Kate’s mansion is surrounded by the British. The royal family is the only consolation for us, sad – 2024-03-30 12:21:18
It’s busy outside Kensington Palace in London. Tourists, photographers and journalists gather around one of the official residences of the British monarchy. They are interested in only one thing: how is Princess Kate, who announced a week ago that she is being treated for cancer. The news here fills the front pages of tabloids and serious newspapers, and the British, for whom the monarchy still enjoys popularity, are worried about their favorite princess.
London (from our special correspondent) – Amalia, 30, flew from Portugal to London last Friday, the day the Princess of Wales announced she had cancer and was undergoing preventative chemotherapy. She visited the British capital with her grandmother, who comes from Brighton. Both want to at least symbolically express their support to the princess and her family. They stand in front of Kensington Palace, although Kate with her husband William and their three children left the residence in 2022 and moved to Windsor.
“I’m half British. Although I don’t want to take it too personally, it bothers me. It means a lot to me to stand here now with my grandmother, even though we can’t do anything on our own. When Kate married William, I watched their wedding on TV and dreamed about it that one day I can be like her,” Amalia describes to Aktuálně.cz reporter.
Kate revealed the diagnosis after weeks of speculation about her health. She underwent unspecified abdominal surgery in January and has not been seen in public since. After the announcement that he has cancer, people in the streets of London of nine million mourn as if it were their loved ones.
More detailed information such as the type of cancer and stage of treatment are unknown. But Kate said in the video that she is doing well despite the illness and is “getting stronger every day as she focuses on things that will help her heal”.
“enough is enough”
Twenty-six-year-old Miriam, who walks around Buckingham Palace with her young son Richard, calls the news about Kate ill overwhelming, she did not want to believe them. “At a time when Europe is at war, the royal family is the only comfort we’ve always been able to count on. And suddenly you don’t know what’s going on. It’s not just about Kate’s health, it’s about the future of the whole country. She’s the future queen ,” he confides.
“For God’s sake, leave Kate alone!” stands on the cover of Private Eye magazine. | Photo: Anna Dohnalová
The news about Kate’s illness continues to fill the front pages of not only the tabloids, even a few days after its publication. In the traffic market near the royal palace, however, they prefer to hide such headlines behind other press. The cover of the magazine that sits on the main newsstand here reads “Leave Kate alone!”.
“Enough was enough. First it was Diana, I haven’t experienced that yet, but I remember very well how little it took for the press to go crazy and start persecuting Harry’s wife Meghan. I don’t want to support it, they’re people too,” he gets angry in the traffic shop, a saleswoman named Lydia, who has worked here for over five years. Princess Diana, mother of William and Harry, died in 1997 in a car accident in Paris while trying to elude tabloid photographers.
Public pressure
Because Kensington Palace didn’t say much about the princess’s health until Friday’s announcement, various conspiracy theories about what happened to Kate began to abound on social media, and tabloid journalists hounded her for weeks. At the same time, the palace announced in advance that the duchess will not perform her duties until Easter due to her recovery.
British monarchy expert and former royal correspondent Peter Hunt notes that both Kate and Prince William are aware that they cannot control what happens on the networks. Still, they have hope that change will come after this case. “They’re hoping the media will finally come to their senses and stop recycling this nonsense,” he was quoted as saying by The New York Times.
Adele Jones, a former journalist of the British newspaper Financial Times, adds that although people knew in advance that Kate would not appear in public for a long time, they did not respect it. “One would think that the boulevard must have learned something during that time. It wasn’t so long ago that they persecuted Diana. It’s as if people consider them property more than people,” he tells Aktuálně.cz.
But at the same time, Jones reminds that the royal family is also paid from public budgets, and the British feel that they should know what is happening to the members of the monarchy.
Journalist Helen Lewis then believes that Kate was forced to declare her health condition because the alternative in the form of spreading gossip and conspiracy theories was simply a worse option. “However, it must be said that the people who suggested on the Internet that the royal family was hiding something from the public were not completely wrong. It was not infidelity,” adds Lewis.
Fifty-three-year-old Zoe Blackwell, from the nearby town of Colchester, who was browsing royal souvenirs in a shop near Buckingham Palace with her husband, admits she believed speculation that William and Kate were divorcing. “I thought that was the case, but that Kate and William were worried about the collapse of the monarchy,” says Blackwell, near the residence of the British monarch.
“I think they just wanted to wait to announce Kate’s illness when we only recently found out that King Charles had cancer,” adds Zoe her husband Joe.
Charles III he spoke about his diagnosis early last month. He stated that he would begin receiving treatment and postpone public events. He decided to share the truth about his illness precisely to prevent speculation. At the same time, members of the monarchy are more open about their health than in the past.
Video: Karel had to persuade the shy Alžběta. It will be very difficult for him himself, says the expert (5/5/2023)
Video: Video, Svetlana Witowská
