more transparency about the health and development of the monarch
than at any other time in the history of the Crown.
For this reason, although the king has not attended events with the public again, videos and images continue to be disseminated, including
walks in which he has been seen attending religious services
, which provide reassurance about his condition.
Kensington made it clear that Guillermo was also going to take a few days away from his work commitments to
focus on his wife's recovery and caring for his three children.
A decision that was initially applauded by citizens.
But, again, his
obsession with privacy
led him to make another big mistake, as any professional in the field of image and institutional crisis management would highlight.
And during the two long weeks that
Kate was admitted to The London Clinic
, the prince was only seen once visiting her.
The Princes of Wales, William and Kate, at the Ascot races in June 2023.GTRES
Nothing would have been more logical than to have seen Guillermo countless times in the hospital, as any normal citizen would have done - something he longs for so much.
But the thing is that, in addition, the Heir ended up spending
practically three weeks without assuming State commitments
, when his father, the king, had been
sidelined by cancer,
and suddenly Queen Camilla was - paradoxes of History - the only one on which the weight of the Crown rested.
No matter how serious Kate's situation was,
no future king can make such a departure from his duties
at such a delicate moment for the institution without his image being affected, especially if the aim is to convey calm and not maximum tension.
Guillermo's return to work in February was not sufficiently effective either.
On the one hand, due to the
poverty of its official agenda,
with few events in recent weeks and generally with a very low profile, when all attention is focused on it as the essential stimulus so that the king's convalescence affects as little as possible. to the Crown.
And, on the other, for episodes such as his
incomprehensible absence
at the thanksgiving mass in memory of his godfather,
King Constantine of the Hellenes, in Westminster
- a stone's throw from his residence -, canceling his attendance that was already confirmed just an hour before the event, without further official explanations, giving rise once again to such harmful rumors.
In his youth, William was
maliciously baptized
by the tabloids as the
prince with reluctance.
Those were the times when he seemed more concerned with finding himself than with learning the job of king.
His entourage assures that he was immensely happy during the two years that
he piloted air ambulances
because the job allowed her to prove that he was someone on his own.
Since his adolescence, after the
traumatic death of his mother, Diana of Wales,
he developed a
great dislike for the
paparazzi
.
And also a fight for his right to privacy that he maintains to this day.
His marriage to Kate Middleton established him as successor to the Heir.
And the big change occurred in 2017 when, with Queen Elizabeth II already greatly weakened, the couple moved from Norfolk to London and
assumed a large load of responsibilities
, in a sharing with the then Prince of Wales, Charles, who really took the reins of the institution.
But there also began
the clash between the father and son teams
, with competing communication strategies and visions of the institution.
In the summer of 2022 - shortly before the queen died - Kensington hired Lee Thompson, former NBC employee, triathlete and communications expert, as the new head of Communications for Princes William and Kate, with the task of designing a
strategy to improve your public image
.
And it is not that
the two Windsors were not the most popular
among citizens only behind Elizabeth II - they currently maintain the broadest support among the Windsors - but that such unfortunate episodes had occurred as their visit to the nations of the Monarchy. in the Caribbean in which everything had been failures for its projection.
And there would still be the big scandal over Harry's memoirs to come.
Guillermo is once again in need of a
script twist
to get him out of this
annus horribilis
.
Regardless of whatever happens to his wife, the prince
cannot rest on his laurels
if he wants to be perceived as an Heir ready to take over the reins of the Kingdom at any moment.
A 'proof of life' to try to calm the storm
Dropdown
Only three images of Princess Kate have been seen since the end of December, when she attended a Christmas mass at Sandringham with the bulk of the British royal family.
The first photograph, from just a few days ago, was captured by
paparazzi
and she was seen aboard a car driven by her mother,
Carole Middleton
.
They were in the vicinity of Windsor Castle, near
Adelaide Cottage
, the house in which the Princes of Wales have lived since September 2022 and where Kate is recovering from her surgery.
The second photo, distributed by Kensington, is the one of the great controversy, that of
photosopgate
.
It was spread to the media and through the princess's networks on the occasion of Mother's Day, which was celebrated in the United Kingdom last Sunday.
The aim was to convey an image of normality and a happy family.
When it became known that the snapshot was retouched, those were precisely the two things that were questioned.
The official version indicates that the image was captured by William himself, with a Canon camera worth £2,900, during a 40-minute session, and that the princess later retouched it twice so that her children could be seen better.
The dust was so great that, a day later, Kate was forced to get into a car with William, with which they left Windsor for London.
At that moment a timely camera captured her face, even if it was from a glancing angle.
The
proof of life
so that the soap opera would not continue to gain weight, again without success.