Shame on the ghouls who spread lies and rumours about the Princess of Wales. And the idiot conspiracy theorists who wondered if she might be dead or getting divorced. And the tragic social media sleuths who squealed ‘That isn’t her!’ when a video showed her shopping at a farmers’ market. And all the rest of you who knew Catherine was ill, and knew she’d had serious surgery, and knew she was craving privacy, and yet who wailed ‘WHERE’S KATE?’ on a loop, like lunatics, for weeks.

For now we know the truth. She’s not in hiding. She’s not in a coma. She’s not fleeing ‘the Firm’ in a huff over something William did. No, she has cancer. Cancerous cells were found following her abdominal surgery in January and she’s now undergoing preventative chemotherapy.

In her darkest moment, the mob hounded her. Truly it was a sick spectacle

A wave of shame should be washing over Britain this morning. For the woman that some people feverishly defamed as a sinister faker who was putting out doctored photos to throw people off the scent of her whereabouts is in truth just a young mum facing what will likely be one of the toughest battles of her life. In her darkest moment, the mob hounded her. Truly it was a sick spectacle.

There is something profoundly sad about the video statement in which Catherine reveals her cancer diagnosis. It isn’t only the fact she has cancer, which is always rough, especially in someone who is only 42. It’s also the feeling that this is an involuntary statement. At least in part. It feels like a forced confession, a public declaration of intimate pain made at the behest of a scandal-hungry mob.

There’s a medieval feel to it: a woman jostled into the public square by baying halfwits and pressured to confess to her sickness.

QOSHE - The hounding of Kate was a new low for Britain - Brendan O’Neill
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The hounding of Kate was a new low for Britain

21 26
23.03.2024

Shame on the ghouls who spread lies and rumours about the Princess of Wales. And the idiot conspiracy theorists who wondered if she might be dead or getting divorced. And the tragic social media sleuths who squealed ‘That isn’t her!’ when a video showed her shopping at a farmers’ market. And all the rest of you who knew Catherine was ill, and knew she’d had serious surgery, and knew she was craving privacy, and yet who wailed ‘WHERE’S........

© The Spectator


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